BJP: Playing good cop, bad cop

With the general elections in India underway and polling in many constituencies already having taken place, the political temperatures have risen like the Indian summer and the electoral campaign by different parties has reached a crescendo. This is one of the most fiercely contested and polarized elections in India in recent memory. The two major political parties, Congress and BJP have not only taken jibes at each other but this time, personal attacks have also been carried out by the leaders of these political parties. Not to be left behind, even regional parties like Samajwadi Party in UP have also indulged in petty politics throughout its campaign.

But of all the major political parties it is the BJP which has appealed to the voters many a times by indulging in a highly communal and polarized language. Not only have its own leaders been indulging in this, but also leaders of the wider Sangh Parivar. In some of the most vitriolic statements uttered recently, BJP leader Giriraj Singh said that those opposing Narendra Modi should be sent to Pakistan. VHP leader Praveen Togadia said that Muslims should not be allowed to buy land in Hindu dominated areas. There has been criticism of these statements from various quarters, but BJP itself has been very muted in its condemnation of these highly provocative statements. BJP has distanced itself from giriraj Singh’s statement but has not acted against him.

One should read these statements in the backdrop of BJP and Modi’s election campaign, which was supposedly being run on a developmental agenda and BJP, for its part tried to play down its core Hindutva ideology. Modi has been projected as a ‘’development ‘’ oriented leader who could be decisive. But it was apparent all along that BJP and Modi had never really divorced their polarizing Hindutva ideology. On the one hand, the entire PR machinery working for Modi tried to project him as someone who could be decisive when it came to making policy decisions especially with regard to clearing proposals and even taking on India’s neighbors. But BJP clearly knows that if it has to seriously make a claim to forming the next Govt in Delhi, it needs to take a big chunk of seats from the politically most important state of UP. BJP and Modi have been playing their electoral arithematic well: project Modi as a ‘’development’’ oriented leader among its urban upper middle class voter base, who are fed up the indecisive UPA leadership, but at the same time play its core Hindutva card subtly in the Indian hinterland. It is interesting to note that while these inflammatory speeches and statements have been made, Mr Modi has been completely silent and hasn’t even shown his disapproval of these statements including the inflammatory statements made by his right hand man Amit Shah. Having Amit Shah manage Modis electoral campaign had given a fair indicator of BJP’s reliance on its divisive Hindutva ideology. It seems that BJP is playing the good cop, bad cop in its election campaign to appeal to a wider audience to help it attain power in Delhi.

Not only has the BJP and other political parties most notably SP been reluctant to reign in their hate mongers, but the Election Commission of India too has been too lenient to deal with these politicians. One does not expect political parties to stop some of their leaders from making provocative speeches if they think that it will get them votes, but is important for the Election Commission to take serious note of such statements and show them their right place. As long as the Election Commission will act as a toothless tiger, political parties will continue to have a field day.

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