Eight years ago, when Amit Shah went to Uttar Pradesh as a BJP general secretary, he worked his magic to help the party win 71 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state. In 2017, as BJP president, he guided it to 312 out of 403 assembly seats. In the coming assembly polls, the home minister has picked the toughest assignment for himself— western Uttar Pradesh and Braj.
The electoral performance in western Uttar Pradesh, dominated by farming communities—especially the Jats—was key to the party’s success in both 2014 and 2017. But, the farmers’ protest changed things. Farmers in western Uttar Pradesh, perhaps inspired by the strategy of their counterparts in Punjab, were not allowing party leaders to campaign in their villages.
In view of the resilience of the agitation, the BJP has made a strategic retreat by announcing that the three contentious farm laws would be repealed. Earlier, too, the Modi government has shown that it weighs in the political cost of its policy decisions.
For instance, it went back on the land acquisition ordinance in 2015. It also made changes to the GST before the last assembly polls in Gujarat, to counter the anger among traders. With regard to the farm laws, BJP leaders said that “Hindu-Sikh unity” coming under threat weighed on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mind. “As the PM said, we tried to convince people, but we could not do so,” said Sardar R.P. Singh, BJP national spokesperson. “People were misled that their land would be taken by Adanis and Ambanis. We could not let [the situation in] Punjab go back to [the unrest in the] the 1980s and 1990s.”
Bu hikaye THE WEEK dergisinin December 05, 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye THE WEEK dergisinin December 05, 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Angry, Young America
Campus protests against the Gaza war continue to linger as students demand a realignment of US ties with Israel
We need to engage more with communities
Designer Aratrik Dev Varman of the label Tilla has long been a lover of history. One could comfortably call him part-aesthete, part-archeologist, for his clothes dip into vintage styles of the Kutch, Sindh, Balochistan and Afghanistan, bringing alive antique styles and crafts. Tilla, the store and atelier, are situated on a tree-lined avenue in Ahmedabad.
The great luxury slowdown
A year or so ago, if anyone had told me that Tommy Hilfiger would have stolen the show at New York’s Met Gala, I would have laughed. But it seems the end of giant luxury labels is upon us even before we expected it. The American ready-to-wear designer Tommy Hilfiger seems to have created the maximum media buzz at the 2024 Met Gala, according to several data analytics firms.
RAP BRINGS RAPTURE
How indie artistes, especially hip-hoppers, are driving the phenomenal rise of Malayalam music
Employability issues are a narrative created by the corporate world
Prof Yogesh Singh is the 23rd vice chancellor of the century-old University of Delhi (DU). An engineer with a PhD in computer engineering, Singh has an impressive track record of teaching, innovation and research in the area of software engineering. He has more than 250 publications and his book, Software Testing, published by the Cambridge University Press, is well-received internationally. In an interview with THE WEEK, Singh talks about trends in higher education in India, the challenges faced by big universities, and how to make higher education more interesting. Asked about the perception that Indian graduates are “not employable”, he reacts strongly, and emphasises the difference between training and higher education. Edited excerpts:
SERVING WITH DISTINCTION
Conceived as a university like no other, Jawaharlal Nehru University became India's best. Here is how
Mandela Effect and Liar's Dividend
The complex tapestry of AI's impact on society
The other Sabyasachi
I am Sabyasachi Mukherjee, not to be confused with my namesake, the celebrated fashion couturier, declared the venerated director-general of Mumbai’s pride, George Wittet’s Indo-Saracenic jewel, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, formerly known as the Prince of Wales Museum.
THE MANGO HUNTERS
'Naadan Maavukal' started out as a Facebook group, but what it does offline has helped conserve many indigenous varieties of mangoes
BJP LEADERS, TOO, HAVE HAD ENOUGH
Farmers’ protest has taken the centre stage in Haryana, which goes to the polls on May 25. Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is confident that the Congress, which has been out of power for 10 years, will regain its hold on the state. “People who voted for the BJP are disappointed today. It is clear that they want change,” he told THE WEEK.
