-TheWire.in BJP has now realised that Hindutva and identity politics by themselves are not enough to win. In post-Mandal India, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s attempt to build electoral alliances tying upper castes and non-dominant OBCs is not new. This is a strategy the party used in the mid-1990s across North India to resist the consolidation of pro-Mandal parties and prevent the formation of large coalitions of “backwards”. Mid-1990s onwards, the BJP distributed...
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UP polls: Understanding shifts in caste, religious identities -Bhanu Joshi and Neelanjan Sircar
-Hindustan Times Hindu-Muslim polarisation is not as outwardly visible despite being an everyday reality. Many Jats, who once openly voted on the basis of a “Hindu identity”, are fighting the election side-by-side with Muslims due to the Samajwadi Party (SP)-Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) alliance Pichli baar leher thi. Hum bhi leher mein doob gaye. (There was a wave last time. We also drowned in it.) In September 2013, the Muzaffarnagar riots killed 60...
More »‘Suraksha’ plank finds particular resonance in Uttar Pradesh -JP Yadav
-The Telegraph For the better-off upper castes, it has acquired the context of the safety of their sisters and daughters Bareilly, Rampur: Sitting outside a small medicine-cum-stationery shop at Khirka village in Bareilly district, Rakesh Gangwar, Ramdas Kashyap and Puranlal Gangwar unhesitatingly declare their support for the “phool” (lotus). Each lists the reasons almost in the same order, as though they had prepared beforehand for the question. The top reason for all three —...
More »Explained: Rise of small parties and their electoral significance in UP polls -Arvind Kumar
-IndiaToday.in Small and marginal parties play a crucial role in political arena of Uttar Pradesh. Here is a look at their rise and impact on UP elections. The BJP had won the 2017 Assembly Election of Uttar Pradesh with the help of alliance of small and marginal parties such as Apna Dal and Suheldev Rajbhar Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP). These alliances had enabled the party to mobilise voters from the most backward...
More »Rights of the weak, duties of the powerful -Rajeev Bhargava
-The Hindu A complaint of undue emphasis on rights creates the suspicion that citizens are being disempowered Rights and duties are conceptually linked to one another. There are no rights without duties. If a person has the right to something, it necessarily implies that someone else has a corresponding duty to ensure that it is not violated. For example, if an individual has a right to free speech, then it is the...
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