Maharashtra Polls | Playing to the gallery, Devendra Fadnavis style

From attending iftar parties to wearing a skull cap while chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis today has turned to uncouth references and false allegations, perhaps in an attempt to fit in with the other BJP chief ministers.

Yogi Adityanath’s slogan, ‘Batengey toh katengey’, was not the real shocker. What else could be expected from a chief minister, who, despite holding a constitutional post in a secular country, had declared in his Assembly: “I am a Hindu, I don’t celebrate Eid. I wear the sacred thread, and I won’t wear a topi.”

Nor was it shocking to hear Prime Minister Narendra Modi inform Jharkhand’s tribals at an election rally that under the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) government, “infiltrators” were stealing their daughters. This was just a logical extension of what he’d told Hindus in the Lok Sabha elections: that the Congress would steal their mangalsutras and cows and give them to Muslims.

As for Union Home Minister Amit Shah warning farmers in Maharashtra that a Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government would result in the Wakf Board taking away their land — despite being in charge of the nation’s law and order, Shah has remained the same man who was, as far back as the 2014 Lok Sabha campaign, served with a notice by the election commission, when it was the watchdog it no longer is.

The real shocker in the current elections came from a man who was at one time, not known for intemperate public utterances. Devendra Fadnavis’ tenure as Maharashtra chief minister from 2014 to 2019 was somewhat of a surprise.

When he assumed office in October 2014, the Modi regime was in place, Uttar Pradesh was reeling under riots, and ‘love jihad’ and ‘go to Pakistan’ campaigns had begun. Fadnavis started his term ominously, with a beef ban, and a government letter describing madrasa students as ‘out of school’ children.

But after this, in his five-year term, there was little baiting of Muslims. Indeed, not only did this RSS member attend iftar parties, where he wore a Bohra cap, a keffiyeh, and asked the gathering to pray for ‘Allah ki dua’, he even promised to implement reservations for backward caste Muslims.

Last week, this same Fadnavis told a public rally that even a dog wouldn’t pee on (emperor) Aurangzeb’s grave. This transformation didn’t happen overnight. The sudden ousting of the BJP from power after the 2019 Assembly results was the beginning.

Even the Covid-19 lockdown didn’t stop Fadnavis as Leader of the Opposition from raising the communal temperature, be it on the lynching of two sadhus (by Hindus), or the closure of temples.

Even that could be understood as arising out of frustration at the unexpected turn of events in 2019. But his tone didn't change even after he engineered a split in the Shiv Sena and took over as deputy chief minister in June 2022. Uncouth references to ‘Janaab’ and ‘Aurangzeb ki aulad’, false allegations of Pakistani flags being flaunted in Uddhav Thackeray’s rallies… Fadnavis had finally found his rightful place in the phalanx of BJP chief ministers known for their coarse utterances. Expectedly, his jibes were met with raucous cheers from the audience.

Today’s is a post-2014 audience, used to such abuse. There was a time when people went to election meetings to hear orators such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and George Fernandes. But even in that era, speakers such as Bal Thackeray were hugely popular. The Shiv Sena chief was known for his ‘Thackeri bhasha’, a mix of one-liners, sexual innuendo, and mockery of women. Yet, even an audience used to these was reportedly put off by his crude mimicry of Sonia Gandhi in the 1999 Maharashtra Assembly elections.

Today’s audiences seem not to have such thresholds of tolerance. For the last 10 years, the diet they’ve been fattened on, has left them hungry for more. Uddhav Thackeray’s speeches are a world apart from his father’s. Loyal Shiv Sainiks throng his rallies, but he gets the most claps when he raises the pitch or resorts to undignified language.

The same phenomenon was seen last week at an All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) rally in Mumbai. The audience made appropriate noises as the candidate, a local activist making his electoral debut, reeled out the ways in which the area had the worst human development indices.

But the wildest response came when he indulged in hyperbolic descriptions of hijabs being ‘snatched away’ and girls being ‘unveiled’, referring to a local college’s hijab ban.

As they waited to hear more of the same from the star speaker, the audience was shown a mirror by Akbaruddin Owaisi. He knew what they expected from his speech, he said, but this time, he would only urge them to give a chance to this committed candidate to change their lives.

It is ironic that a speaker known for his inflammatory speeches can restrain himself even in front of his vote bank, but a politician once known for his sobriety coarsens himself and stoops in an attempt to conquer his vote bank.

Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls will take place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP will be going up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress try to make their mark. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faces a new challenge after Hemant Soren's recent arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP. The Haryana election resulted in a shock loss for Congress, which was looking to galvanize on the Lok Sabha poll performance, while J&K also saw the grand old party eventually stepping away from the cabinet, with Omar Abdullah's JKNC forming government. It remains to be seen if the upcoming polls help BJP cement its position further or provide a fillip to I.N.D.I.A. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.

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