Harish Khare hits the nail on the head with his call “India’s Liberals Need to Stop Complaining and Start Fighting”. Yes, indeed! They must unitedly fight back, rather than bicker among themselves or blame the voters! However, I disagree with some of the main arguments. The most important one is that the fight back ‘calls for a morally superior politics’. In a general sense, that is a cliche or a truism. On the other hand, doesn’t it give an impression or imply that the anti-liberal, far right-wing, and anti-secular politics in comparison has acquired some kind of ‘moral superiority’? Even as it refers to “instances of outbreak of political immorality and expediency” from the side of the triumphant Hindutva-Right-Wing (HRW), most of the article seems to discuss the fall from grace of the parties whom Khare calls “presumed mascots and practitioners of secularism” (INC, SP, BSP, etc.). The focus is on what he considers as the “loss of secular faith” by the voters because “the presumed mascots and practitioners of secularism had themselves long ago lost their faith.”
Khare concludes by saying that the liberals can meet the challenge "only by a morally superior politics." That raises the question whether the large number of seats BJP got was because they brought into play some morally superior politics of a kind the people in UP have never seen before? That would be a terrible joke, knowing what was actually done to mobilise votes and if we recall the kind of speeches that were made such as the ghastly immoral ones about graveyards and crematoriums. If anything, the UP elections showed it wasn't the moral superiority that helped the winner, but a combination of most immoral tactics, organisational capabilities, money power and the activities of various diabolical groups functioning as religious organisations (eg., Hindu Yuva Vahini). Nothing in the result supports Harish Khare's thesis. Of course, that doesn't mean we don't need a morally superior politics. Of course, we do. It will be good if we have that even if the election results had been very different. However, it does not mean that they are currently morally inferior to the far right. That certainly isn't the case, despite many failings.
The thesis that voters have ‘deserted’ the secular formations is highly flawed and inaccurate. Khare asserts: “what began in 2014 stands reaffirmed in 2017”. For him, that signifies the voters deserting the secular platform. This is not supported by facts. The reality is that BJP could muster only about 30% vote share in 2014 at the national level. In UP, its vote share in 2014 was 42% and that decreased to 40% in 2017 Vidhan Sabha elections. Therefore, secular vote share in UP doesn’t show desertions as a trend. Instead, it shows many other subtle and not so subtle realignments. Desertion implies a large-scale shift from one side to the other. That is not evident. The huge harvest of the seats by the BJP did not happen because of large-scale shift (or desertion) of voter affinities from the secular side to the non-secular. Instead, the victory of the HRW came about from the inability of secularists to work together and coordinate against the organisationally and financially powerful HRW.
Despite the secularists being imperfect and possibly suffering from many disadvantages, a substantial section of voters did not ‘desert’ them. BTW, unlike the BJP, its political rivals did suffer from financial constraints. The moral elevation of all or even a few, if it could happen, will certainly be a welcome development. However, the fightback of the liberals must start with the recognition of the need for unity, flexibility, hard work, and electoral coordination. The quest for a completely new political platform - morally superior or not - will only help to further split the secular constituency. A united secular platform when realised will provide the impetus to project a morally superior alternative. In fact, a morally superior alternative is inherent in the united resistance, and not in creating yet another political party or outfit.
https://thewire.in/118651/liberals-bjp-congress-challenge/
Khare concludes by saying that the liberals can meet the challenge "only by a morally superior politics." That raises the question whether the large number of seats BJP got was because they brought into play some morally superior politics of a kind the people in UP have never seen before? That would be a terrible joke, knowing what was actually done to mobilise votes and if we recall the kind of speeches that were made such as the ghastly immoral ones about graveyards and crematoriums. If anything, the UP elections showed it wasn't the moral superiority that helped the winner, but a combination of most immoral tactics, organisational capabilities, money power and the activities of various diabolical groups functioning as religious organisations (eg., Hindu Yuva Vahini). Nothing in the result supports Harish Khare's thesis. Of course, that doesn't mean we don't need a morally superior politics. Of course, we do. It will be good if we have that even if the election results had been very different. However, it does not mean that they are currently morally inferior to the far right. That certainly isn't the case, despite many failings.
The thesis that voters have ‘deserted’ the secular formations is highly flawed and inaccurate. Khare asserts: “what began in 2014 stands reaffirmed in 2017”. For him, that signifies the voters deserting the secular platform. This is not supported by facts. The reality is that BJP could muster only about 30% vote share in 2014 at the national level. In UP, its vote share in 2014 was 42% and that decreased to 40% in 2017 Vidhan Sabha elections. Therefore, secular vote share in UP doesn’t show desertions as a trend. Instead, it shows many other subtle and not so subtle realignments. Desertion implies a large-scale shift from one side to the other. That is not evident. The huge harvest of the seats by the BJP did not happen because of large-scale shift (or desertion) of voter affinities from the secular side to the non-secular. Instead, the victory of the HRW came about from the inability of secularists to work together and coordinate against the organisationally and financially powerful HRW.
Despite the secularists being imperfect and possibly suffering from many disadvantages, a substantial section of voters did not ‘desert’ them. BTW, unlike the BJP, its political rivals did suffer from financial constraints. The moral elevation of all or even a few, if it could happen, will certainly be a welcome development. However, the fightback of the liberals must start with the recognition of the need for unity, flexibility, hard work, and electoral coordination. The quest for a completely new political platform - morally superior or not - will only help to further split the secular constituency. A united secular platform when realised will provide the impetus to project a morally superior alternative. In fact, a morally superior alternative is inherent in the united resistance, and not in creating yet another political party or outfit.
https://thewire.in/118651/liberals-bjp-congress-challenge/
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