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Comment by vijaybritto | Hacker News Reader

I have learnt a very valuable lesson about my country's people at the face of the fascist govt. Caste affinity triumphs anything and everything. No matter how cruel the BJP is, their core vote bank which is the Upper caste population are not going to deviate away from them. The BJP has perfected formulas to win elections using hook or crook in every state now.

Modi is going to do more fascist stuff and take away rights one after another. The supporters will keep inventing reasons every single time. It will always point to the caste order's interests

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Pardon me for interrupting in the middle of a “LITERALLY HITLER REEE!” but LOL if you don’t think every every other political party isn’t trying to appeal to some caste or the other particularly at the local level. Of course they do because democratic politics is about people first and ideas second. In India jati is the basic unit of society, in Ancient Greece it was the Demos (which is exactly the same thing) and in other countries yet other tribal groupings.

But that’s not the end of it. Sure Hindus (who are not nearly as monolithic as you think) appreciate that BJP seems to be supporting their values but that in itself would not have been enough. Modi’s success comes from being perceived as someone who gets things done. I was recently Gujarat UP and Delhi and talked to people from all walks of life. There’s a huge amount of optimism that life is getting better and rightly or wrongly Modi is getting credit for it. Maybe it’s a mirage. Maybe it would have been just as good with someone else but this is in fact the perception on the ground and those who want an alternative ignore it at their peril.

Yup he gets things done. Just like he got a pogrom done and shown their place.

Also thank you for proving my point above. Lol

Dear Britto, can you elaborate on the pogrom with the facts please. No hyperbole, no lies, no hearsay. Please provide all proper sources. Or else, apologize for spreading fake news, smearing a group of people and ignoring or denying actual pogroms like that happened in Kashmir.

If you cannot do either, you need to wear the garland of shame, lies and more.

> Upper caste population

Chill. I thought Upper caste population is the smallest size.

Ok so your point has been proven. Now what’s the plan? You’re going to build a time machine and go back undo the “pogrom”?

If you have time travel technology I’ll definitely vote for you.

Meanwhile back in reality the one who has a compelling vision for the future and a plausible record in executing it will win the election. Do you have someone like that in mind?

I’m not a bjp supporter by any chance, but this logic isn’t sound. if anything bjp wants to ignore the caste logic and combine all Hindu vote bank, I believe that’s how they won. Their religious arm even goes out and says this out loud that caste was only created after/during British colonization (true or not) and it didn’t exist in Vedas. They got 40 percent of the country’s vote in last election, do you mean 40 percent of the Country are upper caste Hindus and every single one of them voted for the bjp? Our current president from a scheduled tribe. Understanding bjp is the key to defeating them

I specifically mentioned that the upper castes are their 'core' vote bank and not their only vote bank.

They have a large support from other castes now because Muslims are the enemies now. Until this narrative stays they will stay.

This tribal president and the previous dalit president are exactly what I mean by their election winning formula. I'm not sure what's illogical in any of this because this is literally what they themselves speak about in every election meeting.

Ummm - Modi is from one of the backward classes. Amit Shah is a Jain not Hindu upper caste. The president is a tribal woman. This whole upper caste bashing doesn’t reflect reality.

FYI, Though the ideologies are different Jains socially are just another Hindu sect and definitely upper caste by any definition.

But otherwise agree with you. Yogi Adityanath another possible successor to Modi is also not from a privileged background.

Amit Shah is not a Jain. Agree otherwise. Caste is a very lazy lens to apply to the situation. Indian political parties are about power, every one of them has been illiberal. There’s BJP, but also DMK and Trinamool, who are just as intolerant of dissent at state level.

In Telangana, someone was arrested for making fun of the CM’s nose: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/andhra-student-arre...

These are all parties that are opposed to the BJP. I wish there were parties that are committed to liberalism, rule of law and institution building in India. Not very optimistic at the moment.

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