Sankarshan Thakur: The BJP's push for religious polarization in Bihar is not working

by Guest Sun Nov 01, 2015 11:19 pm

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1151102/jsp/frontpage/story_50934.jsp#.Vjbb0NZX_wx

by Guest Sun Nov 01, 2015 11:40 pm

Rashmun wrote:http://www.telegraphindia.com/1151102/jsp/frontpage/story_50934.jsp#.Vjbb0NZX_wx

Chief minister Nitish Kumar has come to camp in Madhepura three nights to mount a personal vigil against "those that will try and divide you on religious lines". He goes from meeting to meeting in the interiors raising the alarm and calling for caution and restraint.

"They will try every trick," he warns, his language now quite blunt and stripped of nicety, "They will throw pork on mosque doors and tamper with temple idols, they will make community fight community in their desperation for power, be wary of them."...

Milestone upon milestone, as we drive, we measured the electoral discourse dip into rancour, illogic and unabashed minority-bashing.

"Under Lalu-Nitish, Bihar has become a haven for terrorists; they are using religion to go soft on terrorists," Sushil Modi on Twitter "Lalu is advocating beef-eating...Under Lalu, Nitish is doing a crash-course in lying," Sushil Modi on Twitter "I challenge Lalu to drink cow urine in public if he loves cows so much," Sushil Modi on Twitter

"If NDA wins Bihar, there will be Diwali in India, if the UPA wins Bihar, there will be celebrations in Pakistan," Sushil Modi on Twitter "Are Lalu and Nitish conspiring to rob Hindu Dalits and backwards of reservations and hand them over to Muslims?" Union minister Giriraj Singh on Twitter

"Lalu and Nitish are supporters of Pakistan and Pakistani terrorists," former Bihar minister Ashwini Choubey in a public statement. And then Union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy's uninformed and counter-productive needling of Nitish over advertising banners on websites of Pakistani newspapers. Nitish's office was quick to scour the Internet and produce Narendra Modi flyers from the Pakistani press during the 2014 campaign.

This has been a tit-for-tat game, punch landed for punch. The Bihar campaign is drawing to a close just as it has begun with Modi's first rally at Muzaffarpur where he questioned Nitish's DNA - a knuckleduster bout that has not so much entertained as embittered.

"Vikas" and "parivartan" have been bludgeoned out of the discourse, personal animosity and communal brinkmanship have been centre stage. An anonymous handbill, trademark saffron of colour, is floating around Seemanchal. "Jaago Hindu, kya tum Hindu ho? (wake up Hindus, are you Hindus?)." On that exhort hangs a not unknown litany: Muslims are terrorists and infiltrators, Muslims are intolerant and expansionist, they are increasing their numbers, wake up! Unite!!

Sankarshan Thakur: The BJP's push for religious polarization in Bihar is not working

Sankarshan Thakur: The BJP's push for religious polarization in Bihar is not working

Re: Sankarshan Thakur: The BJP's push for religious polarization in Bihar is not working