Mockery of Code of Conduct

On March 16, 2024, the Election Commission of India announced a surprisingly long duration of the Lok Sabha elections and with it came into force the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). The MCC is a set of guidelines issued to regulate political parties and candidates prior to elections. The rules range from issues related to speeches, polling day, polling booths, portfolios, the content of election manifestos, processions, and general conduct, so that free and fair elections are conducted. One of the most important points in the MCC for a diverse country like India is:

“No party or candidate shall include in any activity which may aggravate existing differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different castes and communities, religious or linguistic.”

The MCC also says:

 “..Criticism of other parties or their workers based on unverified allegations or distortion shall be avoided.”

“There shall be no appeal to caste or communal feelings for securing votes. Mosques, Churches, Temples or other places of worship shall not be used as forum for election propaganda.”

Sadly, it is neither surprising nor unexpected that the BJP leaders and campaigners are blatantly spreading hate on the basis of religion and lies. I wrote about BJP’s numero uno campaigner’s hate and lies in this blog post. Scroll journalists Tabassum Barnagarwala and Abhik Deb did the unenvious job of going through 5 days worth of speeches by the numero uno and fact checking each and every claim. They found a plethora of lies and divisive statements.

Other ministers and campaigners of the BJP took their cue from the parivar pramukh and spread similar lies and hate. Here are just some highlights low lights:

Amit Shah said in West Bengal that Mamta Banerjee’s government is one of “mullas, madrassas and mafia”

Violating multiple points of the MCC in one speech in West Bengal, the UP chief minister, Ajay Bisht said that “Bengali Hindus participated in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement to demolish the structure of slavery”

(HindutvaWatch is an excellent resource to see the amount of hate done by Hindutvavadis. But it is extremely depressing as well. Please use discretion while going through their timeline. Kudos to them for doing this amazing documentation work!)

Union Minister Anurag Thakur (of goli maaro saalo ko fame) said in Himachal Pradesh that in Congress manifesto it is written that they plan to give your (Hindu) children's property to Muslims.

It says a lot about our political discourse and mainstream media that the BJP believes it can get away with spreading lies about what is written in the Congress manifesto when it is the easiest fact check in the world. On 1^st May, students from Galgotiya University in Noida marched to the Congress headquarters in Delhi to protest against supposed references to inheritance tax and wealth redistribution in their manifesto. Sadly, many students could not answer simple questions about their concern, motive or placards. Even more depressing and concerning were the reading skills of some of the college students.

The BJP’s Instagram account went many steps further in spreading hate and lies. They uploaded this horrible crude video building on the lies about the Congress manifesto redistributing wealth but going many steps further (and back) directly comparing it to the Muslim league. The video, which has thankfully been taken down, also says that ancient India was so prosperous that ‘each and every’ average citizen had plenty of gold and ‘invaders’ looted us and destroyed temples. It actually has this line – “If you are a non-Muslim, Congress will snatch your wealth and distribute it to Muslims”.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission of India (an independent, constitutional body in charge of conducting free and fair elections) seems to have adopted the original Japanese proverb – “see not, hear not, say not.” They have taken no action themselves against BJP for the blatant lies, hate speech, use of religious symbols or targeting of minorities. When the Congress party, CPI(M) and civil society activists urged them to act, they behaved as if the Prime Minister is Lord Voldemort and sent a notice to BJP President JP Nadda asking for comments on behalf of BJP's “star campaigners” instead of directly seeking explanations from the biggest “star” himself.

In related news, there is also a huge concern over the Election Commission’s voter turnout data. There was an unprecedented delay in releasing the data after the first two phases of the election. The voter turnout data for the first phase was released 11 days after  polling ended, while the second phase data was released 4 days afterwards.

It is indeed sad that the Election Commission of India is in such disarray. It has an illustrious history of conducting successful elections in the biggest democracy in the world. The first Chief Election Commissioner of India, Sukumar Sen, not only oversaw India’s first two elections, but also was the first Chief Election Commissioner of Sudan. This excellent episode on the Bharatiya Junta Podcast talks about him in the context of India’s first ever elections.

Why are the current Election Commission members acting so helpless then? The answer may lie in how they are being appointed. Last year in March, a Supreme Court Constitution Bench ruled that the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners must be done on the recommendation of a committee consisting of the Chief Justice of India (CJI), the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha. This would ensure an impartial selection. However, on 12^th December 2023, the BJP cleared a Bill which changed the committee to remove the CJI and instead replace him/her with a Union Cabinet minister nominated by the prime minister. Oh and it just so happens that when this Bill was cleared, 146 opposition MPs were suspended from Parliament. This again was unprecedented.

3 months after passing the new law to appoint Election Commissioners and just weeks before the biggest election in the world, Arun Goel, whose term was supposed to last till 2027, quit suddenly. No one knows the reason but there are rumours of rifts with the current CEC, Rajiv Kumar. Goel is not the only Commissioner to quit suddenly. In August 2020, Ashok Lavasa, resigned just months short of becoming the Chief Election Commissioner. He was the only member of the 3-person commission to rule that PM Modi violated the Model Code of Conduct while campaigning for the 2019 general elections. His demand that dissent notes should be recorded in the commission’s orders on model code violations was rejected with a majority vote. ‘Coincidentally,’ his wife, sister and son had all received notices from the Income Tax department.

After Arun Goel resigned suddenly, the Government of India appointed 2 new Election Commissioners just two days before the elections were announced. The ‘impartial’ committee headed by PM Modi did not give any time to the only opposition member in the committee - Congress Leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. The names of shortlisted officers were not made available to him in advance despite his request. The Government sent him the names of over 200 officers just one day before on Wednesday, 13^th March. On Thursday, he was given a short list of 6 names just moments before the meeting. Then Amit Shah proposed two names and PM Modi asked him for his “opinion”. Small mercy for following process, at least for the sake of it. For what its worth, Chowdhury recorded his formal dissent and the Supreme Court heard the case due to many petitions filed challenging the validity of the law on the appointment of election commissioners. However, since the general elections were just around the corner, the Supreme Court did not want to take any actions and just “reprimanded” the government and said that they could have examined the names more slowly. Thank you, my lords! This wonderful cartoon by PenPencilDraw completely sums up the current situation:

 

 

 

Another Surat robbery

I remember reading about Shivaji Maharaj's plunder of Surat in my school history text books. Those took place in the 17th century. On April 22, 2024, another robbery happened in Surat. The BJP's candidate for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Mukesh Dalal, was elected unopposed from Surat. The last time such an instance took place was 35 years ago. How did this happen? Here is a gist of the murky story:

Nilesh Kumbhani (Congress)

The biggest opposition for Mukesh Dalal was the Indian National Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani. He filed his nomination on April 18. He had 3 proposers (at least one is needed for recognized parties while independent candidates or smaller parties need ten). The 3 proposers were: his business partner, nephew and brother-in-law. 

On April 20, election officials summoned Kumbhani and other candidates to scrutinise their papers, a routine affair. But, Kumbhani did not show up at the scheduled time. The BJP's candidate agent, Dineshbhai Jodhani, submitted a complaint asking to investigate one of Kumbhani's proponent. Just 90 minutes after that, Kumbhani's three proponents turned up with "affidavits" claiming that their signatures on Kumbhani's form were forged. A fantastic investigation by Newslaundry found out that all these affidavits were purchased on the same day within a span of 5 minutes and all have consecutive serial numbers. All the affidavits were notarized by a BJP leader Kiran Ghoghari who also happens to be a lawyer. When Newslaundry journalists did their job questioning Jodhani, he answered a few questions and then told them, “If you ask too many questions, there will be trouble.”

Meanwhile, Kumbhani did not keep his party leadership in the loop about this grave matter. They found out through the District Magistrate's office. When the local leadership tried to call him, he kept ignoring their calls. After finally showing himself at the DM's office, he told everyone that his proponents (business partner, nephew and brother-in-law) are missing and he will keep trying to contact them. He then left around 5 pm and has been MISSING since then. The Congress has now suspended him for 6 years. They say he was either colluding with the BJP or completely careless. No prizes for guessing the answer.

Other candidates


Was Nilesh Kumbhani the only opposing candidate to Mukesh Dalal? Not at all. In fact, there was another candidate from the Congress itself - Suresh Palsada. His proposer was his nephew, who also submitted an affidavit saying his signature was forged. Of course, this affidavit was also purchased along with those from Kumbhani's proponents and notarized by the same BJP leader cum lawyer - Kiran Ghoghari. Hence, both the Congress candidates were disqualified. As an aside, Ghoghari apparently charged the Congress proponents 5 times his usual rate. They / someone paid Rs. 2500 per affidavit. I guess just making history (this was the BJP's first unopposed win) is not enough. One needs to make money too.


Is this the end? No.


There were 8 other candidates. Did their proposers also submit affidavits alleging forgery? No. There needs to be variety in murky dramas. All the remaining 8 candidates withdrew from polls on the very last day i.e. 22nd April. Scroll tried to contact all of them. Here is what some of them who could be contacted said:


Kishore Dayani (Independent): “I ran because Surat has a very bad traffic problem and I wanted to raise that issue. On Monday, a well-known person who is a supporter of the BJP met me and said that the party has plans to solve traffic problems in the city, like a metro project, so I need not run.”


Jayesh Mevada (Global Republican Party): “I wanted to change the poor state of this nation. “But if the Congress with all its might is not fighting, why should I? It is better to let our visionary Prime Minister Narendra Modi change our country.”


Ajitsinh Umat (Independent): “I was essentially fighting against the Congress ideology. Once they fell out of the race, I saw no point in contesting.”


Bharat Prajapati (Independent): “I went into depression so I withdrew.”


Ramesh Baraiya (Independent): “I am going back to my village.”


Sohel Shaikh (Log Party): “I withdrew just like that.”

The Allahbad-based Log Party is led by retired Indian Administrative Service officer Vijay Shankar Pandey. When Pandey heard the news that the Congress candidate’s nomination had been rejected, he saw it as a good opportunity to lead the charge against the BJP in Surat. He tried calling him but (shockingly) his phone was switched off. Even their lawyer couldn't reach him. As expected, Shaikh did not consult the party and his decision to withdraw was unilateral. Pandey said, “We have all been kept in the dark. This is sheer opportunism. This is the rotten state of politics in our country.”

What is surprising to me is why the BJP chose to pull off this trick in Surat of all places. They have won the last 9 general elections from Surat. In 2019 they had a vote share of 74%. Maybe they wanted to send a trial balloon and gauge the feedback? Either way, Indian politics has now successfully robbed the voters of Surat from exercising their vote in this election. In the words of the Tamil Nadu IT Minister - Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, maybe Democracy in India is already dead, and in this election, we're just in its wake.

Lagegi Aag

On the night of April 21, 2024, I happened to read and get deeply invested in two seemingly disconnected news items, which I realise now how related they are:

First

Our great supreme leader, the honourable fancy dress competition winner, said yesterday in an election rally in Rajasthan that the Congress party wants to take your wealth and give it to those who have more children and (if that particularly horrible stereotype peddling wasn't enough) "infiltrators". Then he went on to say that they are planning to take wealth and gold from women and give them to Muslims and that they will also take your mangalsutra. Oh, and if all of this wasn't enough, he used the dog whistle of "urban naxals" too. This was all in a 2 minute clip. I haven't heard the full speech from the rally. All of these are lies, hate speech and propaganda. That the PM of a country which has 22 crore Muslim citizens says this is just unimaginably horrible. If a fact check is needed, one can read this statement in the PMO archives themselves (from an era where PMO actually stood for something). The clarification is really worth reading. It is something which each and every Indian government as well as the powerful elite should strive to do. The Congress manifesto of 2024 too is worth reading. It is well made as opposed to the BJP manifesto which was released as a formality and contains 56 photos of Modi in different fancy dresses. My favourite is the CPI(M) manifesto but that's a different conversation. In the meantime, instead of reading different links, just see this amazing video on the hate speech and its fact check by Dr. Medussa:

Second

Chinmay Mandlekar (popular Marathi actor) and his wife Neha are facing immense trolling ever since the right wing trolls found out that their son's name is Jehangir. Trolls are pouncing on the fact that Chinmay has played Shivaji Maharaj multiple times on film and TV. They both have released statements. Neha's statement is good and worth hearing. Chinmay's statement has some problematic aspects like patriarchal language ("head of the household") and refusing to utter any 'M' words like Mughal or Muslim. Chinmay is also fiercely 'apolitical' and says that he has voted for different parties in every election and has never promoted any specific party. That holds up well upon a cursory glance of his Instagram timeline. But he has played the significant role of Farooq Ahmed Dar a.k.a Bitta Karate in the "oscar award worthy" film Kashmir Files. The film resulted in actual Islamophobic slogans in theatres and its success prompted a glut of other propaganda films. Granted that Chinmay did not make the film and perhaps for him getting a role in a big Bollywood film was a big deal. He might have acted very well too (I haven't seen it) but after the movie came out and he saw it (hopefully) and the reactions and discourse around it, shouldn't he be feeling any remorse? It’s a difficult question to answer but it is an important question to ponder. On a related note, Adil Hussain recently expressed regret on playing a role in the horribly misogynist film Kabir Singh made by Sandeep Reddy Vanga (director of ‘Animal’). Adil said that he finished his scene in one day but after seeing the movie he felt embarrased and hoped that his wife will never see the movie. This is the kind of reflection that we need.

Coming back to our supreme leader behaving like a Bajrang Dal shakha pramukh and making deplorable comments – the rot stems from the top. Seeing the PM make such statements gives impetus to all his ministers (chief or otherwise) to say similar and more horrible things. The Election Commission of India being mute spectators and mainstream media just ‘reporting’ the speech as it is without fact checks or calling it out, gives even more leeway to hate mongers. This trickles down to common people and they start believing that it is normal and actually rewarding to say such statements. And ultimately, social media which breaks the barrier between celebrities and their fans/haters makes it possible to say whatever you like to celebrities. The trolls who are hounding the Madlekars for naming their son Jehnagir are just building on the Muslim hate espoused by their hero, the Prime Minister. 

I really feel bad for the Mandlekars and even more so for their 11 year old son. They should not have to go through this. It’s great that they are standing up for this, albeit with some misplaced beliefs. But they and their oppressor caste community members (like me) need to realize soon that remaining ‘apolitical’ is a privilege and a complete disservice to humanity. Chinmay Mandlekar remaining apolitical, deciding to act in a propaganda film, remaining aloof about what is happening in his country and the world never thought that he will be personally affected by this just for naming his son Jehangir. But, as Rahat Indori has said, 

“Lagegi aag toh aayenge ghar kayi zad main

Yahan pe sirf hamara makaan thodi hai”

(Rough translation)

“Any fire will consume the whole neighbourhood

My house doesn’t stand apart on its own”

Farewell, my sanctuary

On a cold, windy February afternoon in Vienna, I was walking down my usual neighbourhood street, when I saw a small sign outside my favourite local cafe. I crossed the road to read it and got hit by the horrible news. Daniela's Back-Cafe, my sanctuary, is closing down. I pride myself on not getting attached to things or places. But then again, Daniela's cafe is was so much more than just a cafe for me. 

I consider myself lucky to live in Vienna, where there is such a historic cafe culture that the question, "What's your lieblings (favourite) cafe?" is a usual form of small talk. The Viennese cafe culture is part of the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage. I love the big cafes with the high ceiling, marble top tables, Thonet chairs, and newspaper holders. But Daniela's cafe was different. It was small, homely, and local. It was started by a woman entrepreneur - Daniela, who was ably supported by Sabine. Daniela's cafe did not have newspaper holders but it had a variety of newspapers that were passed around by the stammkunden (regular customers). Every season, Daniela's cafe would be decorated differently and tastefully. Birthday celebrations for the staff and friends would happen in the cafe itself. Table reservations were not needed. The special guests obviously had their stammtisch (regular's table). But if you did make a reservation, you would see your name written not on plain white paper but in chalk on a tiny blackboard mounted on an even tinier easel. 

View from my corner table

I moved to Vienna in November of 2018 as my wife was starting a PhD in Austria and noticed the cafe when our landlord was giving us the grätzl (neighbourhood) tour. Soon, I started going to Daniela's every other day. Often for just a lovely warm cup of coffee while occasionally indulging in a delicious breakfast of bacon and eggs with a butter crossaint on the side. Over time, my customizations of coffee with heiße (hot) milk and breakfast with crossaint instead of the Austrian Kaisersemmel (crusty star-shaped bread roll) became known to both Daniela and Sabine and I could just order kaffee (coffee) or Frühstück (breakfast) and my custom order would be delivered. When I took guests to the cafe, after taking their order, Sabine would confirm with me if I wanted the "usual."

The usual coffee

The usual breakfast

While I went to Daniela's cafe fairly regularly, it was nothing as compared to the real cafe regulars. They went each and every day, mostly at the same time. Just to have a coffee, read multiple newspapers, and chat. Some times they returned tupperware from the earlier day's take-away lunch just like you would with a friend or relative. I miss reading newspapers in Vienna. It was a big part of my life in India, and I've been lucky and privileged to have grown up in a family that reads multiple newspapers every day. Many times at home, we would ask, "Are you done reading Indian Expresss?" Hearing simlar questions and seeing the newspaper exchanges in Vienna was heartwarming for me. 

One of the most vivid (and pleasant) memories of the COVID-19 pandemic for me was the day Daniela's cafe opened just for take-away after the first lockdown. I was missing the cafe a lot and obviously went to get my usual coffee (first time in a take-way cup) on the first morning. There, I ran into one of the cafe regulars, and we were both so thrilled to see each other. As the years went by, I started chatting more with the regulars and they became a big part of my life. I used to inform them about my India trips, and they always wished me safe travels and good health. They were fascinated and curious about India and my life there. One time, after a relatively long conversation in my horrible, broken German, I apologized for my German not being good. They sweetly replied, "That's absolutely ok. Even we cannot speak Indian." It is worth mentioning that among the cafe regulars, I was by far the youngest and only non-white patron. But I was never made to feel aware of these differences. I got only warmth and pleasantness in the cafe from everyone. We were also invited for special Christmas and New Year's Eve celebrations. I too made it a point to get some Indian sweets for my cafe friends, which they thoroughly enjoyed every time. 

It's only been a month since we came back to Vienna from a 4-week trip back home to India. We went to the cafe and were greeted so warmly by Daniela and Sabine, asking about our health and travels. We had a long conversation with the cafe regulars and exchanged pleasantries with the non-regulars. Normally, coming back to Austria from India in the winter is quite depressing. In India, especially in Pune, December / January is the best time. The weather is pleasant, sunny and it is green despite being winter. There are lots of functions happening, so you're meeting many people constantly. Coming back to Austria in January, where it is freezing cold, grey and the trees are devoid of life, can be quite a disappointing change. But a visit to Daniela's cafe made us feel welcome and 'at home'.

In 2019, the initial 6 - 9 months after moving to Vienna were quite tough. My wife was suffering from anxiety, depression, and home sickness. It was my first time living out of my home, and I was also getting used to a lot of things. But I was lucky that I loved Vienna from the beginning and didn't mind the cold, grey weather. But it was important for me to get my own time to unwind and relax. My visits to Daniela's cafe played a huge role in giving me 30 minutes of relaxation and warmth that gave me support to face the remaining day. And that is why Daniela's Back-Cafe meant so much to me. It was my sanctuary. Farewell!