It must take tremendous effort and creative campaign strategies for the Opposition parties in Maharashtra to focus on the grave issues that matter in the forthcoming Assembly elections, for which voting is scheduled for next Wednesday. With a few days of campaigning to go, the slogans of the ruling Mahayuti — comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party, Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde, and Nationalist Congress Party led by Ajit Pawar — have become shrill and provocative. Two examples are “Batenge toh katenge” (divided, we perish) and “Ek hain toh safe hain” (together, we are safe). These have been unabashedly uttered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, union home minister Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Maharashtra leaders of the BJP in election rallies across the state.
These are dogwhistles against minorities and a coded reminder to Hindus to vote for the saffron party. Intending to cause disharmony and friction — tactics that have worked in its favour in the past — the BJP did not bargain for its allies to be offended. While Shinde’s Sena pretended to ignore them, Ajit Pawar was quick to call out the BJP saying that such slogans may work in north India but they are not the culture of Maharashtra. Even BJP leaders like Pankaja Munde and Ashok Chavan, recently imported from the Congress, openly expressed their displeasure. When the heat became too much, BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis, deputy chief minister and CM-aspirant, attempted to paper over the blatant communalisation and divisiveness of the slogans, initially saying that they were in response to ‘vote jihad’ — an irony, if ever there was one — and later claiming that the reference was to the allies in the Mahayuti. It was a non-starter.
Besides the blatant communalisation of the campaign, the widespread discussion around the slogans and the inevitable responses from the Maha Vikas Aghadi – comprising the Congress, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, and Sharad Pawar-led NCP – mean that the real issues that should have been at the forefront of the campaigns have been relegated to the sidelines or have disappeared from the discourse. Farmers, especially soyabean farmers, not getting a fair price, healthcare and education across the state, affordable housing and climate challenges in cities, and corruption in government, to cite a few, should have dominated election speeches and media headlines. Does the Mahayuti sarkar have no achievements to speak about? Can the MVA, given its seasoned campaigners, not find ways to cut through the communal clutter and keep the focus on issues that matter to the state’s nearly 13 crore population? Rahul Gandhi has been repeating “Samvidhan Bachao” but, while it is significant, its relevance to people’s lives is hardly apparent. And it cannot counter the dogwhistling.
