The day was August 11, 2012. The place was Azad Maidan in Mumbai and certain peaceful folks had assembled there to express their dissent. Here is the Amar Jawan Jyoti getting a taste of the delicious culture of dissent in our dear democracy:
Apparently not content with ransacking, arson and showing off their expert dance moves, the rioters proceeded to molest policewomen on duty at the spot.
It should be noted here that the Mumbai Police had received instructions from the highest levels not to interfere with the activities of the rampaging mob. Believe it or not, the Mumbai Police actually received praise from the elite Indian Express for giving the rioters a free run.
Who knew that giving a free run to rioters is the moral duty of the police and something that “heals wounds” and opens “a new chapter”? No wonder that the authors of this article are Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand, two of the most infamous history-sheeters of secularism.
One policewoman who was there at Azad Maidan that August day in 2012 felt outraged. Really really outraged. Her name is Sujata Patil and she came home and poured her angst into a poem.
The secular establishment hit her like a ton of bricks, with even a writ petition! Listen to what the man of melodies had to say about Sujata Patil’s right to pen down a poem:
See how smoothly the liberal establishment operates? Giving a free hand to rioters heals wounds, but a woman police officer who writes a poem expressing her outrage about “izzat lut rahi thi” has to be sacked! In case you are wondering, Sujata Patil did manage to save her job, but only just. She had to tender a grovelling apology.
It is not clear whether Sujata Patil thought of starting a hashtag to put forth her view on the Azad Maidan riots.
Those were different times then. The correct people were in power and freedom of speech didn’t matter as much. Or as Ravish Kumar would have put it, “बागों में बहार थी ” |
How things change! Freedom of speech matters now. Only selectively of course:
Except, the people he refers are not trying to perform heart surgery. They are just exercising their right to express themselves in this democratic system we live in. To exercise the right to free speech, you need no special qualification. You don’t have to be born a certain way, have a certain education, or make a certain amount of money. You just have to be a person. That’s the whole point of free speech. It’s universal. You don’t have to be somebody to exercise it.
Evidently, those who are already “somebody”, or those who think of themselves as “qualified somebodies” don’t like this arrangement one bit.
Evidently, that’s not what the magical Javed saab wants. Let’s not be hesitant to unpack what he is really saying. What he is advocating is a two tier system of speech. The upper tier will consist of people who, in his view, have a certificate to exercise free speech. You know, like a surgeon. The other, lower tier shall consist of persons who he deems “hardly literate” and should not have free speech rights.
We in the right wing always suspected this. But we owe Javed saab a token of appreciation for laying it out so clearly.
The Delhi Police is all set to file a chargesheet indicting JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya for the protest held against the hanging of Afzal Guru on 9th February 2016.
Unidentified protesters had shouted anti-national slogans like ‘Bharart tere tukde honge, inshaallah-inshaallah’, ‘Bharat ki barbaadi tak, jung rahegi-jung rahegi’ and others. The Delhi police in its chargesheet claims that Umar Khalid got anti-India posters made for the event to show solidarity with Afzal Guru.
The chargesheet also mentions forensic reports of about 40 video clips, which prove that anti-national slogans were indeed raised at that protest. Nine non-JNU people (now identified), all hailing from Kashmir, were also part of that protest where anti-India slogans were raised.
The chargesheet would be filed under the section 121 A (sedition) and criminal conspiracy. The section 121 A states that:
Whoever, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards, the Government established by law in India, shall be punished with imprisonment for life to which fine may be added, or with imprisonment which may extend to three years, to which fine may be added, or with fine.
Regarding Kanhaiya Kumar the police has dropped the ball in the Judiciary’s court and asked it to decide whether charges should be framed against him. The chargesheet says that he did nothing to stop the event but fails to explicitly mention that he himself raised anti-national slogans.
This indictment closely follows a clean chit given to Umar Khalid (referred to as ‘KU’ below) by poet and literacy enthusiast Javed Akhtar:
@09_rkg@tuzasanju if KU n Shehla had raised such slogans I would have been on your side but I know these two haven’t raised such slogans
Even the media folk were quick to draw a conclusion that the case against Kanhaiya Kumar had collapsed though the fact remains that it would be decided by the Judiciary
If sedition case against @kanhaiyajnusu has collapsed, will anyone have courage to say sorry? Or ‘desh Bhakti politics ‘ doesn’t allow it?
Umar Khalid has hardly been quiet after the whole JNU incident and had openly praised terrorist Burhan Wani and was all set to speak at Ramjas college in DU, which has now become a drama of accusations and counter accusations.
The findings and chargesheet by the police does however raise the question as to why some people are hellbent upon promoting Umar Khalid – son of a SIMI terrorist and someone who wanted Burhan Wani’s gun to be picked up for keeping the war on – and presenting him as some “nationalist” and “pacifist” figure.
Finally, India’s GDP data for the quarter ended December 2016 is out. October to December 2016 was the quarter which included the demonetisation period, from 9th November 2016 to 31st December 2016. Various “experts” had given dooms day views regarding the demonetisation move:
The commentary was overwhelmingly negative, except for a few bright spots here and there. But most of the above commentary was in the form of abstract, immeasurable comments. To really objectively analyse this commentary, we need measurable predictions. And we did get them. Everybody who knew how to speak in English, began commenting on India’s GDP prediction. Here is what various people and agencies said:
The “economist” former Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh had spoken after a long time, to claim that demonetisation could shave off 2% from the GDP rate.
Ambit Capital, predicted “a distinct possibility of GDP growth contracting in Q3FY17″ and said that the annual GDP growth rate could fall to 5.8 % year-on-year (from 7.3 percent).
An HSBC report predicted that India’s GDP for the December quarter could fall down to 5%. For reference, India’s GDP rate was 7.4% for the earlier quarter, and was 6.9% for the same quarter last year.
Another HSBC report quoted by media suggested that GDP would fall by 1%.
Estimates of Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India pointed to a contraction of 2.5 % of the GDP
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a 6.4% growth rate in the quarter to December.
To cut things short, the GDP predictions ranged from a low of 5% to a maximum of 6.4%. But the final data which came out yesterday proved to be egg on the face of all of the above. India’s economy grew at a healthy 7% in the fiscal third quarter. It was also higher than China’s 6.8 percent growth for the last three months of 2016. India’s GDP rate was also higher than BRICS nations:
Now that the hard numbers have slapped some analysts on the face, the first reaction is pure disbelief. Even GDP numbers are being doubted now, and more such “doubts” will emerge, since the data doesn’t match their predictions.
“I am totally surprised and stunned to see this number. Perhaps this data is not capturing the impact of demonetisation,” said Aneesh Srivastava, chief investment officer, IDBI Federal Life Insurance Co. Reuters, whose poll got the prediction wrong, went on to doubt the credibility of the data. Excuses are being bandied about that the Government will have to eventually revise the data. Congress on its part has even begun trending a hashtag “#ModiFudgedGDP”.
Next, one may expect media hit jobs on the GDP data as well. For example, last year, media reports claimed that India had admitted “errors” in its GDP data. The fact remained though that economic illiteracy had led to this foolish claim, which we had destroyed here.
Lyrics writer Javed Akhtar today voluntary cooked up a storm after calling India’s top sportsmen as hardly literate and “troll”. In all probability, he was referring to Virender Sehwag, who shared a joke and got bullied by the media, and Yogeshwar Dutt, who vocally opposed those making anti-India statements.
The cunning media twisted the statements by both of these as being against Gurmehar Kaur, a 20-year-old AAP supporter and daughter of a martyr, and Javed Akhtar appeared to further that agenda when he tweeted this:
If a hardly literate player or a wrestler troll a pacifist daughter of a martyr its understandable but whats wrong with some educated folks
Apart from Sehwag and Dutt, Phogat sisters too have taken a stand that has gone against the narrative of the mainstream media.
All these sportsmen who have brought numerous laurels to the country, but their different point of view has become too much for “tolerant” brigade that has been on overdrive to “show them their place”. With Javed Akhtar joining the bullies, people on Twitter decided not to take it lying down:
A hardly literate player is a thousand times better than a seemingly refined fanatic https://t.co/cMpn1evWke
Give me a Test cricket triple centurion & medal-winning Olympic wrestler over poets who make “hardly literate” comments demeaning them https://t.co/LH5fJ30aVp
Even Yogeshwar Dutt who was openly insulted, was gracious enough to respond in a matter that showed that he may not have degrees, but was surely better educated in manners and decency:
Digvijay Singh has always had a habit of courting controversies with his statements. Be it the time where he equated Kejriwal with Rakhi Sawant by stating that they both try and expose with no substance or the time where he called Congress leader Meenakshi Natrajan a ‘tunch maal’. He has also waged a long war against the RSS via his elaborate conspiracy theories like claiming RSS was involved in making Bomb factories or appearing at a launch of a book which claimed that 26/11 was a RSS conspiracy. More recently, Digvijay was caught spreading untruths on social media.
His penchant for letting his tongue run loose though seems to have come back to haunt him as he appears to have finally pissed off the wrong people. On 22nd February he tweeted that both the Madarsas and RSS run Saraswati Shishu Mandir schools spread hatred:
Is there a difference between Madarsas and Saraswati Shishu Mandir Schools run by RSS ? I don’t think so. Both spread Hatred.
It did ruffle certain feathers as some were angry over Digvijay Singh comparing Shishu Mandirs with Madarsas and stating that they (SSMS) spew hatred. Others were angry over the fact that he compared Madarsas with Shishu Mandirs and that they (Madarsas) spread hatred. Eventually, one group decided to take him to task:
Hyderabad police registers FIR against Digvijaya Singh for hurting religious sentiments of Muslims with remark against Madarsas on Twitter. pic.twitter.com/aLqyi0SymD
The case was registered under section 298 A of the IPC which covers deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs and was filed by Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT) leader Amjed Ullah Khan.
This tweet of Digvijay was unique for the fact that rarely had Digvijay ever spoken critically about the institutions associated with the minority community and had even praised controversial Islamic preacher Zakir naik in a 2012 video.
One does wonder if this case against Digvijay too falls under the ambit of ‘Growing intolerance in India’ and if it too would merit debates and armchair discussions about the changing times. It also remains to be seen whether the folks at Saraswati Shishu Mandir too would try match the intolerance and also file a case against Digvijay Singh as such a thing seems to be in fashion now a days.
When the RSS had sued Rahul Gandhi over his ‘RSS killed Gandhi’ remark, Digvijay Singh had bravely stood up and reiterated RaGa’s charges. Will he show the gumption of repeating his charge against the madarsas now?
Amrit Hallan, a prolific writer and a content professional was listed as a contributor on Huffington Post till just a few hours back. This is how his profile looked at the website (you can also see the title of his latest article that was published by The Huffington Post):
Silencing of voices – the liberal way.
But right now (at the time of publishing this report), if you tried to click on his profile link or on the link to his latest article, you get an “page does not exist” error.
The Huffington Post blocked Amrit Hallan for writing an article that did not align with the agenda that is being peddled by the mainstream media – that a girl named Gurmehar Kaur is right and what she is saying is the gospel truth, while those against her are all trolls and demons dangerous for the society.
In fact, the article by Mr. Hallan – which we are republishing below – did not pass any judgements on the girl or her thoughts at all. It just critiqued the narrative being built around her activism, and the reactions to that. All the article did was to show how the left-liberal media and ‘intelligentsia’ was hypocritical.
The article just pointed out how the same left-liberal cabal had hounded a teenage girl and humiliated her when she spoke against the leftist lout (our word, not Mr. Hallan’s) Kanhaiya Kumar. And it pointed out how the media presented an SFI goon as victim of violence, while cameras captured him hitting other students.
And that’s it – that was enough for the Huffington Post to not only delete the article, but block Mr. Hallan from writing again.
At this point, let us make it clear; Huffington Post is a private platform and they have the rights to choose what they publish. They also have rights to define their editorial guidelines. Since they did not give any explanation to Mr. Hallan over why they deleted the article, we are republishing it here so that you can yourself conclude what could have triggered it.
In our judgment, this has now completely removed the mask of the mainstream media that claims to be “neutral” and not politically aligned with anyone. By censoring a view that was going against the so-called “left-liberal” crowd, The Huffington Post in a way have betrayed their ideological and political affiliations.
For example, we at OpIndia.com will never publish a typical “left liberal” rant. This is because we have declared our ideological position in writing. We don’t claim to be ideologically neutral. But why do the mainstream media platforms don’t show this honesty? Why do they pretend to be “neutral” when they are definitely not? Because it helps in fooling the unsuspecting readers? Because that’s the best way to spread a propaganda? You decide.
By the way, this is not for the first time The Huffington Post has censored an article. Last week they deleted an article that argued that Trump was right about his comments on Sweden and immigration. Last year, they had deleted an article on Hillary Clinton’s health concerns.
In fact, Mr. Hallan himself is a second-time victim. Speaking to OpIndia.com, he revealed that earlier The Huffington Post had approached him of their own, asking permission to republish his widely popular article “Why I Support Narendra Modi”. He gave the permission, they published the article, and then without any explanation, they removed the article.
Now they have done it again. As they say, once is a mistake, twice a choice.
The article that Huffington Post deleted follows below:
***
Gurmehar Kaur & Blatant hypocrisy of the left-lib intelligentsia
We all have our own political and ideological views and it’s all fine. This is what makes our world diverse, wonderful and chaotic.
Our different opinions often create conflict and when political and financial interests clash, these conflicts turn nasty.
But most of the nastiness originates from the left-lib intelligentsia that never tires of calling itself liberal and inclusive, but is the most illiberal lot. And on top of this, they’re also blatantly hypocritical. They can throw their hypocrisy right at your face without blinking an eyelid and you are left thinking, are they for real? Unfortunately, they are.
Although you can write multiple books compiling instances of hypocrisy among the left-libs, I’m going to talk about the current incident.
Recently a talk was to be organized at Delhi’s Ramjas College, and perhaps just to incite an unrest, the infamous JNU student Umar Khalid, who has multiple criminal cases against him for his anti-national and seditious public utterances, was also invited. Naturally there was an uproar and there was a clash between the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad that didn’t want a student of such a dubious background giving speech at the campus and the Student Federation of India that supports Umar Khalid for whatever twisted reasons.
There was a photo of a student beating up another student. Newspapers like The Hindu published the photographs claiming that ABVP students beat up the hapless and peaceful SFI students, which was proven to be a total lie later on. It was the other way round. The SFI students actually beat up ABVP students and it has been well-documented in posts like these. The actual violence came from the so-called “victims” and it was perpetrated upon the so-called “culprits”. But the left-lib media twisted the entire event to give it a different colour.
As you can see in the image below, the same Mukherjee is seen beating up a student and then claiming in the TV studio that he and his friends were attacked while the police looked on. The image for the shows that he is from the SFI.
After having totally twisted the narrative, nobody from the left-lib media later and said that they had misreported the entire thing. Mischievous hypocrisy at its peak.
The usual stuff happened.
But then, some daughter of a martyred soldier, Gurmehar Kaur surfaced, opposing the ABVP stand and supporting Umar Khalid, in the name of supporting right to freedom of expression. Her picture carrying a paper sheet with the message “I am a student from Delhi University. I am not afraid of ABVP. I am not alone. Every student of India is with me” was splattered all over the social media.
Naturally, as it happens in such situations all sorts of responses began surfacing and not all the responses were appropriate. In fact, some could have even been deplorable. This is the risk of expressing political and ideological opinions on the Internet. It is not acceptable, but the sad reality is, it happens.
The girl first expressed something that goes totally parallel to the discourse favoured by the left-lib intelligentsia and she immediately became the darling of the leftist media and anti-BJP political establishment.
On top of that, she also said how she was being abused on social media and she had even received rape threats. She was immediately called to the NDTV Studios. Issuing rape threats is a serious offence and she should have immediately lodged a police complaint but instead, she decided to give interviews to eager TV news anchors. Another bout of victimhood started in which all the usual suspects came out with heart-wrenching statements of support for the girl.
In between, Gurmehar Kaur even managed to say that her martyred father was not killed by Pakistan but by the “war” between India and Pakistan. This turned into meme that culminated into cricketer Sehwag posting a picture of himself holding a placard that said “I didn’t score two triple centuries, my bat did.”
Such a comment coming from the cricket celebrity who cannot be criticised lightly riled up everybody and on top of that, even Bollywood actor Randeep Hooda endorsed Sehwag’s comment, which further escalated the panic.
It isn’t clear whether the girl has been brainwashed or she really has strong political and ideological opinions, but one thing that clearly stands out is the hypocritical approach the left-lib intelligentsia follows when it comes to recognising victims and abusers. There was a response from Shekhar Gupta decrying the stand taken by Sehwag and Hooda.
Strangely, there was no response from him when this happened:
When the Kanhaiya fiasco was happening, a 14-year-old girl challenged Kanhaiya for a debate. Large-scale trolling of that girl happened from left-lib and AAP supporters. Even the Twitter head couldn’t resist trolling a 14-year-old girl just because she had a different opinion and she had challenged the left-lib buffoon Kanhaiya.
There is always selective outrage. Pin drop silence if something happens and talking about it would be inimical to their sustained agenda, otherwise, turn even a small incident into an international outcry.
This is not a rant. I’m just trying to throw some light on the blatant hypocrisy that takes place among the left-lib intelligentsia in the name of protecting the right to freedom of expression and other such lofty, intellectual legerdemain.
Virender Sehwag’s one tweet has set off a chain of reactions on social media. As reported here, Sehwag poked fun at the message delivered by Gurmehar Kaur with her placards. Actor Randeep Hooda liked the joke, and was eventually targetted by left liberals on social media. He gave them a fitting answer with his tweets. But it did not stop there. Then came the media editorials and reports, which made a villain out of Hooda. Hooda in his defence wrote a long Facebook post calling out the people who were hounding him.
In the midst of all this, when the attacks on Hooda via social media were going on, controversial journalist Rana Ayyub had attacked Haryana, just because Hooda hailed from the state:
@RaisinaSeries haryana ke hain na. Doing his bit for emancipation of women
In response to this crass stereotyping, wrestler Babita Phogat of Dangal fame stepped in to the fight to stop her state Haryana from being denigrated at the hands of compromised journalists:
Haryana ki hi hain hum Phogat sister bhi. Kya jante h aap haryana k bare me . https://t.co/ZWtl5fnEXJ
A flabbergasted Rana Ayyub tried to spin the slap and virtue signalled Phogat to support Gurmehar Kaur and her cause:
bahot khushi hui ki aapne insaaf pasandi ki baat ki. Umeed hai ki aap jaisi haryana ki achiever @mehartweets ke haq mein bhi baat karengi. https://t.co/saezYQrZz4
To which pat came the crisp and clear reply from Phogat:
I condemn rape threats If log iss tarah se dhamki de rahe h to ye bahut hi galat bat h.Lekin m aapne desh k khilaf single word nhi sun sakti https://t.co/ImlEb4dj6c
Phogat did not face the same insults which Hooda faced probably because many victim cards such as sexism, young age etc do not work on her. Phogat also received support from unexpected quarters when singer and music composer Toshi Sabri applauded Phogat’s strong “slap” on Rana Ayyub’s face:
What’s happening to our youth? 1st JNU anti india slogan and now DU. Sad to read and see all these anti India slogans…who is funding them https://t.co/LT7lODxDJD
Sabri would now do well to be prepared for an onslaught from radical Islamists for taking such a stand, given what happened to Zaira Wasim a few weeks back.
Virender Sehwag started the fire, but the media burnt Randeep Hooda at the stake. It began with an innocuous joke from Sehwag. It was an unnamed message which took potshots at the video of Gurmehar Kaur, whose ridiculous messages had been already trolled on social media and he didn’t make any sly references to left liberals or intellectuals or presstitutes etc. He was just plain using his freedom of expression to be witty and funny. Randeep Hooda’s crime was only to endorse Sehwag’s humour, and he was attacked by left liberals from all sides.
As detailed here, all sorts of attacks and charges were levelled against Hooda: He was called a bully and a troll, a B Grade actor, a misogynistic sexist, a BJP stooge. He was even panned just because he hails from Haryana, which doesn’t have the best the sex ratio (although improving). To his credit, Hooda handled all the attacks well. But today, the attacks moved from twitter, to full-blown media articles. The left liberals in the media establishment had come out of the woodwork to persecute and bully Hooda:
Fair to say, the entire left establishment in the media pulled their collective might to attack and brand Randeep Hooda as a bully, a troll, all because he liked a joke by Sehwag, a joke, which poked fun at a leftist agenda.
In response to this, Randeep Hooda put out a Facebook post, to slam the media and put his point of view across. He reiterated how liking a joke by Sehwag, had suddenly been linked to him “instigating hate threats against a young girl, shockingly by the girl herself”. He stated that if she had spoken something on a public platform, she must have the “courage and fortitude to listen to the voices against it”. He firmly said that he opposed any violence or threat to violence:
I have absolutely nothing against her and strongly believe that violence is wrong. Threatening a woman with violence is an even more heinous crime and the perpetrators should be brought to task with the most severe punishment.
He also slammed the people who were using her and said that “people shouldn’t fire their guns from young, impressionable shoulders. You can read the full post here:
Post Script: In the midst of the above “Dangal”, wrestling star (also from Haryana), Babita Phogat too stepped out on social media to slam the left liberal cabal:
Haryana ki hi hain hum Phogat sister bhi. Kya jante h aap haryana k bare me . https://t.co/ZWtl5fnEXJ
A Christian pastor in Kerala has courted controversy after he claimed that girls who wear Jeans and T-Shirt arouse men. Taking it a step further he proclaimed he wanted the erring girls to drown into the sea. The pastor made this statement while giving a speech in Malayalam.
He went on about how such dresses arouse men and boys who then slip into sin. He claimed to quote the Bible and stated that those who provoke someone into sinning should be drowned into the depths of the sea with a rock tied to their body. He also proclaimed that churidars are the best suited attires for women which they stop wearing when Satan enters them.
This statement may lead to some form of an outrage but maybe going by the current trend the pastor can defend himself by saying that he didn’t make the statements the mike did.
This isn’t the first time the Kerala pastors have been in the news for the wrong reasons. In the past, it appears these pastors were “provoked into sinning” after they were reported for sexual assaults and molestations.
Also a women’s dress has long been made a focal point by religious and community leaders. Just recently a Muslim Cleric had slammed the dress of cricketer Mohammed Shami’s wife and in 2014 a Khap Panchayat in UP had banned girls from wearing Jeans and carrying mobile phones. Obviously the former received little or no attention and the latter ensured the gatekeepers of morality went ballistic (rightfully).
It remains to be seen whether this incident too would generate the necessary high decibel outrage from women’s rights activists, feminists, empowered citizens amongst others.
Also this incident sheds light on the dangerous trend of the church and it’s affiliates interfering in the lives of the citizens. In the recently concluded Goa elections it was noticed how the Church had started meddling into politics by issuing guidelines, opposing and outright endorsing some candidates even when a SC ruling prohibits such a behaviour.
BJP’s astounding performance in recently concluded panchayat polls of Odisha could not generate the kind of discussions and analysis it should have in the mainstream media. Primarily because Odisha is one of the states that often falls off radar of the Delhi media, and secondly, the focus was soon shifted to Maharashtra municipal polls and then some contrived drama and violence by leftists on Delhi University.
However, it is an important development that shouldn’t lose focus just due to news cycle. This article analyses the factors that contributed to the rise of BJP in the state.
Let’s first begin by understanding why the ruling BJD (Biju Janta Dal) was almost invincible in the state all these years. Current Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik won in year 2000, and since then he has been winning elections after elections in the state. He was in alliance with BJP till 2009.
Naveen Patnaik’s clean image:
To his credit, there is not a single allegation of personal involvement of Naveen Patnaik in any corruption or scandal in the state. He lives a simple life. He doesn’t drive a fancy car or go on foreign holidays. Just a few months back, BJP’s Dharmendra Pradhan, who is now being seen as someone the party may project as an alternative to Patnaik, had acknowledged Patnaik’s simplicity and said that he was a role model in Indian politics.
TINA factor:
Though the Chief Minister is widely popular, it doesn’t automatically mean that the party won’t face anti-incumbency. However, BJD was lucky as Congress was the only other option available to people till 2009 (when BJD-BJP alliance broke).
Congress did a terrible job as opposition. It is a party marred with infighting, and thus it could never given confidence to Odiya people that they can provide a stable and honest alternative to BJD. Ironically, the Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh left Congress and joined BJD before the 2014 elections.
If the state Congress was divided and incompetent, the central leadership could have taken things in control. However, for some reason, even the central Congress was rarely vocal against Naveen Patnaik. A possible explanation of it could be Naveen Patnaik knowing Sonia Gandhi much before both joined politics.
In BJP too, there was a lot of infighting before 2014. Central leadership of BJP too was soft on BJD as it was hoping to get BJD’s support in 2014, had there been a hung parliament. After all BJD was a much better ally during NDA-1 when compared to other alliance partners (no blackmail politics).
Friendly Media:
Editors of two of the most widely read newspapers Dharitri (Tathagata Satpathy) and Prajatantra (Bhartruhari Mahtab) are party MPs. BJD MP Jay Panda‘s family owns the most watched news channel OTV. Also, most newspapers and news channels depend on ad revenue from the state government to run their business.
With Congress incompetent and local media friendly, the state government had virtually no opposition. As mentioned earlier, the Delhi media hardly highlights any major issues of Odisha, and they see the state politics through their own binaries.
For example, the ‘liberal’ Delhi media believes that Naveen Patnaik is a secular leader who broke alliance with BJP because of Kandhamal riots. It is a lie that has been repeated thousand times. The riots happened in August 2008. BJP-BJD alliance completed five years in 2009. BJD, after realising that it could win 2009 election on its own, broke alliance with BJP. After the alliance broke, Naveen Patnaik had said, “Unfortunately, the seat-sharing have failed. we will be fighting separately.” Why would a ‘secular’ BJD discuss seat sharing with ‘communal’ BJP post Kandhamal riots?
Better governance than its predecessor:
There is a famous proverb in Odia “Nahi Mamu Tharu Kana Mamu Bhala” (Half a loaf is better than none). People who have lived under Congress rule will obviously find BJD better. There was absolute lawlessness, extreme poverty, scandals and corruption during Janki Patnaik’s Congress rule (1980-1989, 1995-1999).
Proactive measures and the relief work done by BJD during Hudhud and Phailin is way better than what Congress govt did during the 1999 super cyclone. People in coastal Odisha can never forget the corruption and incompetence of congress during 99 cyclone.
This is the reason that Congress has failed to come back to power after losing in 2000.
One rupee rice:
Naveen Patnaik has introduced many socialist schemes in Odisha, but his most popular scheme is one rupee rice scheme. Ask any poor who voted BJD in 2014, he will tell you one rupee rice scheme is the biggest reason for his support. Though majority of the subsidy in this scheme is provided by the central government, Congress did nothing to convey it to voters.
So what changed in this Panchayat election?
Governance failures became visible:
Some of the worst disasters of Naveen’s nearly two decade rule has happened in the last year. It is almost like a deja vu of Janki Patnaik era. I am listing a few of it:
September to December 2016: Hundreds of kids died in Malkangiri district of Odisha due to Japanese Encephalitis disease.
Oct 2016: 26 killed and many injured in a major fire accident in a Bhubaneswar based hospital. Many hospitals in city flouted safety norms but administration did nothing about it. Health Minster Atanu Nayak’s wife was working in a college which was run by the owner of the hospital.
August 2016: Dana Majhi, a poor tribal from Kalahandi carried his wife’s body for 10 kilometers when spotted by some local reporters. The image of him carrying the body and his daughter crying next to him is fresh in peoples mind when they went to vote.
July 2016: 19 children died in a single village in a period of 3 months due to malnutrition.
May 2016: Murder of an engineering student Rishi. There is serious allegation of a BJD leader’s involvement in this murder and the investigation has been shady so far.
Sep 2015: 61 infants died with in 2 weeks in a hospital which is a specialist institute for kids (Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Post Graduate Institute of Pediatrics).
Apart from these, last year also saw accusations of some BJD leaders involved in chit fund scam. CBI is investigating and homes and offices of BJD leaders were raided.
What BJP did right to replace Congress as the only option to BJD?
There is no infighting going on in Odisha BJP in recent years. Dharmendra Pradhan is the tallest leader and no other party leader seems to have a problem with it. He can match Naveen Patnaik’s clean and simple image. He is perceived as efficient and hard working. People believe he is doing a good job as a minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas.
This was helped by the fact that BJP leaders campaigned tirelessly during this election. Dharmendra Pradhan and other leaders did multiple public rallies every single day. BJP’s state in charge Arun Singh and national joint secretary (organisation) Soudan Singh worked really hard to build a strong organisation.
The party effectively communicated to the public that majority of the subsidy in the one rupee rice scheme is provided by the central government. BJD marketed another hugely popular 108 ambulance scheme as its own. It was forced to repaint the ambulances after it received a letter from central government asking to re-brand it.
Apart from this, Narendra Modi is hugely popular across party line in Odisha, and the party is benefiting from his goodwill. Demonetisation is also very popular among masses. Almost everyone I knew and spoke to supports the decision. Even BJD MP Jay Panda agrees with this assertion.
What Next?
Naveen Patnaik told his colleagues to wake up to this verdict. He should also wake up to the reality and improve his governance, else BJP can throw serious challenge in the next elections. He also has to act against party leaders accused in the chit fund scam. Chief Minister has the challenge to not only improve real governance, but also the image, which has taken a beating recently.
