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”