Even as Congress leaders, including senior party leader Rahul Gandhi, hold forth on uniting India under their boondoggle project ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ and insist on the opening ‘Mohabbat ki Dukan’, the situation on the ground is a far cry from the glib promises made by the party leadership.
In Congress-ruled Karnataka, a sectarian conflict might be in the offing as rabid pro-Kannada groups recently held demonstrations at the famous Chikpete market in Bengaluru, blaring abuses on speakers and targeting Marwari shop owners because their establishments carried signages with English in bold letters and Kannada in small font.
In Bengaluru recently, a raft of pro-Kannada raised slogans and heckled the Marwari shop owners because signages on their shops had names written in bold English while the Kannada font was small.
#Karnataka
— Nabila Jamal (@nabilajamal_) December 22, 2023
Pro kannada groups driving around famous Chickpete market in Bengaluru,blaring abuses on speakers & heckling Marwari shop owners..
Reason? Cuz their signages have English in bold & kannada in small font!
Marwaris in Karnataka speak fluent kannada.. and are more… pic.twitter.com/FNWCLrcYqw
As per India Today journalist Nabila Jamal, even the police officials at the spot did little to stop the bullies and were seen giggling at the heckling of Marwari shop owners.
The brand of regional chauvinism evokes the times of Shiv Sena under Thackerays, which played the Marathi Asmita (honour) card in Maharashtra when north Indians were unconscionably targeted for their lack of ability to converse in Marathi.
However, after successive poll drubbings and shifting political dynamics, Shiv Sena had to discard its regional chauvinistic approach that wasn’t paying off the dividends expected by its leadership.
The Congress, though, seems to have made exploiting the fissures existing within the society and creating new divisions its operating principle ahead of the 2024 general elections. It had recently played the caste card, making caste census an election plank in the recently concluded assembly elections. Rahul Gandhi, too, was vocal in playing up the caste card during campaign hustings.
But the results of the elections, which saw BJP registering a resounding victory in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh, have demonstrated the limitations of using caste divisions and regional chauvinism to revive one’s political fortunes. The Congress party would do well to nip the Frankenstein monster it is rearing in Karnataka or witness a decimation similar to what it saw in 2019.
