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Jobs, prices matter more than anything else

The history of Indian elections proves that it is when political parties run short of substantive issues to target their rivals that they resort to emotive ones based on caste and religion.

Something of this kind seems to be happening in Karnataka in the run-up to the first phase of polling, after the murder of a college student in Hubballi-Dharwad by an assailant belonging to another community.

This was no doubt a dastardly attack on the girl at her campus with reports indicating that it could have happened because of a relationship going wrong.

Several outfits have tried to reap political advantage from the incident claiming that love jihad was involved even as parents of the accused pleaded that their son had committed a terrible act and deserved to be punished.

The case has now been handed over to the CID and it is in the best interests of all concerned that we wait for the report before jumping to conclusions about the motive.

There is no doubt that the offence is a really serious one but one can’t help wondering why politicians should convert it into a campaign tool for the upcoming parliament elections; Karnataka votes on April 26 - now just three days away and on May 7 and there have been attempts to harp on religious issues including the recent murder of the college student and the assault on a youth after Hanuman Chalisa was rendered during the Ramadan fasting.

‘Divide’ and reap the benefits seems to have become the favourite campaign weapon for these parties at a time when people are grappling with a series of problems including unemployment, rising prices, loss of jobs not to mention the severe drought which has taken its toll of the fortunes of farmers in the state.

And there is of course the severe water scarcity with most borewells drying up and people scrambling to meet their water needs by relying on water tankers.

Do religious and divisive issues really have an impact on people’s electoral choices?

Not always; all one has to do is recall the heady days before the May, 2023 Assembly polls in Karnataka after the Congress party, then in the Opposition, announced that it would ban outfits like the Bajrang Dal if it came to power.

The BJP was quick to seize on this claiming that this was an attack on Lord Hanuman himself, maybe in the hope that it would help draw the covers over the failings of the then Basavaraj Bommai government.

More pressing problems were fast forgotten with the Bajrang ban issue becoming the hottest topic during the elections but all that came to naught with the Congress sweeping to power in the state.

The BJP could garners only 66 seats - a far cry from the more than hundred it had won in 2019 proving how disastrous its focus on issues like the Bajrang Dal ban had proved to be.

This does not however mean that issues like Ram Mandir are not going to have an impact on the current polls.

On the contrary, going by reports, it is set to give the BJP a huge advantage in northern states including Uttar Pradesh.

So it is no surprise to hear the BJP’s top guns harping on the Ram Mandir construction and on the Sanatan Dharma controversy while proclaiming that faith is what matters most.

However, what a nation of 140 crores with a teeming population of educated and aware youngsters are looking forward to is a good life - for which a well earning job, nutritious good, a roof over one’s head and growth opportunities are an absolute essential.

Any political dispensation which shirks away from its responsibility of meeting these all important needs does not deserve a chance to be in power; for the change we are looking forward to so eagerly has to begin from the basics before we start chasing more ambitious dreams.