JUST hours after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)led Mahayuti alliance staged a sweeping comeback bagging 230 of the 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra after its dismal show in the Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated the most popular slogan of this poll season—“ek hain toh safe hain” (united we survive)—to which former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had attributed the victory. It was shorthand for a strategy to accuse the Congress-led Opposition of “dividing castes and tribes”, which the PM at an election rally in Dhule called “the biggest conspiracy against India”. Complemented with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s “batenge toh katenge” (divided we die) rhetoric stressing on “Hindu unity” across castes and tribes, the “ek…safe…” slogan worked in the BJP’s favour in what is known as the land of Shivaji, but fell flat in the land of Birsa Munda—Jharkhand—the other state that went to polls in November and where the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)led INDIA bloc’s thumping triumph with 56 of the 81 seats signalled a counterintuitive enigma of sorts.
Denne historien er fra December 11, 2024-utgaven av Outlook.
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Denne historien er fra December 11, 2024-utgaven av Outlook.
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Love in Bombay
In a city continuously grappling for space, lovers have found their own pockets of expression jostling against one another
Unscripted Moments
Street photography is all about finding the extraordinary in the ordinary, one candid moment at a time
Sambhal Files
An engineered silence weighs heavily on the stillness of the empty streets in the centuries-old town of Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, where clashes with police over yet another 'mandir-masjid' dispute led to the deaths of local Muslim men
A State of Difference
What is about the Adivasis of Jharkhand that prevents the saffron lotus from blooming or even taking root, unlike in the Adivasi-majority seats of Chhattisgarh and Odisha where the BJP did exceedingly well in the past few years?
BJP Trumps Thackeray's Sena
The tables have turned on the original harbingers of communal politics in Maharashtra
Verses of Witnessing
The most imaginative chronicles of Mumbai's \"spirit\" come to us from the city's poets
Walking Through the Homes
Chandni Chowk is being usurped by a redevelopment model that will wipe out its unique blend of history, culture and commerce
Cost of Living, Price of Loving
In Mumbai's Kamathipura, the business of sex fails to keep up with the profits of real estate
A Taste of History
A delectable food walk in Old Delhi uncovers layers of history
Dramatis Personae
Comparing an actor's struggles in Delhi and Mumbai maps out the differing cultures of two disparate cities
