Illustrative image of Karnataka state election.

Karnataka election, a devil's bargain

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BJP is a parasite. You could have seen, heard, or at least could have read about different types of parasites. It could be a tree, a plant, a creeper or even fungus growing on another plant or tree. Parasites will usually cripple the growth of the living being on which it grows. India became independent with several problems. One can say that those problems were dealt in the best possible manner. Some of those problems are partition which took place with lot of chaos. It resulted in violence, loss of life and livelihood of many.  Partition could have been done in an organized way without the chaos, if the then leaders in India were wise. Sangh Parivar blames Nehru and Congress for this. Sangh Parivar had their contribution in freedom struggle but were not big enough to liberate India. They were not big enough to form government. They also couldn’t handle partition in an organized way. Now they blame Congress and Nehru. The world acknowledges Mahatma Gandhi as a father of our nation and a great leader. But BJP still believes that Savarkar and Nathuram Godse as their role models. 

Independent India had to deal with an issue, the constitution of India. It divided the people in India forever. The constitution of India granted special privileges to people based on their caste and religion. It was supposed to be for the poor, regardless of their caste and religion. Since then, political parties used this to appease voters. I call BJP a parasite, because they used the same strategy to become strong enough to challenge and defeat Congress. Both Congress and BJP tried to divide society on grounds of religion and Caste. BJP used religious sentiment of majority, especially by nurturing the hate and aguish created by Congress who had soft corner for religious minority. No other country has this practice of granting special privileges to religious minority or based on Caste, colour and race. All developed countries made policies to treat everyone equally and to end discrimination. The divide in India will continue forever, if government treats people differently when it comes to education, employment and social welfare schemes. Often, those incompetents will grab education and employment opportunities, while some of those competent from poor families will suffer. 

This divide is a threat for democracy and all the laws in India. The Congress even supported religious conversion and glorified western culture in the past. This worked as a catalyst for BJP’s growth. The Jana Sangh grew from two seats to major opposition party and formed government at the center using the sentiments of Hindus against Congress. It is so bad, that this divide will make laws in India meaningless. Most of those who convert to Christianity are from SC/ST community. They continue to avail government benefits and reservation granted for SC/ST community. Along with that, they also get to abuse any institution using the new religion. 

  

Any culprit can spend rupees 10,000 to arrange a feast after a special prayer in the Church on a Sunday. Politicians, bureaucrats, wealthy and influential among Christians will attend the prayer. The priest in the church will speak to whoever can bury the case. This is just an example. This practice is not there in Christian countries. It exists only in India, because this is what every caste and religion do in India.   I am not blaming the entire minority, or the people from minority in government institutions. But the brotherhood works in most of the cases. Those corrupt in bureaucracy from every caste and religion will join brotherhood. Denial of justice due to the above said brotherhood will make laws in India meaningless. This established system of ‘divide and rule’ is created and nurtured by all political parties. Now BJP is taking advantage of it. BJP keeps blaming that all problems in India were created by Congress. It is true. It is also true that Congress created another problem called BJP, a parasite.  

BJP is encouraging this hatred along with tactics to win minority votes. Lives of many Muslim women with few children were miserable, who were divorced using Triple Talak without alimony and child support. Union government banned Tripple Talak. Educated Muslim women will vote for BJP, despite it being against the brotherhood. The above said brotherhood and its might was powerful enough to make more and more people support BJP. All those who are honest and sincere do not like this brotherhood culture. This is why we see lot of people from minority community and Dalits becoming BJP supporters. But it isn’t right to encourage BJP’s enmity, hatred, violence and opportunism. So, it is needless to say that the Congress will not be able to win elections using the old strategy of minority appeasement. This is why I call BJP a parasite. 

 

We see Syed Shahnawaz Hussain and Shehzad poonawalla, the roaring tigers of BJP on television against Congress. Earlier, Mukthar Abbas Naqvi was the only popular Muslim leader in BJP. BJP gave tickets to 395 Muslim candidates for Uttar Pradesh urban polls in a bid to reach out to the community. In Kerala, we see Christians lighting candles in church on prime minister Modi’s birthday. People won’t be surprised, if they say that Modi is Jesus Christ’s second incarnation. Congress Veteran A K Antony’s son recently joined BJP. The brotherhood who was with Congress understood that the Congress is not powerful anymore and are moving to BJP. BJP wanted to ban Halal Meat and Hijab in Karnataka. BJP workers lynched many for transporting, selling and for cooking beef at home. When this incident took place, India was among the top 5 beef exporter in the world. In Meghalaya, the BJP state chief Ernest Mawrie said that there is no restriction for beef consumption in Meghalaya. I eat beef too, he added. This declaration of BJP in Meghalaya helped them win two seats in the state election. I think people still remember sedition charge against Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid for organizing beef festival in JNU campus. Some call it opportunism. In Kerala, they say something better.

Congress should survive because no other party has presence across India to fight with BJP. Slow death of Congress will deny opportunity for other political parties to challenge BJP. It will take several years for other parties in India to grow strong enough to replace BJP. BJP rule in India is not as lily white as they portray through paid ads. The achievements of union government are just an exaggerated figure in many cases. What Amrit Kal are we talking about? Towards the end of Atal Bihari Vajpayee rule, the slogan was ‘INDIA SHINING’. UPA II had ‘Incredible India’ as their slogan for achievements of India during their regime. In fact, Modi regime is over doing it with rethrorics like Amrit Kal, Athma Nirbartha Bharath, etc.

Prime minister Modi wants to make India a developed country by 2047. It is a great vision. We should thank prime minister Modi for making us think that we could be a developed country in the next 25 years. But how are we going to make it happen? The world sees China as a threat. It is not due to Xi Jinping’s authoritarian government alone. China’s economy, development in technology and military might is a real threat to the developed countries. On the other hand, they see India as a country with highest population, where many are not educated. In 2023, India’s literacy rate is 74.04%. Anyone who can write their name are considered as literates by our government and that makes it 74.04%. Such literates do not have the knowledge and skills of educated people in countries like China, Japan, Germany, France, USA, UK, Canada, etc. German magazine Der Spiegel published a cartoon which depicts India’s population overtaking China and the poor infrastructure in India. The cartoon was slammed by several Indians on social media, including senior adviser to the Union Ministry of Information & Broadcasting Kanchan Gupta, Rajya Sabha MP Vijayasai Reddy V and Rajeev Chandrasekhar. They said it is downright racist.

India’s infrastructure growth will gain pace and will be on par with many developed countries in a decade or two. Infrastructure development need not have to result in poverty alleviation, better standard of living and unemployment reduction. For example, Jio and Airtel launched 5G network to explore opportunities with the new technology.  As far as roads, railways, water ways and air ways are concerned, it is again the private entities who are developing it on BOT (build operate and transfer). So, infrastructure development will take place at a steady pace regardless of the union and state government, because it is the need of private entities involved in it. Such development will increase direct employment only by few thousands. It satisfies the consumers who use these services. Consumers who use 5G service will be able to explore opportunities that are there with 5G technology. Such services or businesses will contribute to nation’s GDP growth, but it creates employment for only few. It will not help to improve standard of living of the masses like farmers and laborers. The above-mentioned developments have made India the fifth largest economy in the world.  
India has the lowest per capita income among the largest economies. The average annual per capita income of India is $2601. The average annual per capita income of Brazil is 4 times more than that of India. In China it is five times the annual per capita income of India. The average annual per capita income of Japan is 14 times higher than India. It is 17 times higher than India in France, 18 times higher than India in UK and Canada and 20 times higher than India in Germany. The average annual per capita income of USA is 31 times more than that of India. 
In India, we have lot of people in the villages who are completely dependent on monsoon crops. They have no other source for water than rain. They spend at least six months a year doing nothing. Some of them may have employment through MGNREGA for hundred days a year. The union government should come up with a comprehensive plan for engaging the uneducated population in India’s development and to increase their earning. The terms of loans for buying Cattle, sheep and to set up poultry farm should be made easier. There should be government scheme to help farmers with borewells, which five to six farmers with a small parcel of land can use. They cannot spend on borewells on their own with a fragmented small parcel of land. Prime minister Narendra Modi’s talks makes people think that there wasn’t a thing called business loan before the union government introduced Mudra. The terms for business loan before and after the Mudra scheme is more or less the same. There are lot of ways to employ uneducated youths in both rural and urban India. The government think-tanks should think of ways to create employment through sustainable development projects.  
 
 Prime minister Modi envisaged to make India a developed country by 2047. But how are we going to make India a developed country without education. Union minister of state for education Annapurna Devi said that 95% of villages have secondary schools within a distance of five kilometers and 90% of villages have senior secondary schools within a distance of seven kilometers. State of the education report for India 2021 from UNESCO states that at least 1.1 lakh schools in India are run by one teacher in each school. The report states that a total of 11.16 lakh teaching positions in schools lie vacant in the country which accounts to 19%. Among them 69% of vacancies are in rural India. In India, there are lakhs of unemployed youths who are fit for teaching profession. We see our union government ignoring vacant positions in various government departments and spending crores to create employment.
 

 

Unfortunately, the union government’s expenditure for education was just 2.8% of GDP from 2015-16 all the way till 2018-19. It was increased by just .1% to make it 2.9% of GDP from 2019-20 and it continued to remain same. With such minimal spending, our schools will have shortage of teachers. Thousands of school buildings are in dilapidated condition, and it is unsafe for children. In Kerala, the school buildings are far better than many other states in India. Yet a ten-year old girl by name Shehla Sherin died, after she was bitten by a snake while sitting in her classroom in government school. This incident took place in Kerala’s Wayanad district in November 2019. Spending less for education and keeping people away from education is a strategy of successive governments since independence. The present NDA government is no different. The union government should increase the expenditure for education to at least 5% of GDP.  
 
Average rural area covered (or average radial distance) by primary health care institutions in India is 130.54 kilometers. Average rural area covered by Community health centers in India is 648.43 kilometers. Rural India lacks access to quality health care, and it makes them travel hundreds of kilometers for medical treatment. The union government’s budgetary allotment for public health was just 1.3% of GDP in 2015-16. From 2016-17, it saw a marginal increase which is 1.4% of GDP and it remained same till 2019-20. From 2020-21, the union government increased expenditure for public health to 1.6% of GDP, then to 2.2% in 2021-22 and reduced it to 2.1 in 2022-23. The union government should generously spend 10% of GDP for public health care and health insurance. Expenditure for health care should be made more transparent to prevent corruption.  

Even those who never been to school will understand the above-mentioned issues. Why do political parties talk about Bajrang Dal and Hanuman in election rallies in Karnataka? They do it because, they don’t want to talk about the problems of poor farmers, labors and students. So, they talk about reservation for Vokkaligas, Lingayats, SC/ST community and the minority. Or they will promise to make Karnataka the number one state in India. The promise of making Karnataka the number one state in India and India becoming a developed country can’t be a reality without addressing the above-mentioned issues.  

According to NDTV LOKNITI-CSDS survey, Congress is very likely to win this election in Karnataka. The anti-incumbency is due to corruption, no significant development in the state in the last five years, communal hatred and bigotry. Poor voters are not happy with ruling BJP and think that Congress is far better. BJP supporters are mainly affluent voters. As per the survey, people in Karnataka think that BJP is more corrupt than Congress and blamed BJP for nepotism. The survey states that Siddaramaiah is more acceptable leader than his counterparts. Above all, the history of Karnataka politics tells that Congress government works best for the state. Below are the major issues of people in Karnataka as per the survey. 

 

SM Krishna was the last chief minister of Karnataka who was serious about improving Bangalore city, the IT hub of India. The infrastructure development in Bangalore in the last five years failed to mitigate present issues like traffic congestion, alternative mobility options, pollution, waste and sewage management. The city is not prepared to face a heavy rainfall. The BJP government did not make any significant attempt to develop infrastructure in the out skirts of city. There wasn’t any plan to move upcoming software companies to outskirts to decongest the city.

Educated people in Karnataka should take responsibility to defeat BJP. The union government is controlling mainstream media and social media websites through Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. They use ED and CBI against media, if the contents are against them. There were serious allegations by Rahul Gandhi in the recent past against prime minister Modi and the union government. But there wasn’t any case filed against Rahul Gandhi for defamation. No media was interested in those stories. No media engaged in investigative journalism.  



 

 
Most of the medias in India are now fans of prime minister Modi. It could be due to pressure, and the ad revenue they get from both union government and BJP party fund. Media won’t ask any tuff questions to senior BJP leaders. Recently prime minister Modi attended Republic summit, organized by Republic Media Network. Here is a video of its MD and editor-in-chief, Arnab Gowswami praising Prime minister Modi. Most of the medias in India are of the same opinion. We cannot expect good journalism from fans and devotees of a political leader. 
 

Two FIRs have been filed against BJP MP and the president of Wrestling Federation of India for eight incidents of sexual harassment. On 21 April 2023, seven women wrestlers including a minor filed complaint against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for sexual harassment at Connaught Place police station. The complainants are India’s top wrestlers. Olympic medal winners were on the streets in Delhi protesting against sexual harassment since this January. They are demanding the arrest of BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. One will find a lengthy list of BJP leaders who are involved in rape and molestation. BJP leaders share stage with culprits who were convicted and punished for rape and murder. They even honor those culprits with garlands. This is another reason why people in Karnataka should vote for Congress.  

  

Rahul Gandhi spoke about rape and molestation during his Bharath Jodo Yathra in Kashmir. You can see Delhi police visiting Rahul Gandhi’s house to collect details in the below tweet. We all know that there were several incidents of sexual harassment in India, where an FIR was filed only after media intervention or public protest. The police wants to prove that those who talk about it, like Rahul Gandhi are wrong. Or are they saying that all women who are subjected to sexual harassment should inform to Rahul Gandhi, if local police and people in women helpline are not serious about it?

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