Late arrival
Iftar has become much more than just a Ramazan ritual. It has been used by politicians and their parties to further their interests by organising sumptuous feasts on the occasion. Iftars are used as a show of popularity, strength, political inclination and so on. The Congress threw an iftar earlier this week at its Bihar headquarters in Patna, inviting all of the ruling Grand Alliance members, including the chief minister, Nitish Kumar. Normally, iftars are marked by a short prayer followed by the breaking of the fast. Those invited make it a point to arrive well ahead of time. While Nitish accepted the Congress’s invitation, he arrived around 20 minutes late. He chose to attend an iftar party hosted by the Janata Dal (United) member of the legislative council, Ghulam Gaus, first. With a large number of invitees, including many from the minority community, left waiting for the CM, leaders of the Grand Old Party seethed with anger. “This was unthinkable. By arriving late, Nitish showed how much importance he accords to our party. His late arrival was an insult to us despite the fact that our party has expressed its support for his efforts to bring the Opposition parties together,” a senior Congress leader present there said.
Tight spot
The rebellion by Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in Karnataka over the denial of tickets in the assembly polls reflected poorly on the party leadership. The BJP claims to be a disciplined force driven by a powerful ideology. But the strife and desertions in Karnataka have dealt a blow to this image. Although the party president, JP Nadda, is directly responsible for the affairs of the party, it’s actually the writ of the prime minister, Narendra Modi, and the home minister, Amit Shah, that runs the party. Whispers have it that Nadda and the general-secretary (organisation), BL Santosh, could be held accountable for what happened in Karnataka. Modi and Shah want the Gujarat-model replicated across states. In the Gujarat polls held recently, the party had dropped many senior leaders and sitting MLAs. Yet, there was negligible protest. Achieving this is a daunting task for Nadda.
Stern message
The Odisha CM, Naveen Patnaik, has sent a strong message about his party not being afraid of the BJP’s tactics of playing the religion card to whip up Hindu sentiments. Backed by the BJP, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad had called for a 12-hour bandh in western Odisha to protest the state government’s alleged anti-Hindu policy and its failure to stop the killing of a tribal youth during Hanuman Jayanti in Sambalpur. The ruling Biju Janata Dal responded by organising candle rallies on the same day across the state to counter the saffron parties’ attempt to politicise the issue. It warned the saffron outfits not to vitiate the peaceful atmosphere of the state by playing the religion card. The BJD made an oblique reference to how it had snapped its 11-year-old ties with the BJP in 2009 just before the general elections when it found the saffron outfits had indulged in large-scale violence following the murder of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati in the Kandhamal district.
Tricky equation
There are recruiters all over Bihar these days, vigorously scouting for parties that may join the saffron army in 2024. Those interested are quickly dispatched to Delhi to meet the commanders and learn about the terms and conditions. However, there has been no success with the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) leader, Jitan Ram Manjhi, and the Rashtriya Lok Janata Dal founder and former Union minister, Upendra Kushwaha. They met Amit Shah in Delhi but did not commit to aligning with the BJP. Apart from the two factions of Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party, the BJP has no other ally in Bihar. The ruling Grand Alliance poses a formidable challenge on the 40 Lok Sabha seats with the JD(U), the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and HAM(S) standing together. Combined, they should be able to give a resounding thrashing to the BJP in the polls.
Stay alert
The education minister of Kerala, V Sivankutty, was in for a shock when his department discovered a WhatsApp message that was doing the rounds promising free laptops to all students in the state. The message bore the state emblem and thus prompted receivers to click on the hyperlink in it and enter their personal details and mobile numbers. The minister lost no time in declaring it as fake news since the government has no such plans. Neither Sivankutty nor the Left government wants to be embroiled in a new controversy. The message, though, was a clear case of phishing.
Footnote
Most politicians are superstitious, especially during elections. BS Yediyurappa was no different when he rode his lucky Ambassador to take his son, BY Vijayendra, to file nomination papers. Yediyurappa had gone in that car to file his own nomination papers when he successfully contested for the first time decades ago. He then went on to be the CM four times until his party forced him to step down in 2021. Shikaripura being his home turf for several decades, the Lingayat strongman sure wants his son to take the first right step into electoral politics.
