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Centre opposes Mehbooba govt’s decision to withdraw cases against stone pelters – calls it demoralising for security forces

OpIndia Staff
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Centre opposes Mehbooba govt’s decision to withdraw cases against stone pelters – calls it demoralising for security forces

The Modi government has made its view clear over the matter of Mehbooba Mufti led Jammu and Kashmir government’s decision to withdraw cases against about 9,730 stone pelters back in February.

To get into the specifics of the Mufti government’s decision, it was reported that these 9,730 stone pelting cases took place between 2008 and 2017. Besides this the government had also decided to give amnesty to about 4000 individuals accused of “minor stone pelting” incidences over the last two years.

As per a Times of India report, the central government has informed the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that the aforementioned decision by the J&K government would demoralise Indian security forces. The Modi government has also claimed that if the cases are withdrawn, the terrorists would be encouraged to use civilians as shields for their attacks.

Further, it also urged the J&K government to take strong action against the stone pelters to safeguard the human rights of the armed forces.

This view by the Modi government was given in response to a NHRC petition filed by three army kids soon after the Mufti government had announced its decision. The petition filed by the kids of two serving and one retired army official had questioned the let-off, by asking why the armed forces did not get the “attention and empathy of the custodians of human rights”.

Thus as young Indians and the children of armed forces they had expressed concern about the security personnel serving in disturbed areas.

Incidentally such a statement by the Modi government comes just days after a jihadi mob had indulged in rampant stone pelting in Srinagar to target CRPF vehicles.

Prior to this a stone pelting mob had attacked a bus in Srinagar resulting in the death of a young tourist. Before that the mobs had decided to shed all inhibitions by attacking a school bus, which resulted in serious injuries to one child.

India takes a stand : Time tested Indo-Russia cooperation to continue despite Trump’s sanctions

OpIndia Staff
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India takes a stand : Time tested Indo-Russia cooperation to continue despite Trump’s sanctions

In a show of quintessential Indian foreign policy of independence, India has clearly conveyed to the US that Indo-Russian cooperation in the defence sector will continue, including the much talked about deal of S-400 Triumph Air Defence system. India has clarified that it will go ahead with Russia on this particular procurement and will continue to work closely with Russia on matters of defence notwithstanding the recent US sanctions imposed on Russia.

Indian Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while interacting with the press stated that in all of India’s engagement with the US, India has maintained that Indo-Russia defence cooperation has been going on for a long time and the relationship is a time-tested one. Sitharaman furthered by adding that India has explicitly mentioned that the CAATSA cannot impact Indo-Russo defence cooperation relationship.

In January 2018 the US announced a fresh set of sanctions against Russia for its alleged involvement in the U.S presidential elections 2016. The act is called – ‘Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act’.

This act mandates the current US administration to punish countries and entities engaging in a significant transaction with the Russian defence or the intelligence establishment (Section 235). This could put India in a very tight spot as India largely uses Russian platforms for defence and also most of India’s armoury requires Russian spare parts. India also depends heavily on Russia for raw materials and other assistance, ranging from technical to logistical.

That is precisely why The Defence Minister was asked about the status of the S-400 deal with Russia. She replied with an affirmative tone while stating that the long-drawn negotiations have reached the final stage.

“The S-400 deal has been on for a very long time and we have reached the final stage of negotiations. That explains it,” she added.

The deal could reportedly be announced before an annual summit between Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi. The U.S, on the other hand, remains very ‘concerned’ about this deal, with the Chairman of the US’House Armed Services Committee warning that this S-400 deal with Russia may limit the interoperability between both countries armies. The Pentagon is also believed to be ‘very concerned’ about the possible implications of these Russian sanctions on defence ties between India and U.S.

The Road To New India: The Beginning

Ashutosh Muglikar
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The Road To New India: The Beginning

It was February 2018 when I and Maneesh Godbole decided to travel to North East India. The reason: “We dont know much about it.” Work-related travel commitments have always taken me to that part of our country but it was always with a specific agenda that too a serious one and then back to the same old daily grind in Pune.

What always stood out during my earlier visits was the fact that East India is a land of history and unexplored regions and rich culture. North East India has snow-capped mountains, rich and fertile plains envious green cover and a wide variety of rare and exotic flora and fauna coupled with amazing food and people. It was too good an idea to remain just an idea. Thus we went ahead with the planning and execution. ‘If we don’t know about it, let’s find out and help others like us’ was the central idea.

Source: North East portal

The background:

On Twitter, I spend most of my time commenting on government policies, its impact on the country and provide my comments on such issues. Other than this I bring forth my comments on core areas of my professional work and try to simplify things for the masses in the field of economics, finance and taxation related issues. I have always tried to back my opinions based on solidly researched data. Based on this, I and Maneesh decided to leverage our past experience and bring forth some different narrative for the readers via this expedition.

Maneesh being an avid lover of driving cars decided to chronicle his tales focusing only on the journey and focus on roads and highways and ancillary activities thereto. Meanwhile, I decided to study the efforts the present Modi government has undertaken in the North East region and its actual impact on the ground. It seemed to be a right mix for both of us. I will study the impact of governance, Maneesh will focus on the journey and jointly we both focus on the specific efforts of the Ministry of Roads and impact of road infrastructure on the people.

The planning:

As it shaped up we realized that we are the first ones to undertake what can be termed as “Governance Tourism”. We joked amongst ourselves that people travel to see places, monuments and other stuff but we will be travelling to see the impact of governance. Sounded interesting. The other aspects of travel like the food, flora, fauna etc all took a backseat and we immersed ourselves into researching on the works undertaken by the present Government in North East Region since 2014.

We decided to cover as many states as possible and tentative dates were finalized according to our work commitments.

The difficulties:

I personally used to feel that I have info and access to a lot of data and as informed earlier I collect, collate and analyze a lot of it for many years. However, while undertaking this expedition it dawned on me and Maneesh that what we considered as a good foundation was, in fact, a miniscule percentage of the overall issues. The North East regional governance issues are a legacy onto itself. Successive governments in Delhi seemed to have only made empty promises and failed to bring change in these. At least that was the case on paper. This only strengthened our resolve to dig a little deeper. Going ahead we even decided to call our “Team” “Puneri Arka”

That’s when I came across concepts like the “North East Council” the Non-lapsable Central Pool of Resources The Assam Accord and its historical significance etc. I shall be explaining these in my next article because it’s extremely important and central to study the development works in North East Region.

The objectives:

After completing my initial research and discussions with few friends and expedition teammate Maneesh it was time to finalize the objective of what we were planning to achieve. We aimed to keep it simple and very focused.

I will focus on:

  1. Legacy issues plaguing the North East Region
  2. Work undertaken by the current government since it took over the reins in 2014
  3. Impact of the efforts as undertaken in point (2) above on the people of the region.

Maneesh had the singular focus on the travel and documenting the journey itself.

With this background, our planning seemed to be done and we decided to touch upon all the 8 states comprising the North East Region namely Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.

The expedition was by car and the excitement had just begun…..The Road to New India lay ahead.

Paranoia grips Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam as he claims Mumbai police is stalking him

OpIndia Staff
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Paranoia grips Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam as he claims Mumbai police is stalking him

The controversial Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam, known for displaying crass public behaviour and drawing attention for using condescending language for expressing himself, was today caught in a paranoia when he accused the police of stalking him without providing any proof to back up his claim.


He claimed that many Congress activists, too, are facing a similar situation, though the opposition party had not planned any protests against Amit Shah during his Mumbai trip. He tweeted blaming Amit Shah and his party for being scared of the questions raised at them and therefore deploying police in front of his house, fearing protest.


“This is nothing but a violation of citizens’ privacy by misusing police and government machinery against opposition leaders. The BJP leaders are scared of the opposition,” Nirupam said.

As reported by Opindia, Sanjay Nirupam had earlier too got his fifteen minutes to fame for his sexist and misogynist tweet on Smriti Irani after fake news circular was withdrawn. Nirupam was called out by many for his dogmatic remark.


It is rather hypocritical, that Nirupam who on one hand talks about women security and respect, assuring justice to a woman Congress worker who had complained to him that she was molested by her male colleagues in a protest rally in which the complainant was allegedly maltreated, openly degrades a woman(Smriti Irani) by using misogynist tweets to attack her on social media.

This is just one of the instances, however, Sanjay Nirupam has many feathers on his cap. A few days back he was slammed for using vile language against the Karnataka Governor.


After being taken on by Twitterati for his appalling language, Sanjay Nirupam went a step ahead by justifying and defending his derogatory words, which, however, did not create many ripples in the social media considering his habitual offences along similar lines.

Sanjay Nirupam has many times landed himself in dire straits because of his preposterous attributes. A few months back, Reliance Group has served a Rs 1000 crore defamation notice to Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam for labelling “false and baseless” allegations against the company. The company will file a contempt petition against Sanjay Nirupam in the Bombay High Court.

Nirupam and controversy go hand in hand, end of last year too, he was booked for addressing a rally of hawkers in suburban Malad without securing prior permission of the police. A case was then registered against him and he was then booked under sections 143 (whoever is a member of an unlawful assembly), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of an offense committed in prosecution of common object), 37 (co-operation by doing one of several acts constituting an offense) of the IPC.

UP on high alert after letter allegedly by LeT threatens bomb blasts at Hindu religious sites

OpIndia Staff
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UP on high alert after letter allegedly by LeT threatens bomb blasts at Hindu religious sites

The police in Uttar Pradesh has sounded a high alert in the state after a letter allegedly sent by LeT terrorist commander threatened to blow up Hindu pilgrimage sites like the Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura and Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi. According to reports, the letter was sent to the divisional Railways Manager of the Northern Railways by a person named Maulana Ambu Sheikh, who claims to be the area commander for Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The police alert has reportedly stated that the Pakistan based terror organisation might target railway stations at Saharanpur and Hapur on Wednesday and religious places in Mathura and Kashi on 8th and 9th June. The letter reportedly claimed 26/11 style attacks at the above-mentioned locations.

Following the threat, the Intelligence Bureau has also alerted and the state police have been instructed to intensify its belief.  According to media reports, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Anand Kumar has stated that the letter and the threat might be fake but any such threats should not be taken likely and the state police will remain vigilant.

Media reports also state that while the authenticity of the letter is being ascertained, there are massive security checkups underway in state capital Lucknow. Security has also been reportedly increased at the religious places and important public places.

Case registered against serial offender Jignesh Mevani for sharing morphed image of Columnist on Twitter

OpIndia Staff
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Case registered against serial offender Jignesh Mevani for sharing morphed image of Columnist on Twitter

A defamation case has been registered at Pune against Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani for allegedly tweeting a morphed photo of columnist Shefali Vaidya, the Police said on Tuesday. The controversial politician had tweeted a morphed photo of Vaidya with Yogi Adityanath and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar drawing a parallel with a still from the Paresh Rawal-Akshay Kumar starring movie “Oh My God!”

Mevani had tweeted, “Seeing this (picture) I really want to say Oh My God! It has become too filmy. Did art predict real life? Like a film, these three are also big actors.” Mevani had called them ‘Dramebaaz’ as well. However, he issued an apology over the tweet soon after. He said, “I am told that this is a photoshopped image. Apologies for posting it without verification. Deleting my previous tweet now and will be careful in future. We all should be careful about this and whenever we get to know that it is fabricated, we should delete it.”

The Paud police in Pune registered the complaint under Section 500 of the IPC and also under Section 66 (C) of the Information Technology Act 2000. Shefali Vaidya told One India, Jignesh Mevani is no ordinary person. He is an elected MLA with links to the Congress. He cannot use his position and power to abuse, humiliate and bully a private citizen like me just because I am a woman and he dislikes my views. The morphed picture he tweeted was sexist and defamatory and caused a lot of trauma to my kids. I was forced to file a police complaint. I have faith in the law of the land.”

Jignesh Mevani has found himself in a spot of bother previously as well. Earlier in April, he had urged people to disrupt Prime Minister Modi’s rally in Karnataka by throwing chairs. A case was also registered against him for his remarks. More recently, in May, the Gujarat MLA had spread misinformation on Twitter about the death of a labourer. Republic had also aired a video where he could be seen fomenting caste-based violence prior to the riots at Bhima Koregaon. In another incidence, a video had emerged where he could be seen abusing the Police in Gujarat.

Lessons from ‘liberals’: how to go after livelihood of people you disagree with, quietly

Nirwa Mehta
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Lessons from ‘liberals’: how to go after livelihood of people you disagree with, quietly

On a personal level, I am against Twitter boycott calls for products endorsed by celebrities you don’t agree with, just to prove yourself a self-respecting Hindu or Indian or whatever. Because there are people other than that celebrity you disagree with who are associated with the product, and why should they suffer because of one man/woman? Basic empathy towards commoner, just like you and me.

Having said that, when the other side is not playing by the rulebook, for how long should we follow? Recently, someone associated with a website supporting non-left politics was hounded for writing there. A bunch of self-proclaimed liberals, including a journalist associated with a leftist propaganda website and an unfunny, abusive troll masquerading as a ‘stand-up comic’ who uses ‘comedy’ as a new propaganda tool, got together and very silently got this writer removed from this artist line-up where he was associated. No calls for boycotting his shows were made, no one shouted ‘if you want to save democracy, ban this artist’, no one downrated his app.

Another rather unfunny female comedian who took an offence to being called unfunny started claiming how an ‘abusive’ comedian was part of the lineup. She started crying sexism and bullied the comedy space to kick out the artist just because he belonged to the other side of political spectrum. Strings were pulled and he was out. They used ‘sexism’ plank to get rid of someone because of his political views.

No one celebrated his ouster either. They went on with their business of making Modi memes and jokes like any other day. We never see these ‘woke’ feminists call out unfunny bullies masquerading as comics because rubbing these bakchods the wrong way could hurt their oh-so-flourishing careers. Oh, and they won’t even call out another hater and bigot because he’s ‘one of them’ and on the same side of the political spectrum as they are.

Everyone had a bone to pick with a mobile wallet when demonetization was announced by Prime Minister Modi on 8th November 2016. The mobile wallet had issued an ad with PM Modi’s image on the front page of leading newspapers the next day for the bold move. Clearly, they were trying to cash in on the demonetization effect, with cash crush across the nation and ensure people get on their platform for payments. Nothing wrong with trying to take advantage of an opportunity, right? But then rumours were spread that demonetization was brought in only to benefit this particular mobile wallet brand. There are over a dozen such apps, but only this was targeted and everyone raised their eyebrows on it for Modi government being ‘soft’ on ‘some corporates’. Now when the app is again in news for an alleged security breach, everyone is saying how they want to ‘delete’ their accounts. You don’t see anyone leading an online mob to ‘downvote’ the app. They are busy hounding the management associated with this mobile wallet over ‘security concerns’ despite them denying media reports of a security breach. For every denial, they will deny the denial and build a narrative. Building narrative is something they are brilliant at.

For example, a foul-mouthed troll who also likes to identify herself as a ‘journalist’ wrote an entire propaganda material and published it as a book, targeting private citizens and labelled them as ‘abusive trolls’ who give death and rape threats to ‘journalists’, forgetting she herself has displayed bizarre, bordering on psychotic behaviour quite a few times. Coming back, the propaganda material was used by a Rajya Sabha member, bringing down the dignity of the House, when the accused were not present to defend themselves. Armed with parliamentary privilege, the constitution virtually allows the MPs the freedom to malign ordinary citizens as they can not be dragged to courts for their deeds and statements issued on the floor of the house. Hundreds had written a letter to the employers of Rahul Raj, OpIndia’s co-founder, asking them to sack him.  And that is how the Modi supporters were ‘shown their place’.

They’ll make wild allegations, tweet almost libellous stuff, but get away with it because they are in the offensive while you are left either defending yourself or counter attacking them. You forget that you are playing their game. You are not setting the agenda. They know how you will react. They play you to get desired reaction to cry when they get ‘abused’ for ‘speaking out against Modi’. Their taunts will be like, ‘oh, is it anti-national to eat mutton now?’ and you are left defending how even Brahmins in some part of the country eat non-vegetarian food. All this while, they are laughing at your responses and setting the next agenda to keep you busy with your outrages so they could quietly pick on your livelihood, silence you into oblivion.

And they’re winning.

Five top suspected urban Maoists arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence

OpIndia Staff
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Five top suspected urban Maoists arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence

The Pune police on Wednesday arrested five supposed top urban Maoist operatives from Mumbai, Nagpur and Delhi, the Indian Express has reported. Those arrested have been identified as Delhi based activist Rona Wilson, advocate Surendra Gadling, professor Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut from Nagpur and Mumbai’s Sudhir Dhavle.

As also reported by a New Indian Express report, these arrests have been made in connection which the Elgaar Parishad held at Pune’s Shaniwarwada on 31 December 2017, which is believed to have led to the subsequent Bhima Koregaon violence on 1 January.

This conference was held to mark the 200th anniversary of a British victory over Peshwas, which has been spun by leftist historians as a ‘Dalit victory’ owing to the belief that the the British army was supposedly comprised of Dalits and other lower castes while the ruling Peshwas were Brahmins.

The residences and offices of all those arrested were earlier raided around April, with the police confiscating laptops, literature and pamphlets.

As per the Indian Express report, the arrests were made after a forensic analysis was conducted on the evidences obtained during the raids. The police would now seek a transit remand of the five accused to bring them to Pune for questioning.

A Hindustan Times report quotes Pune’s joint commissioner of police – Ravindra Kadam as stating that a case against the accused was registered at Vishram Baug police station. He also claimed that the police was investigating a possible connection between the Maoists and the violence.

Of those arrested, Wilson is a member of Committee for Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP), who allegedly forms a link between urban and jungle Maoists. He is believed to be a close aide of Maoist cum Delhi University professor GN Saibaba who was convicted last year for waging war against India.

Dhawale was one of the organisers of the Elgaar Parishad and was arrested in 2011 for suspected Maoist links but was later acquitted. Gadling a lawyer has been known to represent various Maoists in court cases, with one of his clients being the aforementioned Saibaba.

Professor of English Shoma Sen as per reports has been under the scanner for her links with left wing extremists. Her husband was arrested last year over his suspected connection with Maoists in a 2010 case.

Finally, Raut who was a Prime Minister Rural Development (PMRD) fellow, is suspected to be a link between the urban Maoists and those waging war from within the woods.

Here is why people are trending #BoycottSamsung on Twitter

OpIndia Staff
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Here is why people are trending #BoycottSamsung on Twitter

Priyanka Chopra starrer US TV show Quantico has stirred a controversy after depicting the false narrative of Hindu Terror in its last episode. Indians worldwide have expressed shock and anger over the scene where a terror operative is shown wearing a Rudraksha and Priyanka’s character Alex Parish uncovers a conspiracy by so-called ‘Hindu Nationalists’ to blow up Manhattan that too, in order to frame the terror-exporting country, Pakistan.


Many people had taken to social media to criticise Priyanka for agreeing to do a scene where the false narrative of ‘Hindu Terror‘ has been peddled. People have taken to social media to express their outrage over such wrongful portrayal of Hindu nationalists where there has never been any such attack that is carried out by Hindus.


After no reaction or apology from Priyanka Chopra or the show’s makers, some people in India have started a Twitter trend #BoycottSamsung, it is aimed at boycotting Samsung companies products till the Korean consumer goods and tech giant Samsung removes Priyanka Chopra as its brand ambassador in India.


Thousands of people are using the hashtag and urging Samsung to drop Priyanka Chopra as their brand ambassador. People are even cancelling their already placed order of Samsung goods and sharing the images on Twitter.


Earlier, actor Amir Khan had faced a similar backlash after he announced that he and his wife did not want to live in India because of the rising intolerance. Indian social media users had widely criticised Amir Khan and taken to social media to urge the online shopping site Snapdeal to drop Khan as their brand ambassador. Following the outrage and demands of the people, Snapdeal had decided not to renew their contract with Amir Khan.

Recently leftist actress Swara Bhaskar was too criticised after her Hinduphobic campaign. Twitter uses made #BoycottAmazon one of the top-trending hashtags and Amazon India later deleted their tweet endorsing Swara.

Church organizations backed Christian LDF candidate in Chengannur, why didn’t Hindu organizations support BJP?

Madhavan
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Church organizations backed Christian LDF candidate in Chengannur, why didn’t Hindu organizations support BJP?

You would have heard and read a lot in the media about the result of the by-election to Kairana Lok Sabha constituency, mostly because it was, though expected, a defeat for the BJP. There was another election result announced the same day that, for me personally, was more disappointing than the happenings in Uttar Pradesh. As Sujoy Ghosh explained in this OpIndia article, the result of Kairana may not be a total washout for BJP and there might actually be many positives for the party, in numbers as well as a psychological edge against the combined opposition in the run-up to the next Lok Sabha election. The defeat in Chengannur, however, is another reminder of the hopeless prospects of BJP in Kerala when it comes to winning elections.

Kerala is a state where Hindus are now officially less than 50% of the total population. And the demographic distribution is such that, there are only a very small number of assembly constituencies where the Hindu vote can decide the winner. Chengannur in Alappuzha district is one of those rare seats where Hindus have a comfortable majority (60+%). The Christians, who have traditionally voted in favour of Congress-led UDF in Kerala, also have a very significant presence in the constituency forming about 30% of the total electorate. Among the Hindu castes, Nairs form the majority and the Nair Service Society (NSS), despite it’s stated sama-dooram (equidistant) policy has always provided a tacit support to the UDF.

As a result of its demographic composition, Chengannur has traditionally been a safe seat for the Congress party until the LDF won during the 2016 assembly election. One of the factors that contributed to the LDF’s surprise victory was the spectacular increase in the BJP’s vote share from about 5000 votes in the previous election to about 42,000; just 2000 behind the Congress candidate who was also a 2-time MLA. While a small portion of these increased votes in favour of BJP was due to Nairs and other Hindu castes, a majority of it was due to the support from the Ezhava community. Though Ezhavas have traditionally formed the backbone of the CPI(M)’s vote bank, BJP was able to wean away a part of those votes in 2016 due to an alliance with the SNDP-backed BDJS party (SNDP is the community organization that represents the social and educational interests of the Ezhavas). Unlike the NSS, which has supported whichever front was in power, SNDP adopted a principled stand in support of uniting all the Hindu castes which resulted in the formation of BDJS and an alliance with BJP.

However, the relation between BJP and SNDP has since taken a southward turn. SNDP general secretary, Vellapally Natesan and his son, Tushar (who is also the president of BDJS), have been in a perpetual sulking mode against the BJP. They have accused the party, especially it’s national president Amit Shah, of not fulfilling the promises made during the alliance formation. There have been persistent speculations in the Kerala media about Tushar Vellapally being offered a Rajya Sabha membership by BJP. Not only has this not happened, the party has instead nominated two other Malayalees, K Alphons and V Muralidharan, to the house of elders. Other points of friction have included lack of action in completing nominations to the boards of different Central government organizations in Kerala. As a consequence of these festering issues between the two parties, not only has the BDJS stayed away from the campaign in Chengannur, SNDP is rumoured to have instructed its members to teach a lesson to the arrogant big-brother.

When the results of by-election were announced on 31st May, the LDF candidate won with a massive margin of 20,000+ votes. BJP’s Sreedharan Pillai came 3rd, having lost almost 9000 votes from what he polled in 2006. On the results, Mr Natesan commented that they were just rewards for BJP’s arrogance and Mr Pillai seems to agree with him. A dispassionate analysis of the voting numbers shows that the result was due to the Christian votes consolidating in support of the Christian LDF candidate and the majority Hindu votes splitting 3-way. It also needs to be pointed out that while the BJP plays hardball with the leadership of Hindu organizations such as SNDP/BDJS, it readily rewards someone like Mr Alphons, a Christian, with Parliament membership and a cabinet berth despite the community shunning the party, not just in Kerala but also in Mizoram.

At this juncture, if you are an outsider to Kerala, there is a legitimate question that might occur to you. While the Church organizations totally backed the Christian LDF candidate in Chengannur, why didn’t the Hindu organizations like NSS and SNDP support BJP, the Hindu party? As already explained above, SNDP did come out and support BJP in the previous election, only to be treated like a second-rate nobody by the national party. Also, these community organizations run many educational and charitable institutions in Kerala. It could be very costly for them to anger LDF or UDF which share power in the state. What would they gain by supporting BJP which cannot even put up a strong, united opposition in the state? What protection can they expect from a party that can’t even save its workers from getting butchered by their political opponents in Kerala and Bengal? If BJP has any genuine ambitions of making inroads into Kerala, it is important for the party to refresh it’s alliance formation skills and to remind itself about the transactional nature of these social and political alliances. That is the lesson party can take back from Chengannur to New Delhi.

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