So Narendra Modi has been re-elected to power in Gujarat.
I used to support the BJP, at least the secular part of its stated agenda<\/i> – a Uniform Civil Code, abolition of Article 370, a tough stand against terrorism. Only in the twisted world of Indian politics could these policies be called the “Soft Hindutva” line.
I had also hoped that they’d run the economy better than the Congress and the others did. I’d have forgiven them backsliding on the UCC and Article 370 if they had done at least done that. After all, I am Hindu and male. The UCC is rather low on the list of my priorities. (And the people who should be asking for one – representatives of Muslim women – are pointedly silent on the question). Article 370 is really a non-issue. I am in any case in favour of giving more powers to states. I thought the BJP was, too.
What is really bugging me now is not just that the BJP shamelessly failed to deliver on any of these promises, but in Gujarat used its very failure to govern as a reason to ask for votes. They<\/i> failed to protect Gujaratis from getting burnt in Godhra. They<\/i> failed to prevent the riots which killed hundreds of Gujaratis – in fact, their o?n goons carried out the pogrom. And they<\/i> are the ones who asked for votes on the basis of Gujarati pride. The BJP government at the Centre has capitulated time and again to the terrorists – and they asked for votes on the basis of nationalism.
Given that by a BJP voter’s own standards the BJP has failed, why did they turn out in large numbers to vote for the BJP?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So Narendra Modi has been re-elected to power in Gujarat. I used to support the BJP, at least the secular part of its stated agenda – a Uniform Civil Code, abolition of Article 370, a tough stand against terrorism. Only in the twisted world of Indian politics could these policies be called the “Soft Hindutva” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ravikiran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ravikiran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ravikiran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ravikiran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ravikiran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ravikiran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ravikiran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ravikiran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ravikiran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}