Lessons from the Most Communal Election in Indian History

This newsletter will be different. It is an introspection.

A clear look at how things have played. And call it the way they are.

When the question comes up between My Small Interests Vs Survival of my coming generations, the answer is quite clear.

Sherlock Holmes tells Dr. Watson an elemental truth.

The critical part is to discern what in the current situation can be termed as "impossible" and what is "improbable".

Once you have done that, the future direction will be clear.

Please Contribute to Drishtikone

What we do takes a lot of work. So, if you like our content and value the work that we are doing, please do consider contributing to our expenses. Choose the USD equivalent amount in your own currency you are comfortable with.

A Voice Gaslighted and Drowned

The bigotry, the hate and the gaslighting. It has been a predominant part of our lives and upbringing. Until now, we thought it was normal. That is how it should be.

We needed to be hated because we Hindus were created to be hated and put down. No one, since India's independence told us, that we too had the right to a voice.

For, every time we opened our mouths and spoke, society instantly became undemocratic. Nothing would be different - only our voice in the air and suddenly democracy would fall!

THAT is the world we grew up in.

Imagine when our voice actually means SOMETHING!!!

And in the case of Kangana Ranaut, it should have.

During those months of 2020-21 when the so-called farmers had blocked the streets of Delhi for a trumped up and synthetic argument against laws that were created for the good of farmers, violence and religious radicalism were growing.

It peaked on January 26th, 2021 when the Red Fort was attacked by the radical Khalistan-sympathizing farmers.

They were not peaceful. They came with arms and ammunition to kill the law enforcement people who were on service that day.

No country and society should ever have to deal with a situation where those responsible for law enforcement are threatened from maintaining law and order.

But in India, any action against anarchy and violence was held as against its democratic credentials.

However, when Canada was faced with the Truckers blocking the capital, the government was justified by everyone for declaring Emergency.

The government went ahead and froze all financial assets of the truckers who were protesting. Their banks, bitcoins - everything was blocked.

Not a murmer.

When Kangana Ranaut shared her angst at the so-called Farmer's protests, Diljit Dosanjh went after her with a vengeance.

If one had looked at the situation on Delhi's borders in context of India's agricultural output, one would have known that they weren't farmers.

We should have asked an important question that no one asked.

But the whole event was still considered to be justified and a battle for the right of the farmers. Even when no real farmers were sitting there while a record Rabi and Kharif crop was being grown in India that year!

The world media, bigoted as it is, had its own religious agenda to play up while mayhem was unleashed on India in general and Delhi in particular.

People were killed.

An innocent man was killed and his body decapitated. Yet, there were enough Khalistanis in and outside India who had justified that barbarity in the name of religion.

This one tweet stands out where those who had committed that barbarity on an unsuspecting person were eulogized and promised protection.

Something that was repeated when the CISF jawan Kulwinder Kaur assaulted Member of Parliament Kangana Ranaut.

Equating Freedom of Speech with Violent Assault

To punish Kangana Ranaut's Freedom of Speech - which she was fully justified in exercising, Bollywood's lately struggling music director Vishal Dadlani promised a job to the CISF jawan who assaulted Kangana.

Why?

Because he did "absolutely understand her anger". Enough to hit someone for what she said?

And then he goes about deliberately distorting Kangana's name.

Make no mistake - Dadlani was indulging in hate propaganda.

Let us look at it with complete clarity.

Why did he do that?

Because Dadlani sees Kangana as an enemy because of his political and ideological hate-filled mind-set. He has a particular idea of the world. In that world, dominated by entrenched powerful men like him, Kangana against all odds without losing her voice - with her forthright ways - has made a place for herself as probably the only actress today who can carry an entire movie on her own strength. Without any need for music or other peripherals.

That is a tough one for a closet misogynist that hides deep inside Dadlani.

For, let get one thing be clear he finds the CISF lady an extension of his own desired action in her deed that he seeks to indemnify.

Quite simply - it was a "Proxy Crime".

The ones who sought to finance and indemnify the assaulter sat much further away from the scene of attack. It is because of that ecosystem, it was ok for a para-military jawan to break the law and attack an Indian Member of Parliament.

This was not the only 'message' sent to the BJP.

Connections are created ad even when RSS has no history of hatred and violence, it is characterized so because it has served every tyrant in India.

The next message was to a young BJP candidate Annamalai. He is the leader of BJP in Tamil Nadu. His goal was to campaign for BJP, which he did superbly.

But the anti-Hindu party cadres of DMK have targeted him with multi-million Rupees court cases and now have sent a distinct message after his loss in an election that was controversial in how it was held.

Annamalai is a small farmer's son. His parent rear goats and sheep and other farm animals. The hate-filled cadres took a goat, hung his picture around its neck and then beheaded it.

Another Proxy Crime. With a clear unmistakable message.

A Remarkably Communal Election

This election was decidedly one of the most communal elections in recent history.

The goal and mantra of this election was very clear:

This is despite Modi's appeal to the Indian Muslims and his acceptance with the Islamic countries. As Gupta brings out in his video.

The goal was to defeat a Hindu BJP. Irrespective of the fact that Modi has always ensured that Muslims get an equal bite of the development pie and that their interests are always preserved. All that didn't matter. What mattered was that the BJP was called a Hindu party.

This is what even Arnab Goswami brought out as well.

In fact, calls were made to the faithful by the mosques and the mullahs to vote en-block to defeat the BJP. India-TV investigated this claim and found it to be true. Rajat Sharma shared videos with respect to it on his show as well.

Let us look at what BJP has actually done for the Muslims in India. The answer is - a lot! More than any other party has done during their rule at the center in India or in any of the states.

Here is a hard data argument for that.

So is BJP really "anti-Muslim" as it was made out to be? The answer based on hard data facts is a big NO!

Then where is the rub?

The Churches in India sent out decoded messages to vote against the BJP (BJP's own publicly articulated interpretation notwithstanding).

The die was cast.

Mosques and Churches were weaponized.

Against what they perceived as a "Hindu party". Not because this party had not given transparent development benefits to all communities. But because it was a Hindu party.

In fact, there is enough evidence that even Modi's BJP was guilt-tripped not to talk up the Hindu needs and constantly indulge in soft-appeasement of the minorities. Watch this another gem from Anand Ranganathan.

The bottom line is clear.

Public semantics and spin notwithstanding, the fact is that the push was to have a clear mandate against the BJP on the backs of a mass and consolidated minority vote.

As Shekhar Gupta alluded to in his video - this election was decided by the Minority vote.

In that sense, it is the beginning of the end of the Hindus as a relevant community in Indian politics.

Not because Hindus have not cared for the good of other communities, they have. But because they are the "others".

Compared to what has happened in Pakistan and Bangladesh which were carved out of the same population, one can see how change in one variable has meant the death knell of the Hindus there—Versus the growing influence of the Muslims in "Hindu" India.

The fact is that a Hindu India is the only society where every denomination of Muslims and Christians apart from targeted communities like the Jews can live with complete safety and not be targeted.

So let's cut the spin woven by the rhetorical semantics of the various "opposition" parties and groups - and say it the way it is:

BJP is just a proxy. Any group, any congregation, and any collaboration of the Hindus in order to have a voice will be targeted. As it always have been. In the run-up to the partition, the Hindu voice was thrust on Congress Party. Because a Muslim Pakistan was not possible without delegitimizing the Congress Party.

This musical chairs of who is a Hindu proxy keeps going on. The targets change. The protagonists change. Hindu proxy of one era becomes the Muslim champion of another. Until he too is dumped. But what remains unchanged is the spectacularly communal contours of the goal of these forces.

Meanwhile, as we had discussed in our last newsletter, the results of this election do betray a sense of "pick and choose" intervention by some extraneous forces.

Please do read it.

The arguments being force-fitted now to explain the bizarre results seem rather self-serving for those very forces.

So, we must deal with this issue.

The Future Now?

Here are some important lessons and action points for guarding against propaganda by the forces that seem to have interfered with the Indian election results.

You are on the Menu.

Clever, wicked, and smart wordsmithing notwithstanding. This communally run election should teach one thing to the Hindus. You are on the menu. Only because you are not on the table.

If the various political forces are unabashedly consolidating the votes of every community, whether in religious events or within Churches and Mosques, while the temples and priests stay away from political messages, then it is time to evaluate the communication channels that the community needs to create for its survival.

The only way Hindus can be on the table to discuss the evil turn that a bastardized meaning of Secularism has taken is to structure a comparable action + communication strategy. Without that be ready for another genocide.

Explaining Narratives are Psy Ops in Motion.

Many arguments have narratives have come out. Ayodhya residents are lesser Hindus. UP Hindus have betrayed. Amit Shah's gang is out to bring Yogi Adityanath down. And many more. No matter what the narrative, the main goal is to keep the Hindu masses confused and clueless. One needn't be.

The educated and the articulate should avoid falling victim to this trap. The trap of creating a debilitating debate within the community. Yes, an evaluation is important to identify and handle the weak links. But let us not villainize people and groups within the now marginalized Hindu community as a group.

Instead, create structures and ways to bring people together. Inclusivity is the need of the hour. Not further divisions.

No matter what the narrative floated, keep your eye on the larger prize and goal. Unity against adversity.

Action on Caste

We have written three detailed articles on the Caste question.

Please check and read.

The onslaught on Hindus the world over is very strong. One needs a radical solution to all this.

One that is based on the spiritual understanding of the so-called castes as enshrined within Hindu scriptures.

Brahmin, Kshtriya, Vaishya and Shudra are not social categories of castes. They are manifestations of the underlying karmas that a person is born with. In Bhagwad Gita's Chapter 18, this is explained very clearly by Shri Krishna himself.

What is significant here is that being a Brahmin or Kshatriya or a Vaishya or Shudra has nothing to do with the family we are born in. It has to do with the Karmic burden one has accumulated over lifetimes.

Then why should anyone keep any remnant of a family indicator - say like a family name - that has any suggestion of a certain hierarchy at all?

Let us go back to the original understanding of those four classifications as in Gita and only consider someone a Brahmin if one has attained to his highest. Most of us - who are in the business world as employees are Shudras. That is how we should address ourselves.

The only way to turn this who anti-Hindu movement on its head is to go back to the basics. We need a radically different approach or this artificially created "fault line" will destroy us Hindus.

It was certainly one of the major factors for dispersing Hindu votes by the communal parties and forces in this election.

Survival Needs Personal Sacrifice

Raja Dahir was betrayed by the Buddhist chief, Bhandarkan Samani when Mohammad Bin Qasim attacked. That opened India up for many millennia of attacks and subversion of what was once the most developed society. (Source: Raja Dahir Betrayed By Buddhist Samani As Muhammad Bin Kasim Attacks Sindh)

A similar role was played by the traitors against Prithviraj Chauhan.

That this time some candidate that I do not approve of has been given the ticket is immaterial.

What will matter is whether your own coming generations will have a chance to survive.

If the history of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh is any indicator, then the answer is unambiguous. No!

One election or one uncomfortable decade in life will not matter much in the larger scheme of things. If revenge needs to be exacted there are enough forces against whom one can do that. But unless one has a real alternative to Modi, there is no sense in committing suicide.

Destitution is NOT Spirituality.

One of the arguments on the loss in Ayodhya constituency despite the newly constructed Ram Mandir was that local people felt a loss of spiritual element because the old complex was gone and a new lavish temple was built. Let us be honest. A majority of the Hindu temples are kept in the most shameful manner. No one cleans them. The dirt, the garbage, the unhygienic ways in which things are handled are a put-off.

For example, I went to Bageshwar Dham in the Gadha village last year. Lets skip the extremely bad approach with pot-holes and dirt roads to the temple and go to something that is spiritually most significant.

Everyone takes coconuts and other offerings in. There is now a large enough mountain of rotting coconuts and cloth offerings right outside the temple which will soon dwarf the temple structure in height! Despite the global demand for Shri Dhirendra Krishna Shastri, no one cares for that. That kind of environment is not just unhealthy, an eyesore but also extremely adharmic. There is no spiritual element in that.

Most of the temples are handled like that. No one ever cleans the residue from the smoke of the oils in the lamps that are kept on. The walls and the ceilings have become black. The murtis have layers of different elements which they were offered.

So when a clean and well-kept temple with modern civil cleanliness processes is created to ensure that the temple is not desecrated like many have been due to laziness and spiritual perversity of the groups managing those temples, then it is not destroying the spiritual element. It is to keep up its energy.

Why Fight for Your Future?

This fight for our future as Hindus is not because we are Hindus and therefore we have an exclusivist idea of the world as most forces against the Hindus have.

That is the bottom line.

Our collective survival is on the line.

We have witnessed a radically communal election run by a combination of perversely ambitious politicians joining hands with religious institutions to beat a party that they characterize as "Hindu". The only reason that they wanted to beat it was because it was Hindu. Every other narrative was self-serving. For, data does not back their villainization of the kind they have unleashed.

Survival and love of life for your kids and the coming generation is not communal. It is a tribute to an expression of life itself.

That is the most essential learning from the 2024 Indian election.