Oh, my love…

Like a weary farmer

Waiting for the rain.

Like a lost child

Longing for its mother.

Like an innocent prisoner

Hoping for bail.

Yes..Now I understand

What it takes to wait…

And also

see more clearly—

A farmer’s despair,

An orphan’s fear,

A Dalit’s anxiety,

An innocent man’s expectation.

Come, my love, come…

Be the smile

That blooms on a hopeless farmer’s face.

Be the mother

Who embraces the abandoned child.

Be the light of hope.

Be the peace of the innocent.

Come, my love,

Be the revolution

That transforms this cruel world.

Be the compassion of a new tomorrow,

Be the fire that burns ruin,

Be the light that glows within it.

Be the passion in the penace

and

the penace in the passion

Come, my love…

In this lonely journey

Amidst a marching crowd,

Be my companion,

Be my comrade,

Be my joy of togetherness.

Like the river

That soothes a burning soul,

Come, my love…

Defeat the Man

and make me human

through the flood of love

The post To My Valentine… appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Hence, as compared to other regions of Karnataka, the old Mysore region did not respond enthusiastically to the Sanghi agenda for these historical reasons. Thus, the BJP has not done well in this region so far.

But over the past thirty years, especially in the Modi era, the changes taking place in the socio-economic and political culture of Old Mysuru and Mandya district in particular, have begun to change this balance that has been shaped over a period.

Besides, the agrarian crisis, migration, unemployment, the crisis of livelihood leading to insecurity and identity crisis, personal and social anxieties generated by the neoliberal economy over the last three decades, coupled with the Brahminisation of the upper strata of the dominant castes, namely Vokkaligas and the Sanskritisation of the Nathapanthic Vokkaliga monasteries, the inertia and slow inaction of the progressive movements, and the zeal, resources and destructive zeal of the right-wing forces have brought about many fundamental changes in the politics of Mandya region which have become glaringly visible in the past few years.

Some Examples:

During the 2018 assembly elections, the upper strata of the dominant Vokkaliga caste declared their priorities as “Kumaraswamy for the state, Narendra Modi for the country,” the mobilisation of the dominant castes to defeat AHINDA (the acronym for Minorities (Alpasankhyata), Backwards (Hindulida) and Dalits) politics of Siddharamiah lead Congress. For the last 10 years, the Sanghis have kept Tipu’s capital Srirangapatna in a constant state of planned communal tension, with the BJP candidate who lost in that constituency in the 2023 elections getting four times more votes than the previous election.

They have tried unsuccessfully to change Tipu history during elections by fielding Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda (the mythical characters created by the Sanghis to propagate their vicious narrative that these two Vokkaliga heroes assassinated Tipu and that he did not die a martyr in the battle field), the JD (S), which lost badly in the 2023 elections, not only aligned with the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, but also ideologically aligned with the Sanghi fascist Muslim-hating Brahmanical Hindutva.

The inauguration of the regional office of the RSS at Pandavapura, which was the main centre of the farmers’ union (Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha), the hoisting of the saffron flag at Keregodu and the manufactured communal tension in the area, which has been otherwise in the sphere of influence of the progressive movements like Dalit Sangharsha Samiti (DSS) and the farmers’ unions, soon after the elections, etc. are examples of the social and political changes that demonstrate that the Mandya-Mysuru region is increasingly turning towards Hindutva.

The communal violence in Nagamangala is a continuation of this phenomenon and not an exception. No matter from where the instant spark or stone fell to provoke communal riots on the day of Ganesh Utsav this year, the rest of the script was already planned as decided by the Sanghis. This is because this is part of the well-planned strategy of the Sangh Parivar to achieve its organisational and political hold over society.

In fact, thirty years ago in the coastal regions of the state—where polarisation has reached its peak today, there also existed communal co-existence like the Mandya-Mysuru of today. The Coastal Lab has provided the Sanghis a blueprint to root their politics of hate in society. They are now implementing the same experiment in Mandya in a phased manner, employing a strategic approach.

It is, therefore, imperative to understand the history of the growth of the Sanghis and its political arm, the BJP (Bharatiya Jana Sangh before 1980), and the strategies adopted by them at various levels, and move forward to build the political and grassroots organisations needed to defeat them.

The path treaded by the BJP and its growth in Karnataka

The Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the original form of the BJP in Karnataka, has been contesting elections in Karnataka since 1952. In the first two decades, the Jana Sangh, which contested in tens of constituencies in Hubli, Bidar, Bangalore, Kolar and coastal regions, had garnered an average 2-5 % of votes placing itself at a distant second or third place in some constituencies. In the 1967 elections, it won four seats in the Legislative Assembly for the first time. For comparison, except for the 1957 elections (in which the Jana Sangh got 1.34 per cent of the votes and the undivided CPI got 1.92 per cent of the votes) the left parties have never got more votes than the BJP in any of the elections until now.

In any case, after Emergency, the Jan Sangh, emerged as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) following the demise of the Janata Era in 1980. In 1983 it won 18 seats with a vote share of 7.83 percent. Its vote share fell in the 1985 election. But since the 1989 elections when the BJP won four seats with four per cent of the vote, continued to expand its vote base over the following decades as part of a several stages of Hindutva expansion projects across the state and country.

For example, in 1994, BJP got 17 percent of the vote and 40 seats. In 1999, 20.69 percent of the vote and 44 seats in 2004, 28.33 per cent of the vote and 79 seats, becoming the single largest party. In the year 2008, it received 33.86 percent of the vote and 110 seats. In 2013, though it splintered into three factions, the BJP’s total vote share remained the same if you include the vote share of the factions since all of them returned to the fold of BJP, subsequently.

In the 2018 assembly elections BJP secured 36.2 per cent of the vote and 104 seats. In 2023, although it got 36 percent of the votes, the number of seats fell to 66. However, in 2024 Lok Sabha elections it gained 46 percent votes and 17 out of 28 parliamentary seats well beyond the expectations of all pundits.

Therefore it can be concluded, in general that after 1989, the Sangh Parivar and the BJP have grown in Karnataka and the country in three stages, without major setbacks to their political and ideological agenda.

The first stage -hidden agendas, high dramas

In the first phase, in the new territories it enters, this combine will project itself as a cultured, honest, god-fearing, anti-corruption, patriotic party to enhance its image and influence. In this regard, it strengthens its image by bringing into its fold the elite of other parties and the elite of society, film actors, retired army officers-bureaucrats etc. And, also lures those castes and communities ignored by the mainstream party, i.e., the Congress, with party positions and other allurements.

In 1989, when the Congress made Bangarappa the chief minister after removing the Lingayat leader Veerendra Patil from the chief minister’s post, the BJP realised that the dissatisfaction of the Lingayats with the Congress was at its peak and immediately made Yeddyurappa, the Lingayat leader of the party, as the president of the BJP and thereby captured the support of Lingayat Mutts.

At the same time, LG Havanur, who was known as the harbinger of social justice in the state, economist Venkatagiri Gowda and other renowned people joined the BJP. At that time, they were only promoting pro-people, pro-farmer issues on the face of it while the combine was secretly carrying out its Hindutva campaign through other organs of the Sangh Parivar.

That’s the first phase.

In this first phase, it behaves such that its communal agendas go unnoticed in the region. Those who join the BJP are also at first joining only on the basis of caste, personal prestige etc. But while all parties do the same, the BJP is different because of its RSS structure and approach system and ideological agenda.

The second stage is consensual Hindutvaisation

Once the Lingayats migrated to the BJP for anti-Congress reasons in a significant way, the Sangh Parivar’s affiliate organisations began to organise the community on a number of issues, keeping in constant touch with the Lingayat mutts and its social elites and also the masses. For example, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) unifies all Lingayat-Veerashaiva seers as Hindus and brings them on a single platform for ‘Hindu protection’. Gradually, the anti-Brahminism among the Lingayats is vanquished and converted into Hindutva. The “Vachan Darshana’, the Sanghi  interpretation of 12^th century verses of the founders of Lingayatism, brought out by the Sanghis recently is a continuation of this project. Although the entrepreneurs and upper classes of the community have built up empires in the educational and other service sectors and are dependent on the support and cooperation of the state, these sections within the community have become Brahmanised, forgetting the Kayaka culture and pursuing their coveted business interests.

It is as a result of all this that it becomes an acceptable spokesperson for the Hindutva agenda.

This is the second stage.

The same trend is now prevalent in South Karnataka, especially among Vokkaligas. The erstwhile senior seer of the Adi Chunchanagiri Mutt, worshipped by the Vokkaligas, was made the vice-president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Their mutts are not only Sanskritising and Brahmanising, but also socially and culturally complementing Hindutva, without taking a politically overt stand. While the Adi Chunchanagiri Mutt took a clear stand on the Uregowda-Nanjegowda issue as senior Vokkaliga leaders of the Congress and the JD (S) were influential, the Mutt and the Vokkaliga community continue to have a soft spot for Modi on Hindutva. During the course of the text revision initiated by the VHP to undo secular texts and introduce Hindutva lessons, Lingayat mutts talked about only Basavanna, Vokkaliga mutts talked about Kuvempu, a great writer incidentally hailing from the community and after it was revised with minimal changes, there was silence. Moreover, none of them condemned the BJP’s removal of the text about Tipu Sultan. Neither did they stand in opposition when the name of a popular train bearing the name Tipu Express was changed by the then BJP government.

This is another example of the second phase of Hindutvaisation. It is not a coincidence that the Vokkaligas in South Karnataka voted for the BJP more than ever in the last elections. After the official alliance of BJP-JD (S) for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Hindutva mobilisation of the Vokkaliga community has gained momentum. It is also fuelled by the latent intolerance and suspicion towards Dalits and Muslims harboured by Vokkaligas

The third stage is militant Hindutva

The third phase is the phenomenon we are seeing in the coastal region and in Uttar Pradesh. At this juncture, the victims of Hindutva’s politics of hate are blinded to the extent that any amount of corruption, injustice, problems of life and the startling cruelty that shakes humanity are unable to wake them up.

The relative reduction of votes for the BJP in the coastal belt in 2023 and 2024 is rather a sign of dissatisfaction that the BJP is not as militant Hindutva as they would like it to be not the sign of coastal belt getting secular. The BJP’s vote share is also steadily increasing as it is moving smoothly from phase one to phase two and phase two to phase three.

And except for the usual sporadic protests by democrats and resistance by Dalits and Muslims to communalism there is no effective opposition to communalism in Karnataka.

Sanghi politics in Karnataka is in the second phase in Kittur and Central Karnataka and is speedily moving towards third phase. The coastal region is already in the third phase.
The Bengaluru, Kalyana Karnataka and South Karnataka where Mandya district and Nagamanagla is situated is moving towards the second phase with great speed.

The incidents in Srirangapatna, Keregodu, and now Nagamangala are examples of that.

In the first stage, it expands its base by using caste, prestige, defection. Soon the second phase begins. So even though ostensibly communal polarisation is not as visible in south Karnataka as in the coastal belt, it should not be forgotten that it is the first step in the same process. Therefore, the increase in the vote share of the BJP in all the constituencies of South Karnataka, even where the BJP has lost its deposits, and the visible characteristics of the second phase of Hinduisation in all these places, should be a cause for concern among the democrats and not a consolation.

At least the occurrences of planned communal riots in the Mandya region should shatter that false sense of relief.

Sanghi fascism is not invincible – but there is no alternative to people’s organisation

This does not however mean the BJP is unbeatable.

However, the last year-and-a-half of Congress rule has made it clear that the party’s politics, ideology, and organisation – even in the Rahul Gandhi era – have no intention of defeating or countering the Sangh’s Hindutva. It is, thus, a historical fact that it is the Congress’s compromising, soft Hindutva politics that has contributed to the growth of Sanghi politics.

Fascism is not just a cultural phenomenon as many liberals of Karnataka make it out to be. Even though Fascism as an ideology can be found in the society and the polity for a long time, it finds its social base and grows feeding on the growing social and economic crisis in society, fuelled by the failure of existing forces to resolve it.

The corporate crony, neo-liberal economic policies, Brahminical social policies, which the Congress and the BJP have all unanimously implemented, are exacerbating the crises and anxieties of the majority of the people and opening the highway to the fascists and fascism The growth of fascists cannot be stopped unless these are radically transformed into pro-people and socialistic policies. In the meanwhile its speed can only be controlled occasionally and temporarily but unless a formidable, credible ideological, political and organisational alternative is provided, fascism thrives.

Thus, Hindutva fascism can be defeated only through a popular democratic movement rooted in the oppressed people who can change both the capitalist and Brahminical system.

But unfortunately, the Left parties, which had previously built such movements, are now gasping. Today, the BJP is getting ten times more votes than the Left parties in their own strongholds.

On the other hand, no mass movement in Karnataka is today left with the capacity to mobilise people in great numbers to challenge both the government and Sangh fascism. Not only during the BJP government, but also during the present Congress government, protests have been reduced to tokenisms. The blockade at Freedom Park (a designated place in the Bangalore city for the protests) needs to be broken, people’s power resoundingly displayed as resistance power to jolt the government. This is not meant as a criticism of anybody but is meant as a collective self-criticism.

Therefore, until the time that we are able to build a strong mass movement and eradicate Hindutva from the minds of the people, until we are able to build true democratic aspirations among all peoples, neither will Hindutva be defeated nor the BJP could be unseated in the country.

The recent Nagamangala communal riots also sends out the same warning for those who can see and hear.

Related:

Nationwide surge in Anti-Muslim violence: September 15-17 sees unprecedented attacks and discrimination

Tensions escalate in Himachal and Uttarakhand, multiple protest and rallies against mosques

Eviction tragedy in Assam: Two killed during eviction drive as police firing sparks allegations of government bias

The post Is Mandya becoming the new right wing capital of Karnataka? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

O… foot soldiers of night

do you really believe

that you prosecuted the dawn

By imprisoning the ray of light…

listen, you knights of night…

Umar Khalid is

a north star

that brightens the dark sky

a last sigh of enduring pain

the mother suffers

while giving birth to a new life

a lamp inside

ensuring

the engulfing darkness

won’t seep inside of us too

a boundary line of truth

to ensure

lies don’t trespass

Hence

to remember Umar Khalid

is to continue

the fight of memory

against forgetfulness

hankering for love

in the times of

organised hate.

ethical and eternal vigilance

amidst helplessness, despair and delusion

Of course…

Umar is a terrorist

against the Empire of lies

an anti-national

who planted a bomb

of love

in the fort of hatred

a conspirator

who hid a spark of truth

in a box full of deceit

O..knight of nights

write down my name too…

write it next to that of Umar

in your list of terrorists

my name is Shivasundar

Umar and Me

share the same ancestry

my address: Free Universe

– Shivasundar (Translated from Kannada by Samvartha Sahil )

The post Umar Khalid – The Inquliabi appeared first on SabrangIndia.

UPDATE March 24, 2023: Chetan Kumar gets a bail

Actor and activist Chetan Kumar, who was arrested for his offensive tweet has been granted bail on Thursday, March 23.A local court in Bengaluru released him on a surety of two persons and a Rs 25,000 bond. He was remanded to judicial custody for 14 days after he was arrested by Seshadripuram police.

Soon after attaining his freedom, Chetan who has been fighting for equality, while speaking to media said, sticking to his stand once again reiterated that, “Hindutva is built on lies.” Sharing his thoughts on Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda who allegedly killed Tipu Sultan, he added, “It is a cooked-up story to create disharmony between Vokkaligas and Muslim communities. Even historian have confirmed that Tipu Sultan was not killed by the duo. He was a great freedom fighter. We need to adopt his principles to create an egalitarian society. ”

The actor has also stated that he will continue fight for the betterment of the society. This is not the first time the actor was arrested following his offensive tweet. He was also earlier arrested in February last year for a tweet against Karnataka High Court Justice Krishna Dixit. He was later released on bail.

Kannada film actor, Ambedkarite Activist Mr. Chetan Kumar has been arrested by the Bommai led BJP government for the second time in the last one year. The previous  arrest was made in February 2022, for a tweet criticising, Justice Krishna Dixit , a high court judge , over his misogynist remarks in an order allowing a bail plea of  a rape accused. The same judge was part of the bench of three judges that heard the Hijab case in the Karnataka High Court. Chetan had expressed his serious reservations about the outcome of the proceedings due to the Judge’s prejudice against the women as expressed in the bail order. In fact, on the advice of the chief justice, those controversial remarks were later expunged from the order also.

Nevertheless, Chetan had to spend a few days in judicial custody before he got bail. There was an outrage in Karnataka civil society over the arrest which was considered as an attempt to suppress a dissident Ambedkarite Voice.

Chetan has proved his commitment to the causes he pursued even after his arrest. He was outspoken and unapologetic about his views on how even the judiciary is a replica of Indian casteist and male chauvinist society. He continued his unadulterated critique of all the political parties based on an Ambedkarite and Periyarist ideology. His strong views has resulted in the consolidation of some of his support base but has also alienated some others. His views continue to be debated in the mainstream media, very often not doing justice to his nuanced understanding.

This time around, the tweet for which Chetan has been arrested for the second time has touched the very electoral and ideological fault line of the RSS-BJP combine. In the impugned tweet Chetan had said that:

Hindutva is built on lies. Savarkar’s theory that Hindu Rashtra was inaugurated from the times when Rama killed Ravana and brought back Sita is a lie. That there was a Ram Mandir beneath Babri-Masjid was a lie. And that Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda, two concocted Vokkaliga warriors (were responsible for the) killing of Tipu is also a lie. Hence Hindutva is built on lies. Only truth can defeat these lies; and Equality is the Truth.

While the first two statements have been made by scores of people all of the time, what has truly perturbed and rattled the BJP’s machinery in Karnataka is the last one about Uri Gowda and Naje Gowda.

To understand the import of this statement one needs to understand the predicament of the BJP in the poll bound state of Karnataka.

The BJP government which is today wrecked with charges of corruption, scandals, factional fights, administrative failures etc., is solely banking on the time-tested electoral strategy of communal polarisation in the state. To this end it has been trying to rake up communal issues and also create a wedge between the dominant Vokkaliga community and the Muslims in the Mysore region where Tipu and Hyder Ali ruled for decades. The BJP is constantly attempting this by demonising Tippu Sultan and building statues for Kempe Gowda, the Vokkaliga chieftain of the area.

Of late the Gobblesian false factory of RSS-BJP has discovered two Vokkaliga warriors, namely Uri Gowda and Dodda Nanje Gowda and spun the story that they are responsible for killing Tipu Sultan in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War on May 4, 1799 in Srirangapattana, as a revenge against his “rule of religious bigotry”.  A minister of the Bommai cabinet has even volunteered to produce a movie titled “Urigowda and Nanje Gowda”.

But all that propaganda did not gain traction, albeit temporarily, because a majority of the Vokkaliga community took offense to this misadventure of the Sangh Parivar and even the seer of the community prevailed upon the minister to retract and himself gave a firm caution against this false campaign. This is only because Tipu is considered even today as a great patriotic ruler who fought against the British with bravery and lost his life in the battlefield defending the country. Hence those who are responsible for the death of Tipu, like Mir Sadiq, the commander who betrayed Tipu in the final war, are considered traitors. Now the BJPs campaign which make two Vokkaligas “take credit” for the killing of Tipu is taken as a huge offense against the community.

However, even though, the momentum around “Urigowda” propaganda has decreased, staunch Vokkaliga politicians with an RSS background, like CT Ravi and Shobha Karandlaje have indirectly challenged the caution given by the seer and hinted that they would pursue the false campaign. Thus the Urigowda campaign might get postponed until the election but may resume with more fervour because it is the part of the larger strategy of the Sangh Parivar to re write the history by inventing Hindutva soldiers and Freedom Fighters while demonising all Muslim rulers with the same brush of invasion and bigotry.

It is in this background that Chetan tweeted this seemingly most innocuous tweet reiterating a truism stated by different people umpteen times in the public sphere.

For example, scholars like Ambedkar have exposed the Savarkarite myth of Hindu Rashtra and Ramayana in most of his works. Allam Prabhu, one of the great teachers of the Lingayat Community which is the  main social base of the BJP in Karnataka, has declared in one of his couplets, in most unambiguous terms that “Puranas are nothing but a time pass of Ruffians and Vedas are worthless coir”.

In fact Chetan’s tweet can hardly be more “offending” than this .

That there was no Rama mandir beneath Babri Masjid is acknowledged by no less than the Constitutional bench of the Supreme Court.

And, Niramalanda Swamiji, the seer of the Vokkaliga community has officially declared that the Urigowda and Nanjegowda “warriors” are figment of fiction. The seer is also on record saying that “through imagination(s) one can write novels but not History.”

Not only that, if   this new “discovery” was true,  the Britishers who wanted to portray Tipu’s egalitarian rule as bigotry to justify their conquest, would have made maximum use of Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda in their campaign against Tipu immediately after his death.

Neither do “The Journey From Madras Through the Country of Mysore, Canara and Malabar” a documentation of Society and People of Mysore province by Francis Buchanan, immediately after the death of Tipu or the Historical account of the last Anglo-Mysore war documented by Alexander Beatson, or James Salmond or the locals like Ramchandra Rao Punganuri or the more recent one documented by British Officer C. Hayavadana Rao in 1946, even contain a bare documentation of mention these characters.

All the official, credible accounts of 1799, May 4 document that:

Mir Sadiq, the commander -in-chief of Tipu Sultan, betrayed Tipu and colluded with the British. He facilitated the march of the British Army into Srirangapattana after breaching the unguarded fort at about lunch time. Tipu Sultan, after learning that his confident commander Gafur had been martyred in the fight, rushes to the battleground with some of his confidence. But it was late and the city of Srirangapattana was being ransacked and plundered by British soldiers. Still Tipu puts up a brave fight killing many British soldiers in his wake. But in no time his beloved horse got killed and Tippu himself was hit by Musket balls and collapsed from the mount. Few British soldiers who were on the rampage, approached Tipu to seize from him the diamond studded sword. Tipu kills the soldier with the drawn sword. The other British soldiers kill him immediately by shooting without even knowing whom they are killing.

Even the local ballads in the folklore of Mysore, which are generally considered as an unadulterated account of truth in history, praise Tipu as a hero who died a martyr in safeguarding the country and in the quest of liberating the peasants. If Tipu was a tyrant and the Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda were liberators, the local ballads would have depicted the same. In fact there is not a single ballad even mentioning these imaginary Sanghi warriors or portraying Tipu as a tyrant. 

Hence, the agrarian communities in the region have a great regard for Tipu and the Vokkaligas in general have taken offense to BJPs campaign which is bringing bad repute to their community.

Chetan has only aired this sentiment. Chetan is charged with creating disharmony between the communities over a complaint filed by a Bajrang Dal activist. That there was no need of arrest in such cases and that there has been no arrests of Right Wingers on more vicious statements says a lot about the current state of affairs.

Chetan may get the bail in a day or two. But the Hinduva bigots will continue with their crusade against Tipu and continue this agenda since it strengthens a crucial pillar of their Hindu Rashtra. The secular combat against this needs to be carried out relentlessly and with caution.

Related:

Arrest of Actor-Activist Chetan: Is Judiciary also contemptuous about dissent?

Who is lobbying to get activist actor Chetan Kumar deported to the US?

The post Actor Chetan’s Second Arrest: First as Warning, Second as Strategy? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

One of the defining facets of the BJP’s deceitful politics is its audacity to claim even its most bitter failures as great successes. While all the indicators of growth have plummeted under the policies of the Modi government — right from demonetisation to the lock down during the Covid-19 pandemic –the well-oiled propaganda machinery of this regime continues to claim that India is at the peak of growth graph under Modi. All statistics exhibiting facts to the contrary are either concealed or dismissed as a “foreign conspiracy”.

The BJP government in Karnataka is headed by Mr. Basavaraj Bommai who, too, is a faithful follower of Modi, especially in this respect.

Take for example the recently concluded Global Investors Meet (GIM) in Bangalore. The Bommai government hailed the summit as a “booming success” in terms  of investment(s) promised and the jobs that could be created. Chief Minister Bommai even went to the extent of claiming that this time the conversion rate of investment assurances made would reach a whooping, unprecedented 80% which is unheard of not only in India but also in any emerging economies.

Figures put out by different ministries at different times, however, betray these claims of the chief minister. Recent assessments of investor confidence and the global economic situation by the finance ministry of the GOI, the SBI’s own economic review, the RBI and the IMF –to name only a few—show how  the claims of the Bommai government just fall flat.

The success of the much tom-tommed GIM should be and could be tested on three counts.

1. Investment Promised
2. The Crucial Conversion rate of these promises and finally
3. Jobs Expected to be created.

1.Investments:
 

Claim: 9.82lakh crores of investment promised in the three days of GIM

Fact: Only 1.57 lakh crores of investment were promised during GIM

The GIM was held in Bangalore from November 2-4 for three days. This was the fourth GIM in Karnataka after the first edition that was held in 2000 under the Congress government headed by SM Krishna.

Mr. Murugesh Nirani, the minister for the Large and Medium industries claimed that at the end of the three days GIM 2022, the total of investments promised reached Rs. 10 lakh Crores (9.82 lakh Crores to be precise). Therefore, the chief minister declared the GIM to be a resounding national success. The media also faithfully reported that the three day GIM itself attracted 10 lakh crores of investment which reflected not only the industrious spirit of Karnataka as a destination of global investment but also the industry-friendly regime of Bommai government.

But how much investment was attracted by the GIM precisely?

In fact, before the  GIM all the ministers of this government, including the chief min ister had estimated an investment of around Rs 5 lakh crores in the three days of the GIM. How come, then did the amount proclaimed swell to twice the expected figure?

The devil of truth always lies in the details. In fact, a closer study of the statements made by the ministers themselves and the numbers provided itself reveal the truth. The government gave a break-up of the numbers after the summit. According to which around Rs 8.25 lakh crores worth investment assurances were made prior to GIM from January 2022 until November 2022 when the GIM was held.

Besides, according to minister Nirani, in another press note, only Rs. 1.57 lakh crore assurances were made in the three days of the GIM and only two memorandum of understanding (MoUs) actually signed.

Thus the Bommai government in a typical Modi way, combined the old figures and the new (recent ones) together and declared that a total of Rs 10 lakh crores of investments were assured during the three day-long event!

Even out of Rs 8.25 lakh crores that was “assured” since January this year, a whooping 60% , around Rs 5.5 lakh crores has not even crossed the MoU stage which is only a non-binding declaration of interest. The balance Rs 2.5 Lakh crores has received “in principle” approval by the high level committee, which is also not qualitatively different from a non-committal binding .

Hence it is clear that the GIM itself has attracted only Rs 1.57 lakh crores in investment and with only two MoU being signed despite the three day-long global fanfare. Which, according to the Government’s own expectation, would mean only 30% of the expected Rs 5 lakh crores of assurance projected to be received from the GIM . Which, in turn means that the GIM was a 70% failure! This is a very poor performance when compared to the previous GIMs where in 2010, Rs. 3.94 lakh crores were assured, Rs. 7 lakh crores projected in the GIM of 2012 and a Rs 3.05 lakh crore assurances during the GIM days of 2016.

By whatever standard applies or yardstick, the Bommai-led GIM was a colossal failure and not a resounding success.

2. Conversion Claims

Claims: 80% of the assurances will be converted to reality.

Facts- Given the global and national economic situation and the prevailing investors’ confidence hardly 5-10% realisation might be possible.

Generally the GIMs generate enthusiasm in the Government and not in the investors. The pragmatic and profit oriented private capital would like to invest only in markets where there is a possibility of “Highest Returns in Safest Heavens” as one CEO remarked a few years before.

The process of conversion of assurances in the GIMs to actual investments starts from the MoUs which is the First Stage. The next stage is the concretisation of the proposals from both the investors side and the Governments side, i.e., the Statutory approvals stage , where even if red-tapism is avoided by the political leadership, would take 8 to 9 months. Even then it is non-binding stage. The third stage is of allotment of land and other resources to the satisfaction of investors. Even then, the fourth stage of commissioning and production would take place if only the capital flight does not take place to a more greener pastures.

Thus hardly few percentage of the approvals would only be realised. In the last three GIMs the conversion rates were only 14%, 8% and 15% respectively that too from the MoU to the third stage. There is no credible and consolidated figures for the fourth stage for any GIMs!

But now according to Union Finance Ministers own admission, the investors’ confidence is lacking even after providing tax rebates and Production Linked Incentives (PLI). Since there is no demand recovery in the economy, even after the Covid the private capital is not confident in making new investments or expanding the old.

At the international level there is no boom for commodity or agricultural market. The IMF has predicted that there would be a recession for the next two years.

The 70% fall in the expected assurance of investments in the present GIM can only be attributed to this gloomy investors’ confidence and the depressing economic atmosphere.

Thus it is but logical to expect that there would be a 70% fall in the conversion rate from the previous average of 10% which is only 3-5% and not 80% as claimed by the Bommai government.

3. Job Creation

Claims: More than 6 lakh jobs would be created

Facts: No basis . Exaggerated claims

On the job front too, the Bommai government claims that the GIM would lead to the creation of 6 lakh jobs, a lakh more than the earlier expectation since the capital flow is more than expected.

As already discussed the investment assurance in the GIM is Rs 1.57 lakh crores and over all assurance put together since January amounts to Rs 9.82 lakh crore. Out of which more than 75% of investment assurances are still in MoU stages and not even reached the second approval stage. Given the investment confidence it would be safe to expect that hardly 5-10% will reach the production stage that too after few years. Which means one can only expect a realisation of less than a Rs one lakh crore of investment.

Secondly more than 40% of assurances are in the Green Hydrogen and Renewable energy sector. While the green hydrogen sector is highly risky, capital intensive industry providing fewer jobs per capita investment, the renewable energy sector is hardly a job providing industry. According to a study by Azim Premji university while every Crore Rs of investment created 90 jobs in 1983, in 2018 it created hardly 9 jobs. It is even fewer, less than one job, in capital intensive industry like Green Hydrogen and renewable energy industry.

On both the counts hardly few thousands of jobs could be expected to be generated if and when the assurances are converted to investment and reach production after few years.

That apart, the BJP government has brought amendments to land acquisition laws and has created a land bank of more than 50,000 acres to give away to industries. Even though it claims they are non-cultivable land there are hardly any such land in the state. Even the government land categorised as Kharab or waste land is today being cultivated predominantly by the landless Dalits without being granted a proper ownership record to date. The new amendments by the BJP government empowers the district administration to acquire such land for industrialisation (and snatch away livelihoods of the landless peasants).

In Karnataka the average land holding is less than 0.44 hectares. Which means at least 2 to 3 lakh people are dependent on the 50 thousand acres of land going to be acquired from these marginal farmers. This would destroy their lives and livelihood. Thus the net job creation by the GIM would be negative.

Earlier, GIMs and big ticket investments have been proved to be a big real estate land scam in the name of industrialisation.

Clearly, the GIM 2022 is being used as a big political GIMMICK by Bommai lead BJP government to bail out itself from the prevalent image which is heavily tainted by corrupt administration, scams and communal polarisation and social unrest.

Views expressed are the author’s own. The author is an activist and freelance journalist who was also a columnist for Gauri Lankesh’s publication.

Other pieces by Shivasundar:

Mohan Bhagwat and Indian Muslims
Bharat Jodo pragmatism of the Congress & illusions of the progressives
Adani’s capital Modi’s power in Sri Lanka
Modi’s eight years: Eight acts of shameful disgrace
How a state suffocated by Saffron got a new breath from Blue
Never Ever Forget

The post GIM and the GIMMICK appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A recent announcement by the BJP government in Karnataka to build a grand theme park at the premises of the Bangalore International Airport commemorating the regime of Kempegowda, a Vokkaliga feudatory of the 16th century, a figure widely believed to be the founder of Bangalore city, is one more attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) party to woo the elusive Vokkaliga voters who are estimated to constitute almost 14% of the state’s population.

The strategy is obvious. Though the BJP has emerged as a major contender for political power in Karnataka over the last two decades, it has been unsuccessful in procuring a simple majority in the State assembly. Even during its biggest electoral achievement, in the 2018 election, it fell short of six seats to reach the simple majority mark in the assembly with a strength of 224 seats. Its ascendency in the last two decades can be attributed to its growing social base among the Veera Shiva- Lingayats, the sangh parivar’s manipulative mobilisation of numerically larger Madiga sections of the Dalit population –especially over the sub-classification of scheduled caste reservations– and also the anti-Muslim mobilisation of dominant and backward castes all over Karnataka , especially in the coastal belt, over the demand for a Hindu Rashtra. Even though the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has been active in the south of Karnataka and among Vokkaligas for many decades, the BJP has not been very successful in winning over the Vokkaligas entirely. Neither the agenda of a Hindu Rashtra nor the all-out anti-Muslim agenda has fully worked.

One possible reason for the relative inability of the Hindutva appeal over Vokkaligas of the old Mysore areas could be the historical harmony between the agricultural Vokkaliga castes and Muslim traders which was also cemented by the land reforms and anti-Feudal measures initiated by the Hyder-Tippu regime in the province. The major beneficiaries of these reforms of the Tippu Sultan were the agricultural castes who were almost liberated from the enormous tax and other social burdens imposed by the Brhamin feudal lords and temples. Vokkaligas and the Dalits willingly became soldiers in the Tippu Army which gave them social status and also were imbibed them with strong anti-Bristih and anti-feudal aspirations. Thus, it was only the Tippu army which was disbanded after his heroic martyrdom in the battle field, unlike the Marathas or Rajputs.

Later, the Nalmadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar who ruled Mysore province in the early 20th century continued this heritage. He was the architect of a non-Brahmin alliance of Muslims and Vokkaligas against Brahmin domination. The Muslims and the Vokkaligs were joint beneficiaries of the reservation policies initiated by the Wodeyar in 1920s which broke Brahmin domination in the provincial administration.

Later even though the Vokkaligas became dominant castes in rural Mysore and politically powerful in the state politics after the independence , Vokkaligas had to contend with the more dominant Linagayats of the North where Muslims were their allies.

In later decades, unlike in the north where the BJP provided a non-Congress option to the dominant Lingayats, the Vokkaligas of the south sought shelter in the Janata Dal (secular) which articulated the strong Vokkaliga-Muslim alliance electorally.

Thus, even though RSS was also growing in the region, it found that using its archetypical, strong anti-Muslim rhetoric of not much use until very recently, in the region. Thus, even a few years back the BJP leaders like Yedyurappa, Jagadish Shettar, the Vokkaliga leader of the BJP Mr, Ashok could be seen adorning the replica of Tippu Sulatn’s head gear and sporting his sword while celebrating Tippu Jayanthi.

But all this changed after the second victory of Moditva in 2019, where votes were now sought not on any welfarist promises but purely on the demand/need for a Hindu Rashtra. The upwardly mobile Vokkaliga strata were slowly co-opted into basking in the pride of Hindutva. Soon, the major Vokkaliga websites were reverberating with slogans like Modi for the Country, Kumaranna (HD Kumaraswamy, son of HD Devegowda the undisputed leader of the Vokkaligas) for the state. A strong campaign against Siddaramaiah, the then chief minister from the Congress party, was unleashed using the derogative ‘appeaser’ of

Muslims who even opposed Devegowda and, by extension, the Vokkaligas. In the 2019 elections, the BJP did very well even in the Vokkaliga belt and surpassed the Congress vote share to reach 52%, in spite of the Congress-JDS alliance. All the candidates who were spewing venom against Muslims were elected with a thumping majority in Karnataka and also nationwide.

This emboldened the BJP party to overcome their defensive strategies. In the process, many Congress MLAs and the JDS from the old Mysore belt belonging to Vokkaliga and equivalent castes defected to BJP and helped the BJP to form the government in Karnataka in 2019. In 2021, Yediyurappa who had an independent following in the party far and above RSS was made to resign and Mr. Basavaraj Bommai, the obedient follower of the RSS diktats made the Chief Minister.

From that point on, the RSS and the BJP have unleashed their multiple strategies to woo the Vokkaligas and wean away the Vokkaligas from their social alliance with Muslims. They had realised this would not be possible without vilifying Tippu as anti-Vokkaliga, anti-Kannada, anti-Hindu and anti-Karnataka. Therefore, vilifying Tippu and valorising Kempe Gowda were started as complementary political projects.

Kempegowda , who is called Nadaprabhu –the king of the land- with reverence was a chieftain and a vassal of the Vijayanagar Empire during the early 16th century. The birth of Bangalore city is attributed to his visionary planning. More than Bangalore, for historical reasons and the geography of the area, nearby settlements like Yelahanak and Magadi developed more after his death. It was during the time of Hyder Ali and Tippu Sultan that the Bangalore became a commercial and a proto industrial centre apart from becoming a cantonment city. Tippu also developed Lalbhag as a world famous horticultural destination.
Thus, just as the historical harmony of the Vokkaligas and the Muslims is intertwined in the region, the contributions of both Tippu and Kempegowda are also inseparable to understand the history of Bangalore. Again, for the historical reasons, Tippi and Hyder because of their heroic war against British colonisers, contributed to making Bangalore city internationally famous, even among the American and French revolutionaries.

Thus in 2003, it was widely suggested that the Bangalore International Airport should be named after Tippu Sultan since it is located near his birth place, Devanahalli; also because it was Tipu that made Banaglore and Mysore province world famous. But even then, it was the growing influence of the BJP and RSS which had vehemently opposed the naming airport as Tippu before the compromise Bangalore Airport will not have any epithets and will be simply called Bangalore International Airport.

However, a time passed, the Bangalore Airport was re-named as Kempegowda International Airport in 2018 by the then Congress government, in its typical and strategic surrender to  Hindutva pressure. This was, of course, predictably, celebrated as the victory by the BJP; the party claiming its stake in bringing honour to the Vokkaliga king. In continuation of these decade long moves, the BJP government is npw planning a theme park around Kempegowda’ rule and a 108 feet tall statue of Kempegowda in the qirport premises. This would then be meticulously used during the election campaign to demonstrate how the BJP made a Vokkaliga king the symbol of world pride.

On the other hand, the vilifying of Tipu and erasing his memory from history has also been systematically unleashed. The new text book of BJP government has either erased his contributions or retained the vilified version of him as a bigot. Recently, the historical express train running between Mysore and Bangalore which was named Tipu express decades back has been renamed as Wodeyar express at the instance of the local BJP member of parliament, (MP) Pratapa Simha.

No matter whether these actions benefit the BJP electorally, the hegemonizing of public discourse in furthering Hindutva will definitely happen. The victory of majoritarian Hindutva forces in reconstructing the history is a direct outcome of the relative political and ideological defeat of secular forces in the present.
History always reflects the partial version of the victor.

*Views expressed are the author’s own. The author is an activist and freelance journalist who was also a columnist for Gauri Lankesh’s publication.

Other pieces by Shivasundar:

Mohan Bhagwat and Indian Muslims
Bharat Jodo pragmatism of the Congress & illusions of the progressives
Adani’s capital Modi’s power in Sri Lanka
Modi’s eight years: Eight acts of shameful disgrace
How a state suffocated by Saffron got a new breath from Blue
Never Ever Forget

The post Communalising Icons by the BJP takes on a new dimension in Karnataka appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Just a week after the chief of the All India Imam Organisation, Dr. Imam Umer Muhammad Ilyasi described Mohan Bhagwat, the Sarasangh Chalak of the mighty RSS as “Rashtra Pita” (father of the nation) exhibited confidence that the man has equal respect for all cultures, further avowed that both Bhagwat and he had decided to keep the nation above all other considerations etc, the RSS chief declared in a meeting hosted on the occasion of Navaratri, that the eating of meat leads to “tamasic” – devilish-  tendencies and hence one should abandon or restrict eating meat. On Dussehra Day, October 5, the traditional Vijayadashami rally saw the RSS chief again waxing eloquent on population control.

Now, this comment displayed a contempt not merely against ‘beef eaters’ read Muslims but also against the whole meat eating community as a whole, which, by the way, constitutes more than 80% of ‘Hindus’ themselves. In a way, the comment is a re-statement of the supremacy of a narrow, Brahminical culture which considers (one form of) Brahminical vegetarianism as the ‘superior culture’ and, by inference, meat eating as inferior. In a way the RSS supremo is therefore quite unabashedly advocating racist supremacy of Brahmins over the rest of the Hindus, besides non-Hindus.

Still, we find of late, a section of the Muslim elite and a section of Muslim clergy displaying an incurable infatuation towards the RSS Supremo. They have found him reasonable, a person who can understand the anxieties of the Muslims. They even attribute secular meanings to his words and silences and continue to give credence to some of the RSS’s own rather hypocritical efforts.

A month before this meeting with the Imam, five eminent leaders including former Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Najeeb Jung,  SY Quraishi, former chief election commissioner, Zamiruddin Shah, former Lt General (retd) from the Indian army and

Vice Chancellor, Aligarh Muslim University Vice Chancellor, Shahid Siddiqui, former MP and philanthropist along with Saeed Shervani, business magnet met Mohan Bhagwat for an hour in a closed door meeting.  

This closed door meeting was not open to the public and neither the RSS nor those who met the RSS supremo disclosed immediate details. Subsequently however, over the last month both SY Quraishi and Najeeb Jung have given many interviews and written articles around the meeting. In a nutshell, these interviews told us that the meeting, was the initiative of this motely group of eminent people, who wanted to convey the anxiety and insecurity of the Muslim community through a dialogue with the RSS supremo. The group feels they were successful in making him realise the fallacy of insidious propaganda around the growth of Muslim population and the hidden intimidation the community suffers when the whole Muslims are branded as ‘Jihadis’.

In response, on the other hand, the group said the RSS supremo expressed how Hindus feel offended when every Hindu is called a ‘Kafir’ and how every Hindu is hurt when a cow is killed for meat. The group conceded that both issues could be attended to since Kafir is an Arabic word for non-believer and could be avoided entirely. Cow eating is not an essential religious practice and existing laws against beef eating can take care of the hurt feelings of Hindus feeling etc. The group felt that the meeting was most fruitful and admired the RSS supremo’s simplicity and punctuality. They believe that this conversation would reach its logical end and the RSS supremo would reign in his organisation .

But the RSS itself has said nothing, neither about the purpose nor the outcome of these meetings from their side. The attitude of the RSS is summarised in the reply of a RSS functionary to a news agency when he said RSS supremo meets many people when he is in Delhi and hence did not attach any significance to such meetings. On the Dussehra day speech some reference was made to some Muslims apologising for the ‘violent reactions’ of Muslims to former BJP spokesperson, Nupur Sharma’s statements on Prophet Mohammed at Udaipur and Amravati,

On the other hand Sheshadri Chari, another ideologue of the RSS and the ex-editor of its mouth piece the “Organiser”, in an article in “The Print”, has opined that such meetings are neither new nor unusual. He even stated that the second Sarvasanghachalak of the RSS, MS Golwalkar also used to meet the Muslims. This tradition has been continued on and off by others also. The purpose of such meetings is to influence the Muslim leaders to “de-Arabise Indian Islam”.  And inspire them to be nationalist etc.

In a way, this is true. The RSS has launched Muslim Rashtriya Manch – MRM- under the dreaded RSS leader Indresh Kumar in 2002 itself to pursue their agenda of promoting ‘nationalist Muslims and Indianisation of Islam’. Bhagwat himself has met non-Hindu leaders prior to the 2019 general election. This was in 2018 at Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan where he lectured on the tenets of the Hinudtva for three days. In that meeting he declared that Hindutva and the RSS is wrongly understood and Hindutva is incomplete without Muslims.

Again, at a book release program in 2021, Bhagwat declared that Hindus and Muslims in India are of same DNA and those who opt for lynchings etc are not true Hindus because tolerance is the hall mark of Hinduism. Also that Hindutva is not about religion but civilisation and nationalism etc. Even then, many Muslim intellectuals and a section of clergy opined that the RSS is changing and was becoming inclusive. But immediately after the 2019 elections an all-out attack on the Muslims and their identity was unleashed by both the BJP government and the so called fringe elements with the full support of the same Supremo.

Now history seems to be repeating itself. For example, some news reports suggest that Bhagwat, during his much-publicised visits to Madrasas and the Imam, gifted a copy of the Bhagwad Gita to the Madrasas and them asked to make the students become acquainted with the Gita along with Quran. Could this be considered, for some intellectuals, a grand gesture of suggestion to make students aware of all religions instead of only their own?

No. Because the RSS run thousands of schools where only the Gita is taught and no mention of either the Quran or the Bible is made. Not only that, in BJP ruled Karnataka, where the government and the High Court denied girls the custom of sporting the Hijab along with the school uniform as an affront to secularism, the state has also declared its intention of introducing the Bhagavad Gita as part of its moral education curriculum. The justification is more annoying – That the Gita is above all religions and a great text with a code of moral conduct. Incidentally, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar declares, in his “Krishna and his Gita” the text being a “philosophical Justification of the Counter Revolution” and the “Manu smriti with vivid details”. Thus Bhagwat’s offering Gita to Madrasa is nothing but another act of defining India as a Hindu Nation and the Muslim, a community obliged to follow the Hindu.

Even the Sheshadri Chari’s alibi of de-Arabisation of Indian Muslim smacks of blatant Hindutva Fascism loaded with sweet words. What within Islam is that is Arabic which the RSS wants to Indianise? And what is Indianisation other than Hinduisation/ Brahminisation?

The Dargah culture is prevalent among Indian Muslims. In fact this is true Indianisation of Islam for that matter. The Islam of the Dargah is localised and further flourished by imbibing the local culture of the subaltern Hindus. Thus in the dargahs like Bababudan Dargah in Karnataka the religiosity, theology and the practice at the shrine is a mixture of original Islam and the local culture of the Hindu/ Shudra peasantry. The meat food was served for the devotees who came for the Urus.

However, neither the RSS nor its affiliate Hindutva outfits consider the Dargahs (or Sufi Islam for that matter) as the confluence of two traditions but as the cultural annexation of Islam over the never existent Hindu deity. The harmonious Indianisation of the Islam is considered as the historical invasion which should be set right. So where is the Indian Islam located within the Hindutva Project?

Even the NEP policy and its  position papers  prepared to redesign the National Curricular Framework, the present Prime minister and his counterpart in the RSS, Mohan Bhagwat  speeches, both personages oft declare that India has “suffered” under 1200 years rule of colonisers and that this history of the ‘Invaders’ should be re-written. Thus, Indian Islam is completely taken out of the Indian History and students are now taught that any aspect or form of Islam is ‘foreign’ and only the Hindu, that is the Brahmin is Indian and by extension, also superior.

In fact this is a project of Hindutva which Golwalkar stated without mincing words in his “We Or Our Nationhood defined”. Golwalkar writes and says:

“ The foreign races in Hindusthan must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture, i.e., of the Hindu nation and must loose their separate existence to merge in the Hindu race, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment — not even citizen’s rights. There is, at least, should be, no other course for them to adopt. We are an old nation; let us deal, as old nations ought to and do deal, with the foreign races, who have chosen to live in our country.”

Thus when Bhagwat says that Hindutva is not about Hindu religion he is making mockery of the idiocy of his audience. In fact, the RSS’s Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS) baithak (meet), held in Ahmedabad in 2022 says in its annual report, that :

 “There appear to be elaborate plans by a particular community to enter the government machinery. Behind all this, it seems that a deep conspiracy with a long-term goal is working. On the strength of numbers, preparations are being made to adopt any route to get their demands accepted.”

Thus the constitutional right of every Indian community to get representation within democratic structures of governance, to get educated and obtain government jobs by Muslims is being criminalised by the RSS and is projected as a conspiracy against the country. One is reminded of “UPSC jihad” controversy raked up by the Sudarshan channel a year ago. While its proponent Suresh Chavanke was ridiculed then as the fringe element, the source of that “knowledge” is the official resolution of the RSS headed by Bhagwat.

By that logic, one should conclude that when Bhagwat met Qureishi, Jung and other eminent citizens who served the Indian State in high positions, Bhagwat was talking to UPSC jihadist. Within the Karnataka State Assembly, the speaker and the many cabinet ministers of the BJP government went on record saying that in few years Bhagva (saffron) flag would become the official national flag. There is no more fringe elements outside the core after 2019. The de facto existence of Hindu Rashtra in India is also gradually becoming de jure year after year.  

The discrimination against the Hijab and judicial sanction of the same, the state introduction of Gita, The attack on the Azaan, Masjid, trade and business of Muslims, legislations like CAA, NPR/NRC, the almost unanimous support to abrogation of article 370 in Indian Parliament, the state recognition of the murder of a ‘Hindu’ as ‘anti-national’ and the killing of a ‘Muslim’ as ‘just a crime etc’, are but de jure declarations of the Hindu state.

Yet, sections of the Muslim clergy and some Muslim intellectuals are of the opinion that the RSS supremo could be their saviour. This is not just illusion but also a suicidal obsession. Instead, meeting and inter-acting with masses of Muslims and Hindus and forging unity against the RSS’ brand of Brahmanism could help in finding the real way out of the impending danger.

*Views expressed are the author’s own. The author is an activist and freelance journalist who was also a columnist for Gauri Lankesh’s publication.

Other pieces by Shivasundar:
Bharat Jodo pragmatism of the Congress & illusions of the progressives
Adani’s capital Modi’s power in Sri Lanka
Modi’s eight years: Eight acts of shameful disgrace
How a state suffocated by Saffron got a new breath from Blue
Never Ever Forget

The post Mohan Bhagwat and Indian Muslims appeared first on SabrangIndia.

On the 25^th day of the Rahul Gandhi Bharat Jodo yatra of the Congress party , i.e., on the Oct 2, Gandhi Jayanti day, it  halted in a village called Badanavalu, in Karnataka near Mysore. This village is well known for the Khadi Gramadyog enterprise started by four Dalit women in 1927 and also has the fame of being visited and hailed by Gandhi in 1932. The Khadi Udyog itself  had flourished along with the Freedom Movement.

But, in the last few decades, the khadi homespun industry, has shown drastic decline and has now reached the state of extinction. This is so because the neo liberal polices unleashed by the Congress during 1990’s enabled the market forces and weakened the local economies due to the withdrawal of the state from the welfarism. Along with the Khadi Gramodyog the spirit of fraternity also declined as the post-independent and later neoliberal political economy which aggravated the rural crisis also nurtured the traditional cleavages between the communities.

Therefore, this  ‘Gandhi visited village’,  witnessed one of the worst caste atrocities in the state, in 1993 in which dominant Lingayats killed three Dalits. Now even though the relationship between the castes are “normalised” the village itself is known only for its past. In the present, it is just another village engulfed by the agrarian crisis facing  dwindling economic opportunities.

The dilapidated building that hosted the erstwhile Khadi industry which gave employment to more than 300 women in and around the village, and which remains as a monument of the betrayed promises was  painted with in tri-colours by the enthusiastic Congress workers to welcome Rahul Gandhi and his yatris of the Bharat Jodo effort. But when Rahul Gandhi promised a relief  package to Khadi workers if voted to power,  it hardly gave any  meaning to the victims since the Congress is yet to locate the roots of the devastation of Khadi and such local economies in the neo liberal economic policy which it heralded in the 90s.  

Likewise, Rahul Gandhi inaugurated re-developed  lane connecting the localities of the Lingayats and the Dalits in the village, which was abandoned after 1993 clashes,  and rechristened it as Bharat Jodo road. He also participated in the inter dining which included a meal eaten together by all the castes in the villages. But  it is doubtful if the road would even be used since the village has learnt to live separately and distinctly after the clashes.

Later in the day, Rahul Gandhi addressed a gathering near Mysore under a heavy down pour, and declared that nothing, even nature, could deter the resolve of the Yatra to fight against the politics of Hate. The images of Rahul Gandhi speaking under the heavy rains and even the people listening to him covering themselves under the chair, has gone viral. It has also instilled more energy into the Congress leaders and volunteers.

Whatever may be the limitations of the Bharat Jodo, it has provided a much needed platform to Rahul Gandhi to demonstrate his resolve and his politics to the country, loud and clear. Right from the beginning of the Yatra, Rahul Gandhi is showing enormous physical and emotional stamina laced with a degree of honesty conveying a message of love. He has also provided leadership to the Yatra which has electrified a disintegrating Congress party and its supporters. Gandhi has also been patiently listening to the grief and despair of different sections of the society. He is freely sharing and mingling with the masses enroute which has become a rare, political spectacle today. This is being cherished by ordinary people. This in itself is being compared to the political elitism of the present prime minister, who has always laid claim to humble origins unlike Rahul Gandhi   

These symbolism of the Bharat Jodo seems to be influencing many liberal intellectuals who were hopelessly aspiring for a political alternative. In fact such  progressive intellectuals have fully invested in the Yatra, bordering on an obsession. Civil society groups in Karnataka are extending unconditional support to the Yatra, attributing overbearing goals to it.

The Congress itself has considered Bharat Jodo Yatra as part of its survival strategy.

As political commentator Asim Ali has tried to explain in his article in the Telegraph, this Jodo was a necessary and a honest activity aimed at the survival of the Congress though not its revival. The route map itself is so planned to address the floating voters in the constituencies and the states where the Congress party’s vote share has not  decreased below 30%. Thus the Yatra has avoided the  whole of East India where the Congress has been pushed to third position in the last two elections and where regional parties are robustly taking on BJP.  It is also being said that the Congress party has a very pragmatic expectation from this 150-day yatra, through which it expects to add  30-40 seats additionally to its present strength, in the 2024 elections. Meanwhile, Jodo would also will have positive impact on the state elections like in Karnataka where it needs a little more nudging to reach victory. 

As a principle opposition party in a democratic set up, the Congress party is doing something which should have been done long back. No one can rise any objections to its Bharat Jodo Yatra even as a means to  electoral gain since it is seeking votes based on a  message of love and not hate. Thus even if it does not fulfil the electoral goals of the Congress, the effort, may, even at its worst, end up in throwing a  good impact on the society. Thus the Bharat Jodo is a welcome pragmatic electoral  initiative of the Congress.

But whether it is  capable of defeating BJP electorally,  leave alone fascism politically, or socially is an entirely different question which the desperate enthusiasm of the progressives fail to interrogate.  Leading supporters like Yogendra Yadav, who a few years ago declared  the metaphorical death of the Congress as a pre-requisite for the emergence of real opposition to the fascist BJP is now describing the Bharat Jodo as the anti-emergency moment and rallying around Congress as the need of the hour.

Many questions emanate from such unqualified and a-historical expectations from the Congress. And facts about the present and past of Indian Fascism does not find support or satisfaction in such easy solutions.

The onward march of the electoral BJP is and has always been caused and further supported by the expansion of social, organisational and political base of Hindutva.

Since the elections of 1984 where Congress obtained 49% of votes and the BJP just 7%, the BJP has consistently increased its vote share elections to elections (except the 2009 elections)  and in 2019 elections it could get double (36%) the support of its national rival Congress party (19%) . And in some states like Karnataka, UP, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Delhi etc the vote share of BJP was/is between 51-65%.

So there is no real solace in the statistical misreading that says that 64% of voters did not vote BJP.

Even in Tamil Nadu and Punjab where BJP lost its vote share by 1-2%  in 2019 as compared to 2014, it improved its vote share in the subsequent assembly elections. BJP is becoming the ruling party or the party in in-waiting in almost all the states.  While its financial prowess is making it impregnable,  its social base and support among all sections of the people for its agenda of Hindu Rashtra has made it possible to create a Hindutva Vote bank.

For example, this Jodo yatra is often compared to Advani’s Rm Rath Yatra which was instrumental in the increase of BJP’s  vote share and seat share phenomenally all over India. It was one of the main reasons for the demise of the Congress system of politics  and the emergence of BJP system of politics in India.

While apparent parallels are obvious there are many substantial differences.

The Sangh Parivar had the machinery and the organisational strength to localise and amplify the hate message of Ratha Yatra in all the states it passed through. Thus, even after the Yatra was over the seeds it bred were nurtured carefully, and consistently to deliver a poisonous weed in the subsequent elections locally.

For example, the Rath Yatra carrying the message of  destruction of Babri Masjid allegedly built over Ram Mandir, was localised in Karnataka and the movement to liberate Bababudan Darga and transforming it into Datta temple was launched as early as 1992 itself. The slogan was Datta peetha will be the Ayodhya of south. Thus the political message of Rath Yatra was followed up politically and organisationally and consistently over the years . This vicious movement to liberate this Dargah was instrumental in expanding the social base of the Hindutva organisations, Hindutva ideology in Karnataka and subsequently in increasing the vote share and seat share of the BJP that led to its capturing of power in the state.

The Congress lacks such dedicated organisational structures and consistency in localising and amplifying the message of the Bharat Jodo Yatra so that its politics breaks the Hindutva hegemony and actually results in electoral gains.

Not only that, while the leadership and the cadres of the Hindutva regimen are convinced and dedicated to the cause of the Hindu Rashtra and consider the Congress as the enemy to its ideals, the same cannot be said about the Congress. For example, it is the Congress party’s opportunist collusion which legitimised either the destruction of Babri Masjid or partial Hinduisation of Bababudan Dargah in Karnataka. As scholar  Aizaz Ahmed described a long while back, while the BJP’s communalism is programmatic, Congress communalism is pragmatic and its commitment to secularism is also pragmatic and opportunistic,  barring of course a few towering personalities, especially at the local levels.

While a long list of ‘how the Congress betrayed the country over secularism’ can be drawn up, a few telling and defining examples should be suffice. It was the same Indira Gandhi, who introduced Secularism to the preamble during emergency,  who first introduced the politics of “Hindu and National Integrity is in danger” politics in 1980s during her “second coming”. The systematic othering of the minorities had its root in the excesses of the Emergency also. In all, the three bans Congress imposed on the RSS, the tall leaders of the Congress like Sardar Patel to PV Narasimha Rao wanted the ban to be ineffectual and worked over night to repeal it at the earliest occasion. While Rajiv Gandhi was instrumental in the alienation the North East and Kashmir and opening the gates of Masjid, irresponsible and collusive  attitude of PVN Rao is also guilty of its destruction. The collusion of the Congress with the Shiv Sena in its anti-Muslim violence, the unexplainable inaction of the UPA government towards draconian NPR/NRC acts passed during Vajapayee regime, the changes made to Visa rules during UPA-2, which discriminated applicants based on religion which later became the basis for CAA etc and the recent claims to the glory of building Ram Mandir instead  of condemning it as irreligious act and collecting even funds for Ram mandir etc are but few of its inherent Hindutva-leaning steps by the Congress. This makes it structurally impossible for the Congress to break from this and provide the alternative. Thus, even when it came to power it could not break the Hindutva hegemony and worked with or through a milder form of Fascist governance.

The same can be said about all other opposition parties also. While the AAP leadership competes with the BJP including for being aggressive Hindutva politician, the BSP did not find it politically and ideologically unacceptable to campaign for  Modi  immediately after Gujarat genocide. All these parties started their election campaign in the last  UP elections from Ayodhya promising a more spectacular temple, sooner. While AAP supported the abrogation of article 370, BSP supported the amendment to UA(P)A and the now secular turn coat JDU supported the CAA bill in Rajya sabha.

Thus all the political parties helped the BJP to legislate Hindutva. And the Communists want UAPA with all its draconian forms in Kerala but oppose the same in rest of the country

It is because none of these parties have the political, ideological and organisational prowess to break the hegemony of the Hindutva which the Sangh Parivar is successful in building over years. More so the Congress in its present form.  And, as the recent elections have proved, the pre-election exercises to take on BJP on its politics without having sufficient machinery to reach the people at the grass roots would only polarise the electoral atmosphere in favour of BJP.

Thus, for the Congress, it would be good and consistent on the message of Jodo and compliment the process with an organisational outreach, for at least for  few years before expecting any substantial electoral results. Even to do that, the Congress party might have to undergo a complete metamorphosis, which is a difficult call. But nevertheless necessary.

It would help to save the country if the Rahul Gandhi led Jodo eventually leads the party to such an ideological, political and organisational metamorphosis. But will this actually happen? This could be another grand illusion if one recollects the developments during late 1960’s where ‘leftist’ Indira Gandhi generated far bigger hopes than her grandson. That political posture of Indira Gandhi even made the CPI consider the Kumaramangalam Thesis which strongly advocated the merger of Communists with the Indira Congress. But few years later, after the elections, purging, authoritarian pro-capital laws, and the declaration of the Emergency which, amongst other things, displayed a communal stinge against Muslims were all played out in less than five years.

While the situation and personas may be different, the lessons of the past should guide the future. The only litmus test to support or oppose any party, act, efforts or event should be whether it is against Brahminism and Capitalism, fascism being the aggressive, naked dictatorship of the same.

*Views expressed are the author’s own. The author is an activist and freelance journalist who was also a columnist for Gauri Lankesh’s publication.

Other pieces by Shivasundar:

Adani’s capital Modi’s power in Sri Lanka

Modi’s eight years: Eight acts of shameful disgrace

How a state suffocated by Saffron got a new breath from Blue

Never Ever Forget

The post Bharat Jodo pragmatism of the Congress & illusions of the progressives appeared first on SabrangIndia.

It is now almost certain that the India will get its first Adivasi women President. The choice of Droupadi Murmu, from the land of Dopdis of Mahashvetadevi, by the BJP -RSS for this ceremonial and constitutional, nevertheless a figure-head post, has made the united opposition’s contest not only self-defeating but reduced it to a mere token fight. This is so because BJP’s presidential candidate is now supported by every associate of NDA II alliance and also by its extended family like that of BJD of Orissa and the YSR congress party. This has ensured the BJP candidate pass the half way mark comfortably and hence her victory a forgone conclusion. The united opposition is once again fated to stage a poor show electorally, politically and ideologically.

The candidature of Mr. Yashvant Sinha by the opposition will be used by the ruling regime to showcase its commitment to the downtrodden in contrast. Even though some of its over enthusiastic leaders in states like Karnataka, has been using this to falsely claim that it only because of Mod and the BJP that a Muslim (Abudl Kalam), a Dalit (Ramnath Kovind) and now a Adivasi and a woman are made President unlike the Congress which ruled the country all these years. By doing so they are conveniently erasing the non-BJP history of post independent India, where a K.R. Narayanan (arguably the only president in this century who in some occasion refused to work as the rubber stamp of the government) had occupied the office as the first Dalit president,  Zakir Husain and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed as Muslim Presidents and also that  the first women president of India was Pratibha Patil who was a UPA nominee when the BJP had fielded a Rajput man, Shekawat.

However, these facts may not appeal to the WhatsApp generation since the BJP-RSS is successful in cunningly portraying themselves as the only nationalist force in the country, while the Congress and all other non-BJP parties forces in society are essentially opportunist, corrupt and inspired by non-nationalist political ideologies. That the BJP is an antithesis of what it projects for itself does not need underlining. But since the battle is one of perception and the BJP has in place a well-heeled and oiled propaganda machinery, the battle is won before even it has been fought. The announcement is enough. The BJP and the Sangh are systematically using every occasion for the furtherance of this political and ideological propaganda. The upcoming Presidential election is also not an exception of an occasion. The opposition, moreover, lacks the necessary political-ideological and more than anything else, the moral standing to counter it.

Take for example the choice by the BJP of an Adivasi women, or earlier a Dalit man or even Abdul Kalam in 2002 when the BJP had been severely tainted by complicity in the anti-Muslim genocide in Gujarat. Each time the choice was guided by not only by short term electoral gains but also long term ideological gain. While the choice of Abdul Kalam was to make up its image as secular party in the wake of Gujarat genocide, the choice of Kovind was to expand its political-ideological base among the Dalits and check the forces contending for the same. Now, after a relative electoral-political-ideological consolidation of those constituencies, the BJP has embarked upon expanding and consolidating the elusive Adivasi constituencies spatially and politically before the forthcoming general elections. The choice of otherwise retired politician, Droupadi Murmu has been carefully made to serve these political ideological goals.

The choice of an Adivasi, a Dalit, or a Muslim for the post of head of Constitution by a party ideologically and politically committed to perpetuate the Hindu Brahmanical social order smacks of not only political hypocrisy but also illustrates its manipulative politics couched in the language of inclusion. This sort of inclusion in the long history of Brahminical Hindutva has been a cunning design to cover actual exclusion.   

The realities of electoral politics compels the recognition of the numerical preponderance of the Dalits, the tribals and the women. Seven decades of a reluctant capitalist development also lead to the emergence of a tiny strata of a middle and upper middle class within all the castes and communities. This class and strata became the backbone of the radical social movements demanding substantial equality and dignity in the 1970’s and 80’s. The ignorance and sometimes even refusal of the traditional left-progressive movements to consider the question of dignity and community based assertion of the oppressed castes as another important democratic stream, led to the emergence of identity-based movements in the 1980’s and 90’s, independent of, and even sometimes antagonistic to movements aiming to achieve economic equality. This cleavage between otherwise fraternal streams were best manipulated by the oppressors privileging the identity politics over all other substantial issues. Thus, the crucial economic and social question of re-distribution was relegated to the backseat. What emerged was the politics of recognition.

Even in India, the 1980s and 90s saw the selective inclusion or the issues of recognition of the oppressed identities by the RSS-BJP. Their politics of Identity was strategy to politically disengage and disrobe the community from the questions of substantial equality or the question of equitable distribution of resources. Along with that BJP-RSS ensured the upward political mobility of these tiny strata as a part of a new brahmanical social engineering where the symbolical positioning bereft of substantive power is celebrated as empowerment and the real harmony and questions of substantial equality and alternative order demonised as anti-national and anti-identity.

Take for example the candidature of Droupadi Murmu and her carrer as BJP minister in Orissa and her tenure as governor in the tribal state of Jharkhand. Like Ramanth Kovind, she had never raised any political questions about the RSS-BJP philosophy of Brahminical Hinduism. As a governor she is remembered for her silence when Patalghadi movement was crucially suppressed by the BJP government. She is also remembered for silence as a custodian of the forest and wellbeing of the Adivasis when BJP state government was selling forests to the highest foreign bidder.

However, her refusal to give assent to two bills approved by the Legislative Assembly seeking amendments to the Chhotanagpur Tenancy Act, 1908, and the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act, 1949 (Aug 17, 2017, DowntoEarth).  At the time in an interview she had stated, “The government should have anticipated the mood of the public. I talked to experts and thoroughly studied the bills. I felt the bills should be reconsidered and a rethinking is needed. There were 192 non-political and political meetings over the bills. Even people from outside the state approached me. The amendment bills have now been returned to the state government, along with 192 memorandums which were received opposing the amendments. I have asked the government to re-examine the amendments afresh in the light of these memorandums.”

However, the images of Droupadi Murmu, a proud representative of Indian Adivasis sweping the floors of a Shiva temple are disconcerting. This suggests her acceptance by the RSS-BJP leadership comes from her loyalty to their vision of Hindu Rashtra.

Like Kovind and Kalam before her, will the first Adivasi woman president of the country, instead of representing the vibrancy of Indian democracy, actually represent the elasticity and manipulative skills of the ruling Brahminical Hindutva regime? The tragic and self-deceptive contradiction between the politics of Identity and substantive equality.

*Views expressed are the author’s own. The author is an activist and freelance journalist who was also a columnist for Gauri Lankesh’s publication.

Other pieces by Shivasundar:

Adani’s capital Modi’s power in Sri Lanka

Modi’s eight years: Eight acts of shameful disgrace

How a state suffocated by Saffron got a new breath from Blue

Never Ever Forget

The post Subaltern Faces to sustain the Sanatan Core: The Murmus, The Kovinds,  and the Kalams appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Adani power plant scam in Sri Lanka and its speedy resolution are yet another example of how the Indian State is being used to further the interests of PM Modi’s cronies. It is also a blatant statement on the comprador character of the Gotabaya regime in the Island State.

Though Indian expansionism over its gullible neighbourhood has decades of history, it was aggressively challenged and stopped by the emergence of China as a superior Asian power in the last two decades. Thus, both SAARC and SAFTA have been in a state of coma for more than a decade now, which were mostly perceived as an instrument of the Indian ruling class to expand its sphere of influence and extend Indian Inc’s influence into their territories.

Almost all the neighbouring states have aligned with China after it emerged as a mighty power. These developments placed a check on the onward march of Indian hegemony in the region, temporarily. But, of late, the complete convergence of political, ideological and economic interests of Modi regime and the Gotbaya-Rajpaksa regime in Sri Lanka and the Modi’s willful acceptance to play the role of junior partner in the US strategy in the Asian region against China, has brought in new dynamic in the South Asian region.

Both the Modi government and the Gotabaya regime find many things in common when it comes to genocidal politics, authoritarian populism and crony capitalism and their tentative allegiance with the US. This new comradery between the crisis ridden Sri Lanka and Modi regime has facilitated expansion of the empire of Modi-Adani into Sri Lanka. Even though the revelation of the political corruption in the 500 MW power generation deal awarded to Adani, by flouting and amending the rules that mandated competitive bidding, at twice the rate per unit prevailing in the international market created a political controversy, it subsided speedily by the firm backing by highest level of, Gotbaya-Rajpaksa government.

Even the awarding of a most profitable deal to Adani, to develop west container terminal of Colombo port with 51 percent stake when even the east port deal was mired in controversy, is a clear indication of the firm footing of Adani in the Sri Lanka, powered by the political patronage of Modi government. Just a year before Adani was rescued from an international controversy by the Modi government, his global port development company, APSEZ, collaborated with a company floated by Myanmar’s military Junta. Though Adani had to declare the retreat from the agreement, the operations in the country ruled by the military state are not yet shunned.

Likewise, Adani’s Australian venture is protected and promoted by the Modi government from its very inception. The Modi government has extended its economic, political and diplomatic support to put Adani’s Australian Coal mines company into track. To begin with, Adani, in early 2000 did not have any expertise or knowledge of coal mining but still floated a coal company and bid to take over Carmichael coal mine, in Queensland, Australia. Many international Banks refused to fund the take-over since

a) Adani did not have the economic or administrative background to run a foreign coal company

b) The coal prices then were plummeting and financing a coal business was considered not credit worthy and also

c) For environmental considerations.

But when Modi became prime minister in 2014, one of the important economic decisions he took in the first few months was to direct the SBI to grant a one-billion-dollar capital loan to Adani towards the project. Later, when it was hit with controversies and peoples protest in Australia, he made a whirlwind tour to the country, used his diplomatic power so that the Australian government would not yield against Adani’s interest. Now, finally when the construction is complete and Adani’s coal from Australia is ready for export, there are reports which allege the Modi government’s compelling direction to NTPC to buy Adani’s coal on priority.

Another two incidents stand distinctly to prove the crony benefits that the Adanis enjoyed after Modi came to power. The Mundra ports on which the Adani empire has been built had violated all the stipulated environmental norms and were fined Rs. 200 Cr by the previous UPA government. This was completely annulled by the Modi government on flimsy grounds.

It is also widely reported that the major beneficiaries of the 165 days state tour by PM Modi to 52 countries between 2104-18, were Adanis and Ambanis, where multi crore contracts were signed between them and the host countries. The net result of this cronyism is that Adani’s businesses that were worth 1.9 billi,on dollars, are now worth 32 billion dollars, and he is now the 9th biggest billionaire in the world.

This meteoric rise was not mystical. It was completely financed and facilitated by the Modi government. For example, after the “second coming” of Modi, all profit-making ports and airports were privatised, and Adanis took over most of them, though it did not have  any eligibility for primary bidding. The News reports suggest that the Modi government amended the rules to facilitate Adanis.

Indian banks have extended more than one lakh crores of loan to Adanis to finance the takeover of these profit-making public enterprises. In turn, this unprecedented accumulation of assets has increased the share values of the Adani companies through the roof! Because of which Adanis are now having shares valued at around 10 Lakh crore, making it the most-wealthy company in India, overtaking even the Ambanis.

Thus, Adani’s rise is directly linked with Modi’s rise to power and vice versa!

And this symbiotic relationship between them is rooted in the dark pages of the Indian history where Indian democracy took a decisive turn towards communal polarisation, genocide and brazen cronyism in economy. When Narendra Modi was Heli-dropped from Delhi to Ahmedabad in 2001, the mandate given to him by the RSS-BJP was to rejuvenate the BJP party which was lacking the killer instinct and was facing possible electoral defeat in the impending elections of 2002. It’s now part of the darkest part of post-independent Indian history, how Modi achieved it.

There was a genocide of Muslims by Hindutva fanatic groups with the blatant connivance and cooperation of Modi government which also silenced the majority to approve. This deep and hateful communal divide gave the best electoral dividend, and Modi’s BJP came back to power with a thumping majority.

But India of 2002, still had some conscience. The CII, the conglomeration of Indian big business, heavily condemned Modi for his indirect connivance in the genocide. The SC, NHRC, the civil society organisations and the media – yes, the media – then, raised their voice against the Modi government’s patronage to the culprits.

Modi, then, was almost isolated and alone. It was Gautam Adani, whose business was then a small and a growing business entity, stood strongly with Modi. At his initiative, a counter business group of business and industry, “Resurgent Group Of Gujarat (RGG)”, was formed. Annual mela of global investors under “Vibrant Gujarat” was held and unprecedented incentives, tax breaks, cheap capital-land- electricity and unimaginable profit rates were assured, by flouting all established rules, regulations and laws.

Thus, by 2008, when Modi was re-elected as CM for the third time, most of the big business started drifting towards Modi and Gujarat led by Tatas with his Nano enterprise shifting from Bengal. By 2013, reports suggest that barring one or two almost all in the CII favoured Narendra Modi as the PM candidate. And the Adanis played an important role in making the Indian business accept the Modi and Modis as the future of India. Thus, it was so symbolic that the PM elect Modi travelled from Gujarat to Delhi to accept his new role in the private chartered flight of Adani! Thus, the Modi regime is casted on the symbiotic and mutually dependent relationship between genocidal populism and brazen cronyism. In political parlance it is also called as Fascism.

*Views expressed are the author’s own. The author is an activist and freelance journalist who was also a columnist for Gauri Lankesh’s publication.

Other pieces by Shivasundar:

Modi’s eight years: Eight acts of shameful disgrace

How a state suffocated by Saffron got a new breath from Blue
Never Ever Forget

The post Adani’s capital Modi’s power in Sri Lanka appeared first on SabrangIndia.