“Batenge toh katenge”, or the more positive-sounding “Ek hain toh safe hain”, is part of the BJP’s poll lexicon this Maharashtra campaign. The party has included the promise of an anti-conversion law in its manifesto, despite ally NCP’s unease over a Hindutva agenda, and is telling farmers that under the Congress, their land could be taken over by the waqf board.
In the past few days, since a resolution was passed by the newly elected J&K Assembly seeking restoration of special status for Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP has reopened the Article 370 chapter against the Congress. Other party leaders have drawn a line linking the Congress to the Razakars of the pre-Independence Hyderabad State.
And on Tuesday, a video surfaced of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, not usually known for such language, targeting the AIMIM with an abusive reference to Aurangzeb and a promise to capture Pakistan.
This ramping up of the BJP’s Hindutva narrative comes on the back of a long couple of months in Maharashtra when an organisation called the Sakal Hindu Samaj, with the backing of senior BJP leaders, held “anti-love jihad” rallies across the state. Closer to elections, top state BJP leaders including Fadnavis added “vote jihad” to the poll narrative, in an undisguised attack on minority voting patterns.
In Versova seat of Mumbai, Fadnavis said, “The love jihad, the land jihad should be countered by dharma yuddha (religious war).”
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com. Read the full story here.
