Politics of Sacrifice By Abhik Bhattacharya
Listen to excerpts from Outlook's India, that is Bharat issue by Pragya Vats
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#IndiaOrBharat #Elections #Politics #Controversy #StateElections #INDIAAlliance #BJP #ElectoralNarrative #BharatVsIndia #PublicOpinion #PoliticalLandscape #MadhyaPradeshElections #RajasthanElections #TelanganaElections #ChhattisgarhElections #MizoramElections
Transcript
00:00 I am Pragya and I bring to you excerpts from the current issue of Outlook, titled India
00:05 that is Bharat.
00:06 It looks at the ongoing state elections as a critical test of unity between the Congress
00:11 and its allies in the India coalition and whether the opposition combined can take on
00:17 the might of the BJP in the elections 2024.
00:21 Politics of Sacrifice by Abhig Bhattacharya from Outlook
00:25 In December 2016, a few weeks after demonetization, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing
00:31 a rally said, "Zyada se zyada kya kar lenge?
00:35 Are hum toh fakir aadmi hai, jhola leke nikal lenge.
00:39 What can my opponents do to me?
00:40 I am a hermit.
00:42 I will exit with my few belongings."
00:45 While this part of his speech became famous in the following days through social media,
00:49 it was not the first time that the projected image of a political leader as a fakir or
00:55 saint got political traction.
00:58 Since the days of Mahatma Gandhi, a true leader in India has been considered to be an embodiment
01:04 of three quintessential features - ascetism, sacrifice and celibacy.
01:10 Among these, the most powerful tool has been the evocation of sacrifice.
01:15 As Modi was shown meditating in a cave in Uttarakhand just a few days prior to the declaration
01:21 of 2019 general election results, his persona was viewed from the lens of abstinence, a
01:28 stage where a person sacrifices the comfort of material life to achieve some high moral
01:34 ground.
01:35 While the portrayal of Modi as a saintly figure is a part of Bharatiya Janata Party's decade-long
01:41 strategy in the last few years, projecting his spiritual side, spreading the message
01:46 of love, abandoning material comfort and showcasing a deep engagement in the ideal of seva, Rahul
01:54 Gandhi has emerged as the embodiment of the necessary saintly impulses that seem to counterweight
02:00 his rival's projected image.
02:02 However, one can't miss the differences in the evocation of the two forms of sacrifices.
02:09 On the one hand, there are Modi's references to his personal sacrifices, like leaving his
02:14 wife for indulging in the service of the nation, echoing Gautam Buddha's idea of sannyas.
02:21 On the other, the martyrdoms of Gandhi family members have never left the mindscape of Rahul
02:27 Gandhi.
02:28 Sugata Srinivas Raju, the author of Strange Burden, rightly says that whenever Rahul Gandhi
02:34 recounts the loss of his family members, he takes a 20-second pause and then talks about
02:40 forgiveness.
02:41 Since he joined politics, Gandhi has invoked the sacrifices of his father and grandmother
02:48 several times.
02:49 In March this year, when he was disqualified from Parliament, besides updating his status
02:55 as disqualified MP, he wrote, "Satya, sahas aur balidaan yeh hamari virasat hai aur yahi
03:03 hamari taakat bhi."
03:04 To emphasize the balidaan, the post was accompanied with a video that showed Priyanka Gandhi addressing
03:11 a rally and recalling her father's death.
03:14 In the backdrop, one can see the archival shots of Rahul Gandhi carrying the body of
03:19 his father during his last journey.
03:21 Priyanka Gandhi says, "Rahul got out of the car and carried the dead body of my father
03:27 in the scorching heat from Trimurti."
03:30 Now, the son of a shaheed PM is called anti-national.
03:34 Referring to the sacrifices of her family, she adds, "The democracy of the country
03:39 has been built upon the sacrifices my family members have made."
03:43 For this and more, read the current issue of Outlook.