In contrast to the 2008 US presidential election campaign where Barack Obama swept the voters off their feet with his pitch for "hope" and "change", the ruling sentiment at the hustings as India gears up for the 2014 General Election remains "hate". Political rivals have less of their own to count on during rallies and more of others to discount. While the ruling Congress has accused BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi of making "negative" speeches that are "vitiating the atmosphere", the party's own hands are far from clean.
A day after serial blasts killed six and injured more than 90 at the venue of Modi's Patna rally, Congress spokesman PC Chacko said, "The general election is still five months away, but the BJP's prime ministerial aspirant is creating an atmosphere of suspicion and hatred ... [He] has created a negative environment that has disturbed the country's peaceful atmosphere." "Communal polarisation is the pet card of the BJP," Chacko said and added, "The party recently also raked up the Ayodhya issue. When the atmosphere gets vitiated, certain forces get the opportunity to operate."
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The same has also been the recurring theme in the recent rallies of Congress second-in-command Rahul Gandhi. Gandhi had sympathised with the victims of the Muzaffarnagar riots and said that his own father, former PM Rajiv Gandhi, and his grandmother, former PM Indira Gandhi, were victims of hate politics. And then, the Congress scion, not known to be a feisty orator, erred in including the aside of an unnamed intelligence officer into his main speech. He was panned by prominent Muslim leaders and obviously the Opposition for saying that he was told that Pakistan's ISI was in touch with a few riot victims.
As the Congress has been targeting Modi and the BJP for spreading communal hatred, Gujarat Chief Minister has continuously hit out at the Congress party for promoting elitism and dynasty politics. He has been referring to the Congress scion as "Shahzada" and has lampooned the non-BJP state governments for their misrule during his rallies (Delhi, Kanpur, Udaipur and Patna). Without the supporting statistics, Modi has hard-sold his own Gujarat model of growth, which has been contested by the Congress party and former alliance partner and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar alike. Offensive terms like Feku and Pappu have also been used to sling hate at each other's camps.
The same has also been the recurring theme in the recent rallies of Congress second-in-command Rahul Gandhi. Gandhi had sympathised with the victims of the Muzaffarnagar riots and said that his own father, former PM Rajiv Gandhi, and his grandmother, former PM Indira Gandhi, were victims of hate politics. And then, the Congress scion, not known to be a feisty orator, erred in including the aside of an unnamed intelligence officer into his main speech. He was panned by prominent Muslim leaders and obviously the Opposition for saying that he was told that Pakistan's ISI was in touch with a few riot victims.
As the Congress has been targeting Modi and the BJP for spreading communal hatred, Gujarat Chief Minister has continuously hit out at the Congress party for promoting elitism and dynasty politics. He has been referring to the Congress scion as "Shahzada" and has lampooned the non-BJP state governments for their misrule during his rallies (Delhi, Kanpur, Udaipur and Patna). Without the supporting statistics, Modi has hard-sold his own Gujarat model of growth, which has been contested by the Congress party and former alliance partner and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar alike. Offensive terms like Feku and Pappu have also been used to sling hate at each other's camps.
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The two main parties have also tacitly developed a cadre of politicians who hit below the belt and get away with it. The advantage of having this cadre is two-fold: while they can say in public whatever the party cannot, the more outrageous of their statements can always be distanced from. Congress's Digvijaya Sing h and the erstwhile BJP leader, Kalyan Singh, who is now seen sharing the dais with them again, are the prominent figures of this special cadre.
Soon after the Patna blasts, Digvijaya Singh had tweeted on Sunday, "Another blast in Patna. Perfect setting for Modi's launch in Bihar." Strongly denying the charge that he was playing politics over the incident, he told reporters again on Monday, "The bomb blasts in Patna would benefit the BJP in the coming elections."
Early this month, speaking at a public meeting organised at Nagla Chandrabhan in Mathura, the birthplace of Deendayal Upadhyay, former UP chief minister Kalyan Singh, who shared the dais with Modi's confidant and state poll in-charge Amit Shah, had described the Muzaffarnagar riots as a "reaction to an action". "Zinda samaj mein pratikriya hoti hai. Jis samaj mein pratikriya nahin ho, samjho who murda samaj hoga (A society that is alive is bound to have reactions. A society that ceases to react must be dead)," Singh was quoted as saying. The Muzaffarnagar riots claimed 43 lives while more than 100 people were injured and more than 50,000 displaced.
Let's hope, as regional parties join the poll bandwagon and bring to the table local and caste-based issues, the two main parties would reinvent their existing strategies and depend less on hate.
The two main parties have also tacitly developed a cadre of politicians who hit below the belt and get away with it. The advantage of having this cadre is two-fold: while they can say in public whatever the party cannot, the more outrageous of their statements can always be distanced from. Congress's Digvijaya Sing h and the erstwhile BJP leader, Kalyan Singh, who is now seen sharing the dais with them again, are the prominent figures of this special cadre.
Soon after the Patna blasts, Digvijaya Singh had tweeted on Sunday, "Another blast in Patna. Perfect setting for Modi's launch in Bihar." Strongly denying the charge that he was playing politics over the incident, he told reporters again on Monday, "The bomb blasts in Patna would benefit the BJP in the coming elections."
Early this month, speaking at a public meeting organised at Nagla Chandrabhan in Mathura, the birthplace of Deendayal Upadhyay, former UP chief minister Kalyan Singh, who shared the dais with Modi's confidant and state poll in-charge Amit Shah, had described the Muzaffarnagar riots as a "reaction to an action". "Zinda samaj mein pratikriya hoti hai. Jis samaj mein pratikriya nahin ho, samjho who murda samaj hoga (A society that is alive is bound to have reactions. A society that ceases to react must be dead)," Singh was quoted as saying. The Muzaffarnagar riots claimed 43 lives while more than 100 people were injured and more than 50,000 displaced.
Let's hope, as regional parties join the poll bandwagon and bring to the table local and caste-based issues, the two main parties would reinvent their existing strategies and depend less on hate.
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