Whenever footfalls of elections are heard at the door, politics of hatred and enmity raises its ugly head in some form or the other. These days it is not surprising that such politics is played out against the Muslims before every election in India. In the current regime everyone right from the Prime Minister to CMs, ministers to MPs, MLAs, Corporators, regional leaders to street leaders, and others perceive that the first step to political success is to spew venom on the Muslims. This tendency has grown in leaps and bounds after the victory of Modi in the 2014 general elections. Such a proclivity of the persons in public life has terribly ruined the brotherhood matrix of pluralistic India. As a result, not just the Muslims but everyone in the subcontinent has fallen in the flames. Where incidents of the mob lynching of Muslim youths have become common, episodes of Hindu youths subjected to the same human rights abuse are not rare. Where attempts are made to damage the businesses of Muslims there exist reports that the trade and commerce of Hindus have also suffered. The sad part is that the powerful and influential classes have remained silent in playing their role to control the horrifying state of affairs. They expect the affected to take care of themselves. By thinking so they are failing to realize that flames do not have regard for any religious faith or financial status while engulfing the target.

Elections to the legislative assemblies in some states will be held in the coming five to six months. But the eyes of everyone are on the election to be held in Uttar Pradesh. BJP, the present ruling party in the state is busy cleaning up the images of Yogi and Modi and dreaming to the play cards of hatred and communalism. Mr. Yogi Adityanath, the Chief Minister of the state, has kicked off his election campaign by using certain words with a derogatory innuendo that has hurt the feelings of the Muslims obliquely. In one of his speeches two weeks ago Yogi Adityanath while leveling allegations against Mr. Akhilesh Yadav, his predecessor in the office,has said that prior to 2017, the ration distributed by the government for the poor was swallowed up by those who used to say “Abba Jan.” By using the words Abba Jan, a term of endearment for fathers used generally by the Muslims, Mr. Yogi Adityanath has incurred the ire of the Muslims and opposition parties. He did not stop his comments on the ration issue but went on to say that in the previous regime even government jobs meant for the poor were snatched away by the people who used to say Abba Jan. What Yogi Adityanath has tried to convey is that Muslims in the previous regime of Akhilesh Yadav were referring to Mulyam Singh, the patriarch of Samajwadi Party as Abba Jan, and were enjoying benefits at the cost of the denial to the majority community. Non-BJP parties across the board have termed the remarks of Yogi Adityanath as ‘unparliamentary’ and ‘uncivilized’ and have urged him to maintain decorum and be within the ambit of decency in public life. Congress in clear words has asked him where he was when corpses of covid patients were floating in the Ganga river and has questioned his intentions to appear on the scene with the stories of ‘Abba Jan’ when elections are on the horizon.

It is an open secret that the BJP cannot fight any election with an agenda other than communalism and spreading hatred among people. The electoral strategies of the party solely revolve around maligning Muslims and causing polarization of voters. By downgrading Muslims with the concocted stories of ‘ration swallow up’and ‘abbajan’, Yogi is trying to coax the Hindu voters for re-seeking his election as Chief Minister for one more term. With similar tricks and stratagems, BJP fought the latest elections in West Bengal and Delhi. No stone was left unturned by the party to polarize voters on the basis of religion. Every possible attempt was made to depict Muslims in a bad light. But all strategies of the party fell to the ground. Both Modi and Yogi who campaigned for the party in these states had to cut a sorry figure. With the taste of recent defeats in the background, BJP and its leaders are tense with regard to the upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh. It is the critical compulsion of the BJP to give precedence to politics of hatred and communalism to retain its power in Uttar Pradesh, the last bastion to remain in power for long. For consolidating its vote bank, the party is expected to employ all possible kinds of trickeries, maneuvers, tactics, and ploys along with money and muscle powers. The stories of ‘ration’ and ‘abba jan’ appear to be minuscule fragments of mega plansfor seizing the power once again in Uttar Pradesh.

The jibes Yogi Adityanath is taking today at Muslims are akin to some expressions used by Modi in 2017 for the Assembly Elections in Uttar Pradesh. The words were ’Qabrastan and Shamshan’. What Modi meant by it was that when graveyards for Muslims are granted in villages crematoria should be established as well. When electricity is supplied in villagesfull day on the days of Eid, such a facility should be available for Hindus too on the occasion of Holy. Though these were not new issues, the logic of giving a religious complexion to them worked well and fetched landslide victory to the party. The coining of jargons of ‘ration’ and ‘abbajan’ for election purposes appears to have been learned by Yogi Adityanath from Modi. However, the intended influence of the new jargon did not last long. The vehement opposition and protests for the jibes by leaders of opposition parties and Muslims across the country punctured the balloons of arrogance and pride of Yogi Adityanath. The politics through jargons of ‘Abbajana’ and ‘ration’ cannot hide the failures of Modi and Yogi governments in controlling inflation, unemployment, Covid pandemic. Today both of them are unpopular for their dishonesty, irresponsibility, and indifference. BJP leaders know well that talking about real issues would damage the prospects of the party. So the last hope of the party to retain power is to play communal cards. The political planks with misleading issues of Aligarh, Abba Jaan, ration etc, have failed miserably. Now, the party may whip up the issues of Ram Mandir and Article 370. Possibilities of riots before elections cannot also be ruled out. The dispute regarding the Eidgah in Mathura may be driven to make it occupy the headlines. There is no strong leader in the opposition to counter the BJP. No doubt Akhilesh Yadav is a ray of hope, but he lacks the skills to counter BJP by taking the issues head-on in the manner done by Mamta Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal. Amidst all plans to mislead voters and cause confusion the glad tidings are more and more people are coming to know the game plans and true intentions of the party. The resentment and opposition graphs towards the party and its leaders in the state are rapidly moving upwards. If a strong anti-incumbency wave runs across the state in the wake of prevailing bad administration, then no one can prevent BJP from tasting defeat in the upcoming elections.

Successive victories often plunge the victor into indifference and arrogance. Conversely, fear of defeat humbles an individual,making him become down-to-earth and realize his mistakes.But, of what use would late repentance be?

In the last few years, everyone whether a supporter or opposer of the Modi-led government, has protested directly or indirectly, explicitly or implicitly, against the everyday increasing rates of inflation and fuel prices. Even, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on several occasions drew the attention of the government to show how badly the common man was hit by the issues. Unfortunately, the government instead of addressing the issues turned a Nelson’s eye to the sufferings of the common man. But, the setback suffered by the ruling party in recent bye-elections to 29 Assembly and 3LokSabha Constituencies has brought the central government to its senses. Barely a day after the election results, the Union government slashed rates of petrol and diesel, and walking in its footsteps, Karnataka and almost all other states in the
federal setup have announced further reductions in exercise duty on fuel in their respective territories. This move would no doubt bring some relief to dissatisfied citizens. Reacting to the announcements, the Congress Party has derided the government and said that it is not the concern for the people but the election defeats of the ruling party that hascompelled it to cut fuel rates slightly. Besides fuel prices, the other factors that have contributed to the defeat of the BJP are the growing levels of inflation, unemployment in the country as well as the deteriorating law and order situations in the states ruled by it.

The party has suffered its worst defeats in Himachal Pradesh where it lost three Assembly constituencies and a Parliamentary seat to the Congress. Despite its shortcomings, the BJP along with its allies has managed to register a victory in 14 out of the 29 Assembly and 2 out of the 3 parliamentary constituencies.
The performance of the Congress Party in Assam was highly disappointing as the party failed to bag even a single seat out of the five. Though the party had fielded candidates having winning potentials and worked hard, the percentage of votes polled in its favour and for the ruling party which was 40 and 50 respectively,
made the difference. The BJP with its allies swept the Northeast states and the Congress was left empty￾handed. In Bihar, the scuffle between the Congress and the RJD parties in entering into an alliance for sharing seats enabled the ruling JD(U) to win both the seats in the bye-polls. Had the Congress and RJD agreed for one seat each, the JD(U) would have been stripped of victory in both the constituencies.

Ultimately, the results of the bye-elections have made it amply clear that the upcoming Assembly elections in 2022 in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Manipur, and Jharkhand are not going to be a cakewalk for the BJP. The humiliating defeat it has suffered in Himachal Pradesh denotes that the resentment of the
people at the party is rapidly rising upwards. Growing unemployment, rising inflation, falling GDP, skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, high rates of fuel and LPG, and worsening law and orderhave remained the main issues in the recent bye-polls. Added to these, opposition to the three farm reform laws
against which farmers across the country have been protesting for over a year also had its play in deciding the electoral fates of the parties. If the state of affairs continues as it is today without any remedial changes being effected, then the issues that ruled the roost in the latest bye-polls will again dominate the
upcoming Assembly Elections in 2022, andof course with more intensity. Fighting elections against those issues might be extremely challenging for the BJP and the prevailing circumstances might facilitate the return of Congress to power. On the flip side, Congress and other parties need to realize that non
addressal of the said issues by the BJP-led government at the centre would not solely guarantee them victory in the upcoming elections. To garland BJP with defeat, it is imperative for Congress and other secular parties to get united on points of commonalities and face the elections.

The BJP may be drawing solace that a section of voters under the intoxication of the feelings of hatred against Muslims and other minorities, moral policing, etc. are overlooking the prevalent issues of unemployment, inflation, poverty, and so on. They are not able to notice the failures of the BJP government but are engaged in spreading disharmony through a variety of slogans and phrases such as Abbajan Abbajan, Love Jihad, Ghar Wapasi, and others. The BJP while assessing the real situation must not place reliance on this category of voters alone but must take into account the growing political awareness and the maturity levels of voters collectively and take steps to arrest the discontentment of voters by properly attending to the issues under discussion. It is the right time for the BJP government to take
seriously the mandate of people in the bye-elections and come up with effective policies to abate the sufferings of people under the impact of the said issues. Lest, the results of the upcoming elections in 2022 may not be to its full expectations and in the post-results, constraints may emerge calling for immediate addressing of the issues, in the same way as lowering of fuel prices following results of the recent bye-poll. Let Indians not wait for another occasion to welcome addressing of issues as ‘crying over spilt milk’ in the aftermath of another election results.