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In any country with a rational people, what the BJP is doing with the Haryana Police, Delhi Police (and BSF and CRPF?) would be straight up political suicide! People would vote them out left, right, and centre.
(1/n)
(1/n)
But because this is New India (read: Polarised India), the BJP can get away with this kind of shit because they know that the people absolutely WILL vote them in over and over again - because of their “core” issues based on religion, bigotry, and hatred.
(2/n)
(2/n)
The BJP has always known that being a very religious country, religion has always been the weakest bone for (most?) Indians - weaker than even basic livelihood, basic infrastructure, basic sanity, even food.
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Despite being in power for less than half the term, the BJP has the actual audacity working on “Re-election 2024” - and nobody gives a shit about that - because they are so full of and high on power.
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I am so confident about us Indians, that I know most of us will go straight back and vote for the BJP (even in Haryana) if the elections were today. If the BJP went full General Dyer and indiscriminately fired at the farmers killing thousands, they’ll still get the vote!
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(5/n)
And THAT, lads and lasses, is what the crux of it all is! Do you know why the BJP never enjoyed THIS MUCH support ever before, since their inception over 70 years ago (90 years ago if you count the RSS)? Simply because there was no social media to propagate propaganda.
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Social media has been so helpful to the right wing (not just in India, but around the world) - in propagating absolute bullshit stories and lies about every walk of life - so much so that they now enjoy outreach like never before.
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Propaganda has always been around for centuries. But it was difficult to spread it around up until social media came along. Now propagandists can not just reach out but actually “convince” the fickle-minded, things that were unheard of until recently.
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“Digital India” has not been about payments and governmental services and filling forms and tracking applications online lol. It has been basically to ensure the proliferation of digital devices in the hands of the majority - so propaganda is that much easier to propagate.
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(9/n)
And the BJP knows this so fully well. The old tricks of mud slinging are gone. People think the media plays their part - they do, but not as effectively as social media (which is rife with “nationalist” content the same way Mumbai’s streets are with Vada Pav vendors).
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(10/n)
So the next time, the BJP pulls of the most outrageous shit one can think of? Like using the BSF and barricades against its own citizens? Don’t act surprised as if it is unprecedented. This was always going to be the outcome of polarisation.
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(11/n)
Nothing should surprise us anymore. Not the use of police force, not what is happening in Kashmir, not the gross violations of the basics of parliamentary debate, and not what the SC coughs up every now and then.
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(12/n)
Maybe you and I did not vote for this. Maybe you and I don’t exactly want this. But THIS IS EXACTLY what (most of) our fellow countrymen want. And this is what they will keep voting for, for the foreseeable future. Without political suicide, with full support even!
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(13/13)
