Disreputed Indian Elections getting Polarized
Chors & Thugs Seeking Mandate
India has been earning much disrepute in electoral politics in the recent years and decades. The first disrepute has been brought to the name of the nation itself. India is no longer the desired name of this country but hijacked by the congregation of the Chors, Thugs, Scamsters, Extortionists, the Radicals and Community haters. This group of initially 26 political party headed by Indian National Congress has named itself initially as I.N.D.I.A which subsequently is being called collectively as INDIA. A reasonably good details of such Thugs giving a high disrepute to the name of INDIA have been elaborated elsewhere (read “I-N-D-I-A of Thugs? Parts 1, 2 & 3; https://thecounterviews.in/articles/i-n-d-i-a-of-thugs-part-1/; https://thecounterviews.in/articles/i-n-d-i-a-of-thugs-part-2/; https://thecounterviews.in/articles/i-n-d-i-a-of-thugs-part-3/; “I-N-D-I-A Stands Exposed as anti-Hindu”, https://thecounterviews.in/articles/indi-alliance-stands-exposed-as-anti-hindu/; “I-N-D-I-A के पप्पू-वचन : हम हिन्दू-धर्म के ‘शक्ति’ से लड़ रहे हैं", https://thecounterviews.in/articles/hindu-abusers-of-indi-alliance/; “देश के गद्दार ?”, https://thecounterviews.in/articles/chors-scamsters-traitors-of-india/). This is the reason why increasing numbers of citizen wish to call our nation by the name of “Bharat”. Further, some haters of the nation deliberately undermine the four pillars of our democracy esp abusing the national pride abroad (read “Our beloved Pappu and his ‘Foot-in-Mouth’ disease”, https://thecounterviews.in/articles/our-beloved-pappu-and-his-foot-in-mouth-disease/).
Disrepute of seeking votes on religion & Caste Basis
The second disrepute of unfair electoral politics had been brought through constitutional amendments itself where Muslims of the nations were permitted to form “All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB)” in the times of Congress under Mrs India Gandhi as PM in 1973. It consists of 51 Muslim religious bodies or ‘Ulama’ each having 201 individuals to instruct and guide the Muslim community essentially in the personal matters concerning marriage, divorce, inheritance and few others. However, as time passed, they also started verbal and written Fatwas to the community on several other matters that also included electoral choices for the communities. Such electoral Fatwas were mostly in favour of the ruling Congress hence, they didn’t object it. Thus, Muslims under AIMPLB had brought the first disrepute to indulge in the electoral politics that clearly violated the electoral guidelines of the Election Commission of India (ECI). Those Fatwas instructed the Muslim community to “Vote en-mass”. It meant that most if not all Muslims will vote for a party or candidate as instructed by the Fatwas and there started an open “Vote-Bank” politics. It also gave birth to an accepted form of “Muslim appeasement” by the non-Muslim parties and politicians although it is widely acknowledged that Nehru ji had given birth to it (read “विभाजन विभीषिका (भाग-1) और भारतीय धर्म”, https://thecounterviews.in/articles/indian-partition-and-indian-religions/; “विभाजन विभीषिका (भाग-2) और राजनीति”’ https://thecounterviews.in/articles/partition-of-india-fallout-of/; “ विभाजन विभीषिका (भाग-3): एक और विभाजन ? कभी नहीं”’ https://thecounterviews.in/articles/partition-horrors-india-part-3-no-more/; “विभाजन विभीषिका (भाग - ४): स्वतंत्र भारत मेंविभाजनकारी राजनीति”, https://thecounterviews.in/articles/vibhajan-vibhishika-divisive-powers-in-independant-india/).
Although formally practiced by Congress since first election in independent India, Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD), Samajwadi Party (SP), Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) also invested much efforts in such “acceptable mal-practices” of vote-bank appeasement right from the days they were formed. In fact, Lalu Yadav’s party was known as M-Y party in Bihar that polarized Muslim & Yadav votes on unethical give & take formulae. An article in Fair observer published in 2012 provides some insight into this dangerous game ( read “Indian Politics: The Dangerous game of appeasement”, https://www.fairobserver.com/politics/indian-politics-dangerous-game-appeasement/#). It is highly condemnable that some of the Muslim women politicians of Congress like Ms Maria Alam (niece of Salman Khursheed) talked of indulging in “Vote-Jihad” by ensuring that all Muslim votes are cast to Congress or other “Muslim Vote-bank” parties as decided by their leaders by whatever means. Muslims of Bengal, Bihar and Karnataka have demonstrated that they can caste huge sum of ‘bogus votes’ by women hidden under burqa; and if apprehended by police, their men folks will indulge in mob violence to gherao the police station and get them released. Thus, Indian electoral politics became communal and violence-prone in nature several decades before.
The third disrepute in the electoral politics came when political parties were formed on religion and caste basis. Seeking electoral mandate by candidates or political parties on the basis of one’s religion, caste, race, community or language is prohibited. This is a ‘corrupt practice’ that is gradually becoming a norm in the recent decades. There are several parties for Islamic faith as given in the text box below and specific caste lines like Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Nishad Party and the likes of. Besides, there are several other national and state parties which has a secular or other misleading name but appealing for votes on communal lines. For example, Samajwadi party was formed only to garner OBC Yadav & Muslim votes like RJD’s M-Y in Bihar. In Kerala, Assam and J&K, there are several parties having secular/democratic name but seeking Muslim votes.
Failure of ECI and SC to Enforce RP Act 1951
Section 123(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 prohibits candidates or political parties from soliciting votes on the grounds of one’s religion, caste, race, community or language. Election Commission of India (ECI) or The Supreme Court (SC) ought to have taken suo moto notice of such foul practices by several errant political parties BUT failed. The result is before us. Many political parties get their votes on caste & religion lines as well as on the basis of Fatwas issued for Muslims from time to time. This has increased their bargaining power vis-à-vis the Hindu majority whose votes invariably remain divided. The caste and religious planks to vote have diluted the traditional hold of Congress on Muslims. In addition, the poor, downtrodden and underprivileged classes have also realized that Congress party has long ignored their basic needs. This resulted in the desperate Congress party initially joining hands with radical Islamic parties such as Jamaat in Kerala, Furfura Shareef (ISF) in West Bengal and AIUDF In Assam (read “Congress loses Conscience, Allies with Radical Muslims”, https://thecounterviews.in/articles/congress-rahul-radical-muslims-furfura-iuml-kerala-assam-bengal/).
Almost all constituents of I.N.D.I-Alliance have been speaking of carrying out caste census and try to divide Hindus on caste & class-lines as well as inciting Intercaste hatred and creating rifts based on false narratives of their percentage representation in job and falsely making electoral promises of caste-based reservation. It is well documented in the Parliamentary proceedings of past that Congress party always discouraged caste-based representation. Party Presidents of some of such political parties became blatant liars and classified dis-informationists (read “Rahul Gandhi: Best in Fabricating Lies & Dis-Information”, https://thecounterviews.in/articles/rahul-gandhi-the-best-in-fabricating-lies-and-disinformation/). There has been gross decline in the character of leaders of repute such as Mallikarjun Kharge, Salman Khursheed, Digvijay Singh and the likes of, indulging in abusive languages, character assassination and frank lies. Mr Kharge is often trolled on social media for licking his own stinking spits with the starting of lies in the recent electoral process in India (read “'पप्पू वचन' : वास्तविकता वनाम झूठ और दुष्प्रचार”, https://thecounterviews.in/articles/pappu-vachan-lies-disinformation-in-politics/).
A clear violation of electoral code was indulged by Mamata Banerjee’s TMC on the verge of losing her 2021 election after 2nd round when she tried to falsely frighten the Muslims of the state of the consequences of NRC and deportations if BJP came to the power. She also pleaded with the other ‘Muslim appeasing’ political parties like Congress and CPI who had no chance of winning any seat, to instruct their voters to vote for only TMC and avoid any split votes that could brighten the chances of BJP win (read para 7 of the “BJP’s Take Home Lessons from 2021 Bengal Election”, https://thecounterviews.in/articles/tmc-goons-brutal-cadre-mamata-banerjee-west-bengal-election-2021/). She was fortunate that BJP didn’t have proactive Constitutional expert lawyers in the likes of Sibbal or Singhvi who could have dragged TMC to the Supreme Court to face a certain disqualification for the electoral impropriety committed. A clear plead for votes on communal basis by a non-Muslim leader was made for the first time in that election by Mamata Banerjee although Muslims have often voted en-mass following a Fatwa worked out by ‘vote-bank’ appeasing parties discussed secretly. It may be recalled that even BJP had tried to garner Hindu votes following ‘Rath Yatra’ by Mr Advani in 1990 but unlike Mamata, he had never pleaded Hindus to vote for the party.
Open appeals to Muslim voters were first indulged by Congress party in 2004 Lok Sabha elections when fearmongering by Sonia and Rahul Gandhi was indulged citing 2002 Gujrat riots, later repeated in 2007 and 2012 State elections. In 2017 Rahul Gandhi created a new falsehood in Gujrat provincial election that BJP was anti-Dalit. That was the first caste-based divisive campaign by Congress taking advantage of vocal ‘anti-BJP stance’ by some OBC and Dalit leaders like Jignesh Mewani, Alpesh Thakur and Hardik Patel. Although near 65 yr rule by Congress party at the Centre had been largely neglecting Dalits of the nation, in the election times, they try to project themselves as savior. Congress under Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi has been repeatedly playing this trick in both the Union and State elections.
Inability of BJP-led NDA to Counter Congress Falsehood
Coming back to the issue of divisive electoral malpractices, BJP was caught unaware of the Congress onslaught of “Lies & Dis-information” by Rahul Gandhi-led I.N.D.I.A block in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The beauty of the campaign was that each prominent leaders of various parties started uttering those #Pappu_Lies just like puppets and BJP had no effective countermeasures. Rahul Gandhi misled the entire nation carrying a fake red book in his pocket that he mentioned as Constitution of India. It was the largest Fakery of Electoral Campaigns by Congress led I.N.D.I-Alliance (read “Rahul Gandhi: Best in Fabricating Lies & Dis-Information”, https://thecounterviews.in/articles/rahul-gandhi-the-best-in-fabricating-lies-and-disinformation/).
Now that BJP has adopted some countermeasures in the form of slogans like “बटेंगे तो कटेंगे” and “एक हैं तो सेफ हैं” in the Maharashtra and Jharkhand elections against the “Lies & Dis-information” by Congress-led I.N.D.I-Alliance, opposition parties are crying foul (read ““बँटोगे तो कटोगे" का तात्पर्य...”, https://thecounterviews.in/articles/if-divided-hindu-will-be-cut/). Although the call seems to caution prevention of Hindu votes getting divided, the words per se don’t appear to violate ECI norms. BJP has not asked the Hindus to vote for it. On the other hand, there are documentary proof of many Muslim community leaders issuing directives/Fatwas to their Muslim voters to vote only for I.N.D.I-Alliance. Maulana Sajjad Nomani in Maharashtra, Marathi Muslim Seva Sangh seeking Muslim votes in Maharashtra and some Muslim NGO indulging in similar acts in Jharkhand’s Lohardaga were reported in many social media. This election is surely the most polarized and divisive of all times. Will BJP-led NDA be able to create fear among Hindu electorates in the coming elections of the Congress-led I.N.D.I.A block encouraging influx by illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya Muslims that has been altering the religious demography of the nation, remains to be seen. If they do, it will be a major plank for BJP to pin the opposition on to the mat.
The Bottom Lines
The bottom lines of all above happenings are that there is a clear trend among political parties to get Muslim and backward-class Hindu votes by hook or crook. That is why “Muslim-appeasing” political parties like congress, RJD, TMC, NCP and Samajwadi are thriving. In the recent years, Rahul Gandhi has gained massive expertise in fabricating political “Lies & Dis-information” to which BJP-led NDA has been far lagging with any effective countermeasures. Undoubtedly, our nation is getting more and more polarized on religion and caste-lines in each electoral campaign, the most of which are the “Lies & Dis-information”.