A See-Saw Election Favouring Congress That Wants To Do Without An Alliance With the JDS

At 10.30 -11.00 am on the 13^th of May as the seventh to eighth rounds of counting was ongoing, the Congress Party was clearly ahead in the Karnataka assembly elections. The Karnataka electorate, true to form, was getting ready to change horses after the end of the BJP term in office. BJP could not beat anti-incumbency of a strong order, unlike in the minor disgruntlement in Gujarat.

Congress was ahead by two seats beyond the half way mark of 113, given that one person will exit to become the Speaker. However, for the stability of the incoming government, the Congress tally needs to be better than 120. As the counts progress, these figures could well be achieved, and Congress Party commentators are quietly saying so.

At 1 pm. Congress had 128 seats, a little later, 132, prompting a euphoric CM aspirant and probable Siddaramaiah, to  address the press. He not only expressed pleasure at the results, beaming throughout as fire crackers were let off, but waxed eloquent. He suggested this election was important as an indication that the people of India wanted the Modi government out at the centre too. He said multiple rallies addressed by Prime Minister Modi were to no avail in Karnataka. With Opposition unity, the BJP could be ousted at the Centre, and Rahul Gandhi could become prime minister.

How all this, designed to please the Congress high command, will sit with other aspirants in the Opposition, is the question.

This figure of 132 seats won is just as well, as the Congress can now launch its government without any fear of defection or erosion of its majority for other reasons.

The only way the Congress government in Karnataka could crumble now is if there was a major split due to internal rivalries, a possibility that the BJP could well look into, given its past record.   

The anti-incumbency affecting the BJP has restricted it to under 70 seats. The charges of rampant corruption and lack-lustre leadership have bitten deep, as has the partial abandonment of the critical Lingayat community. Apparently, certain Lingayat Mutts were angered by demands for commission as kick-backs from the monies paid to them by the BJP government.

A ‘double engine’ sarkar with an incompetent, weak, corrupt, local engine, clearly does not work. With the media saying so for long in the lead up to the elections, why did the BJP leadership choose to ignore this ground reality? They not only lost the support of some of the Lingayats, but also the tribals that had voted solidly for the BJP in 2018.

Party President JP Nadda and Home Minister Amit Shah have to introspect and course correct. It is not enough to use the charismatic Prime Minister Modi at the penultimate moment to compensate for all local problems. In the end, it ends up embarrassing him too.

The forthcoming assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh are all direct contests between the BJP and Congress. The BJP is now seen as vulnerable, their strategies ineffective and in disarray. The Opposition can feel strengthened with Congress as its national pivot provided this can be sold to the regional satraps.

If BJP is not able to reverse its losing streak in the remaining assembly elections before the general elections of 2024, it may be in trouble for them as well. Even on a post-election basis, assuming the ultimate leadership issues are not solved in advance, the Opposition could come together to oust the BJP unless they win a majority of the seats.

Can the BJP, perceived by many as arrogant, looking at two losses in a row, after Himachal Pradesh, both in direct one-on-one battles with the Congress, learn from this one?

In both elections, Congress stuck closely to local issues and offered well designed incentives and sops for the people. These were apparently appreciated by the voters, most recently the so-called ‘five guarantees’ in Karnataka. BJP did not change strategy in response.

And with an increasingly remote High Command, many of the BJP’s core voters feel let down. They voted for a Hindutva promoting party, and not one that is increasingly wooing the minorities with little result.

The past tells us that assembly elections have often been decided on local considerations and national issues do not have much resonance. The same people generally vote differently in Lok Sabha elections, but is the Narendra Modi led BJP going into elections in 2024 representing its core voter interests? Items such as the Uniform Civil Code are only promised at election time in state after state and then quietly shelved.

Many seem to think Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath In Uttar Pradesh is doing a better job at what the core BJP voter expects, than the Modi-Shah combine at the Centre.

The loss of Karnataka is a loss of BJP’s only gateway to the South of India, except for an NDA presence in Pondicherry, and the impact of this loss will be profound. With talk of a breakaway Republic of South India, possibly as a pressure tactic, Rahul Gandhi’s notions that India is a ‘Union of States’ and mention of Karnataka’s ‘sovereignty’ by Sonia Gandhi in a recent speech, the implications can be ominous.  

Things may have gone very differently with a strong BJP local leadership in Karnataka. For example, Uttar Pradesh had municipal local elections simultaneously, with the BJP sweeping them. The strength of the Yogi administration is cited as the main reason. And this in the Yogi government’s second consecutive term in office.

The Basavraj Bommai administration in Karnataka, by way of contrast, displayed neither energy and charisma in the election campaign, nor administrative skill over his term. He came out to concede the election at about 12.30 pm.

So why was Bommai, who has not performed, retained for the entire length of time? So many incumbents were replaced at the time of handing out party tickets for this election, so why not Bommai? Can Bommai, who is still in position, lead the opposition for the years going forward which will see a general election in 2024?

The marginalisation and on-off usage of Lingayat patriarch BS Yediyurappa has also cost the BJP dearly, and not for the first time. LK Advani had also pushed out allegedly corrupt Yediyurappa in the first BJP term in Karnataka, resulting in the loss of the state. Introduction of Yediyurappa’s son to compensate for his absence in semi-retirement in this election, did not pull the same weight with the voters.

Congress ultimately does not need to reach out to some of the five to seven independents showing leads, in order to bolster their numbers. Nor does it need the help of the ‘kingmaker’ JDS, which ended up with around 20 seats.

However, all is not necessarily well. There are extreme rivalries between top Karnataka Congress leaders. One between former Chief Minister Siddaramiah and aspirant State Party President DK Shivakumar. Several other Congress leaders are there with ministerial ambitions they won’t like to be done out of. One more incoming MLA from the tribal community, KH Muniyappa, wants to be chief minister too.   Dalit Congress Party President Mallikarjun Kharge’s name has also been put forward by DK Shivakumar as a possible CM contender.

In the end, the senior Siddaramaiah, who said this was his last election, will probably be chosen to lead the Congress government. DK Shivakumar, a life- long Congressman, who is only 61, may have to wait his turn.   

(1240 words)

May 13^th, 2023

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

The West Insists On Earning Bad Karma By Insulting Hindu Gods Thinking No Harm Will Come To Them

There is basic incomprehension in the largely Abrahamic West when it comes to Ma Kali. Of course, it is not just Ma Kali. The West has discarded the large pantheon of Roman and Greek Gods of old, with their passions and contradictions that might have provided an insight.

Very few in the West understand our ancient religion which many of us call a way of life as well. Except, that is, for a most respectful sliver of those who are aware of the nuances, subtleties and tenets of Hinduism. These few people know it is a loosely woven repository of wisdom and spiritual knowledge combined with science, yoga, meditation and astrology. It has survived thousands of years without ever taking to the sword or trying to convert anyone.  And there are many paths to salvation within its teachings.

To Hindus these aware people in the West are born again Hindus in the Western sense of having found new or dormant religious beliefs in adulthood, or are simply reincarnations of Hindus.

It is the oldest religion in the world, going back over 10,000 years, in contrast to Abrahamic religions, all born cheek-by-jowl in the deserts around present day Jerusalem and Mecca, at less than 2,000 years ago.

At its core, the Hindu religion embraces paradox, illusion it calls Maya, redemption, contradiction, all to the utter exasperation of the Western mind. It is very hard for a superficial appreciation of it to make its way in the maze most Hindus proudly embrace, and take for granted since birth.  

So, for most Westerners giving to ‘either-or’ binary thinking, it is just so much horrifying and self-serving paganism, practiced by India’s caste-ridden teeming millions, at least by over 75% of them.

The Abrahamic Muslims, converted largely by force in the subcontinent, Shia, Sunni, Ahmadia, Bohra, Aga Khan’s followers, some 20% of the Indian population, are schooled to think likewise.

If they belong to Opposition political parties, they regularly insult Hindu Gods. This includes many with ostensible Hindu names out to insult the BJP, Hindus and Hindutva, while pandering to their own minority vote banks. This is, after all, a very large number of people, given India’s population is now around 1.42 billion people. Their notions, of ‘animal worshipping’ Hindus that drink cow urine, with 33,000 crore Gods to their one, are also upheld and used by the subcontinental Mohammedan diaspora.

This sort of prejudice is backed to an extent by a smattering of erstwhile subcontinental Roman Catholics and Protestants, perhaps frustrated in their attempts to convert more and more Hindus. Recent legislation against forcible or inducement based conversions has cramped their style. Clamp downs on illegal NGO funding is another flashpoint.

However, this evangelising and conversion does not hesitate to incorporate Hindu symbolism and that of the Sikhs to draw in their prospects. Bhagwa and tilaks are used, Christ and the Virgin Mary are depicted considerably Indianised, congregations are called satsangs.  

All this influences  and confounds the surface skimming White man in his views on Hinduism. He has enough Hindu-hating sub-continentals to take a cue from. The virulence against is even more pronounced amongst the Pakistanis abroad, brainwashed to hate Hindus from birth. So many poison pen pieces are written and TV shows anchored by ethnic sub-continentals.

Most Christian and Muslim preachers in India attempt to look down on Hinduism as just so much sacrilegious activity of unbelievers destined to never be admitted to Heaven. The same song is sung in mosques and churches frequented by sub-continentals abroad in the West.

 But any Hindu will tell these blasphemers, because that is what they are from the Hindu perspective, that it is not at all a good idea to insult or denigrate Ma Kali, even if it is born of ignorance and prejudice.

Karmic retribution, Hindus believe, will certainly follow. This is a grand belief that does not involve the slaughter of the Kafir or non-believer in the Abrahamic style. Not a finger needs to be lifted against the culprit, because he will be made to pay for his sins automatically by the workings of his Karma and the ‘Akashic Record’ of his deeds. Particularly, it is said, the motivations behind them.

The plight that post-Brexit Britain finds itself in these days, its reduction to a middle grade power, that too in terminal decline, many Hindus believe, is because the British are now paying for their atrocities in India during their colonial domination. They are finding difficulty in feeding themselves and paying their day-to-day bills. Karmic retribution, it is known works for centuries, is carried over from past lives. It is also inescapable.

That the British inflicted great hardship on many other countries during their imperial period, the same Hindus believe, will also be counted and duly punished. Of course, the West as a whole, thinks all this is so much esoteric mumbo jumbo, but a few amongst them are not so sure nowadays.

The White man is generally caught up in Ma Kali’s popular depiction. There she is, nude and blue, with a Kharga dripping with blood in one of her hands, her tongue sticking out in error at having accidentally stepped upon her Lord, red and vivid, a garland of human heads around her torso and waist, proud breasts exposed, hair worn long and open. She is standing with one leg on her husband Lord Shiva, lying prone at her feet.

That Ma Kali, sometimes the burning ghats Ma Kali, sometimes worshipped by bandits and thugees, is also Lord Shiva’s generally benevolent consort Parvati as well as Ma Durga, is lost on these people of little knowledge. The same deities with equally valid and myriad forms, is a concept hard to grasp for occidental thought.

To the ignorant and propaganda-soaked White man, brought up on racist ideas, this striking depiction of Ma Kali in her retributive form, is conveniently representative of innate Hindu bloodthirstiness. It can therefore always be used against the Hindu religion and its practitioners. We are meant to be savages beyond redemption because of our regressive religion without borders, beginning, or end. It is another matter that Hinduism spread across a large part of the Asia-Pacific along with Buddhism without any attempt at conquest.

 The White man does not do much better with the Pashupati Lord Shiva in his animal skins and his necklace of cobras, Lord Ganesha with his elephant’s head, Lord Hanuman in his form of the celestial monkey, even Buddha, his ribs showing, meditating interminably under a Bodhi tree.

There’s Lord Vishnu, lying on a raft made of the divine snake Sheshnag, quite often with his wife the Goddess Lakshmi. And another blue-hued Sri Krishna playing his flute surrounded by cows and his band of loving Gopikas. And this is just a sampling, without going into the avataras of each God, and indeed our 33,000 crore deities. There is nothing ridiculous about it but it is too much to expect Abrahamic religions to understand this.

Ma Durga, again depicted in multiple forms with different aspects, is yet another form of Lord Shiva’s consort. She is almost always depicted fighting evil, killing demons called asuras, riding a lion, weaponry in several of her hands. It goes on and on.

Ma Durga’s children- Lord Kartikeya, a bold warrior and epitome of male beauty, Ma Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth, Ma Saraswati, The Goddess of Learning, Lord Ganesha, the learned one, who wrote down the epic Mahabharata as the sage Vyasa recited the verses, is the auspicious God of all new beginnings. He is always prayed to first.

And then there is the deep and abiding belief in reincarnation, the quality of a subsequent life based on one’s deeds, the indestructability of the soul. The concept is shared by spin-off religions like Buddhism and Jainism as well.

The Abrahamic religions have suppressed the doctrine of reincarnation, though the doctrine of the resurrection exists in Christianity to this day.

So what does the West understand when it depicts our Gods on underwear, floor-mats, chappals, umbrellas and so forth, and when in civilised mode, on T shirts?

Sticking to Ma Kali in the main here, it is clear that when the West wants to be particularly malicious about Hinduism, Ma Kali in her retributive form, is the chosen deity. There’s enough blood and gore there to titillate Western audiences.

The irony is, sometimes there are sub-continentals, even putative Hindus, living in Canada, for example, Leena Manimekalai, who depicted Ma Kali with a Pride flag in the background, drinking, smoking, street walking in Toronto, in a film launched at the Aga Khan Museum there. The Museum took the film down after the ensuing outrage from Indian lawyers and others, but the filmmaker remained unrepentant. She proceeded to brazen it out. Its free publicity, after all, for the woman who had made an execrable film, safe in the knowledge that Hindu outrage won’t result in her being beheaded. But the bad Karma that comes from this kind of thing is undeniable and that she will have to pay for.

The Hindu public is agitated also at the constant insults to its Gods in the largely ISI, Qatar and other elements antithetical to India financed Bollywood films. Of late, several have been boycotted involving some of its storied Muslim and Woke stars.

Companies that show Hindus in a bad light, or nudge them towards Islamic cultural mores in their advertisements at Diwali and Holi, such as Tanishq and Fabindia have also faced the brunt of public disapproval.

One of the most pernicious and predatory phenomenons recently is the practice of ‘Love Jihad’ that cold-bloodedly lures Hindu and Christian girls into conversion and often grisly ends thereafter.

A famous Sufi shrine in Ajmer has lost a lot of its Hindu worshippers because of relentless and gratuitous insults to Hinduism, and support in the beheading of a Hindu tailor in Udaipur by  ISI trained  and radicalised terrorists.

Hindu festivals are subjected to Muslim stone-pelting on a routine basis these days, though the converse is much more rare. The same applies to cattle smuggling and illegal slaughtering.

The good thing in a sense is that the Hindu majority has awakened at last, and it is no longer an easy one way street. If nothing else, the enormous buying power of the Hindu is acting as a deterrent.

The latest effort at foreign denigration has come from a Ukraine being slowly demolished by Russia. The perpetrators may be annoyed with Indian neutrality in the Russia-Ukraine War. And so, Let us insult Ma Kali.

Ukraine’s Defence Ministry tweeted an image of Ma Kali over a blast fume and labelled it ‘Work of Art’. Following outrage from Indian tweeters, the Ukraine Defence Ministry did delete it fairly rapidly. What purpose did it then serve?

The concepts of Hinduism are too deep and ancient for these cheap shots to make any difference. However, the problem of hostility to Hinduism, Hindutva, in the only country with a massive Hindu population, under siege to an extent by rapid increases in Muslim population, is going to take a lot of work to set right.

(1,849 words)

May 1^st, 2023

For; Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee