Bengaluru: It appears that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's civilisational politics has massively scored over caste politics by making Jai Bajrang Bali a massive issue in the runup to May 10 assembly election in Karnataka.
Bajrang Bali is one of the most popular and powerful Hindu deities, which is part and parcel of India's civilisation. He is also known as Sankat Vimochan (Crisis Reliever), and the Congress party's promise to ban Bajrang Dal in its poll manifesto seems to have worked as Sanjeevni Booti for the BJP.
A master at playing civilisational politics, PM Modi picked up the issue and said first the Congress locked up Sri Ram and now intends to lock Bajrang Bali in one of the election rallies. And in subsequent rallies asked the people to chant Jai Bajrang Bali before voting for the BJP to punish his abusers like Mallikarjun Kharge who called him a venomous snake.
This galvanized the Sangh Parivar which gave a clarion call to the people to come out in large numbers and chant Hanuman Chalisa to teach Congress party a lesson to ban Bajrang Bali, arguing that an insult to Bajrangis is an insult to Bajrang Bali who render social services and protect Hindus in the name of the Lord.
This was perceptibly seen when lakhs of people came out with life-size portraits of Lord Hanuman and dressed like the God, and chanting Jai Bajrang Bali during PM Modi's massive two-day roadshow.
Bajrang Bali, in Karnataka, is referred to as Lord Anjaneya and is widely worshipped.
According to Kishkinda Chapter of Ramayana, Lord Hanuman is said to have been born in the Anjanadri hills in Koppal district in Karnataka. In the epic, Kishkinda was the kingdom of the vanaras (monkey kingdom) where Lord Ram had first met Hanuman who helped him make the journey to Lanka where Mata Sita was held.
Firebrand Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh culled out the civilisational connection between his state and Karnataka during his poll rallies in various parts of the state. He said Lord Ram was born in Ayodhya and Hanuman in Karnataka and added that the proposal to ban Bajrang Dal by the Congress measured up to disrespecting the Hindu faith and no nationalist will tolerate this.
The BJP hopes this realignment of Hindu voters will galvanise people to vote for it on civilisational lines, not on caste lines. Speaking to a Kannada news channel, Union Minister Amit Shah said that this election will create history as people of Karnataka have decided not to vote on caste lines, indirectly saying voting will be done on civilisational lines.
The Basavaraj Bommai government has been working on developing the Anjanadri Hills as a major destination and had made a Rs 100 crore provision for this in the state budget last year.
Looking at the massive support for BJP's Jai Bajrang Bali slogan in the runup to the state hustings, Congress leaders including DK Shivakumar and Veerappa Moily quickly tried to neutralise the damage it did by deciding to ban Bajrang Dal.
Moily said there was no proposal before the party to ban Bajrang Dal and KPCC President DK Shivakumar promised to build Hanuman temples across Karnataka after coming to power.
It seems the Bajrang Bali issue has worked as Sanjeevni Booti (life-saving herb) and given fresh life and enthusiasm to party workers and Sangh activists who were sleeping over a few heavyweight BJP leaders joining Congress and JDS, after they were denied tickets.
In Ramayana, the Sanjeevani booti had saved the life of Lord Lakshman who was left comatose after a serious injury in the war. (UNI)
