Bengal BJP neta’s comments are a new low in incendiary rhetoric. Does it even help in polls?
That Bengal LoP Suvendu Adhikari said BJP would physically throw out Muslim MLAs from the House after the party “forms the next govt” – in a speech he made inside the house – is jaw-dropping. That miles away, his party colleague UP MLA Ketakee Singh, called for a “separate hospital wing for Muslims” in a proposed medical college in Ballia is almost equally terrible.
Perhaps, the strategy behind such statements is to normalise anti-minority rhetoric. But the thing is, communal talk has an electoral cost. Bengal polls are in 2026. Mamata has wasted no time accusing BJP of “targeting Muslims during Ramzan to divert attention from economic and trade issues.” Anti-minority rhetoric flowed ahead of 2024 LS elections. In Bengal, Trinamool won 29 seats with 46% vote share. BJP won 12, down from 18 (2019), with 39% vote share. In UP too, Akhilesh Yadav’s SP won 37 seats with 34% vote; BJP crashed to 33 from 62, with 42% of the vote. We have to see whether and how BJP central leadership addresses the two MLAs’, particularly Adhikari’s, rhetoric. But electoral evidence suggests inflammatory chatter may be producing diminishing returns. Even in Haryana, BJP lost 5 LS seats from its earlier 10-seat haul – part of it, fallout of the Nuh violence and bulldozer politics the year before. Bottom line: rival parties often gain from legislators’ incendiary remarks. That’s why, in state polls following LS, there was a noticeable absence of sharp communal rhetoric.
The real danger of religion-based provocative statements from elected representatives is that they spur goon elements who’re ever ready to get violent. Also, it encourages parts of the executive in some states to maintain a low hum of harassment in day-to-day lives of those targeted. That’s a truly sad commentary on politics.
This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.
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