How secular is the Congress?

If you read my Oxblog post, you'll notice that I display no fondness for the secular credentials for the Congress. Some of the worst riots in Indian history, took place during Indira Gandhi's reign and her son Rajiv allowed the ram shila puja to be held at Ayodhya and was responsible for pandering to obscurantist sentiment through the Shah Bano case. But I would still argue that the BJP was much worse- this is particularly true in light of Gujarat and their more explicitly majoritarian philosophy. What is more worrying of course, is the news that the RSS believes that dilution of its ideology caused the loss in these elections, which might mean a return to more hardcore ideological politics.

Further, I think a number of commentators seem to conflate the rise of the BJP with the rise of Hindu nationalism. The two are related but separate phenomenon, and I would argue that the latter is far more dangerous than the former. It's worrying to see that the Congress too feels the need to adopt 'soft Hindutva' tactics in state elections, something that has even the RSS worried. Although perhaps it doesn't always pay off- as in Kerala. For a more detailed argument on the Congress, BJP and secularism, read this.


A short quick post- the Janata Dal (S) and the Congress seem ready for a tie up in Karnataka.

A good editorial in the Hindustan Times about Sonia's foreign origins.

Znet has three articles on India's elections. The one by P.Sainath is particularly good as it focusses on the disconsonance between 'mass reality' and the 'mass media'. It also helps to counter some of Drezner's argument about economic reforms in the country. The truth being that yes, while most of us, the English speaking middle class, are indeed better off, that can't be said for a vast majority. Naidu may convert Hyderabad into cyber city, but he will also remain culpable for the highest ever suicide rate among Andhra farmers.
response. They make good reading.