The deep strategy behind the stupid ‘mytho-scientific’ statements of BJP leaders

Samvartha ‘Sahil’ | coastaldigest.com
April 19, 2018

Biplab Kumar Deb, the Chief Minister of Tripura, recently made a controversial comment which has since then gone viral and within a day has garnered support from many including the Governor of the state. Speaking at a Regional Workshop on Computerisation and Reforms at Pragna Bhawan in Agartala on April 17, 2018, the Bharatiya Janata Party leader said that the internet was invented by India and substantiated his claim by explaining thus: "Internet and satellite communication had existed in the days of Mahabharata. How could Sanjaya (the charioteer of King Dhritarashtra in the epic) give a detailed account and description to the blind king about the battle of Kurukshetra? It means internet was there, the satellites and that technology were there in this country at that time.”

As expected the statement met great criticism where the social media went mad mocking the statement and extending it to severe jokes around the text of Mahabharata and the possible connections one could make to the details of the text with internet and satellite.

While on the surface it appears like an act of stupidity on the part of the BJP to be repeatedly making similar statements, if one has to think why the party members make such statements, even if they believe it to be true, again and again when every time their statements of this kind is laughed at mocked at and ridiculed.

What looks like an act of stupidity might be a strategy too, it appears.

The reason for me to arrive at this suspicion is simple: When someone from the Sangh Parivar makes such claims, within no time the critics of the BJP and the RSS along with some liberals come up with several memes and jokes which more than often appear like ridiculing the text of Mahabharata and Ramayana than actually ridiculing the BJP or the RSS. This to the majoritarian community members, including a lot of apolitical kinds, get a feeling that their religion is facing threat and is being disrespected. This sense of threat makes them extend their support to the BJP which claims to be for the safeguard of the majoritarian community. So when the saffronists make stupid statements and invite the opponents and liberals to respond to it, the chief beneficiary is the BJP and its mother institution the RSS.

This works for the BJP and the RSS as they wish because of the decades of work they have done by which they have politicized religion and more importantly historicized mythology and mystified history. Years of effort has not just made Ayodhaya, a historically not so significant pilgrimage centre for the Hindus, into a significant centre in the minds of the Hindus, but also linked the mythological texts of Mahabharata and Ramayana to the identity of Hindus. Though it was Anandavardhana who centuries ago first called the ‘kaavya’ of Mahabharata, a ‘shaastra’, bringing about a major shift in the way epics are perceived, it was the 20th century politics of the RSS which linked both Mahabharata and especially Ramayana, to the identity of the Hindus and also politicized religion and thus the texts. With that achieved now whenever who critiques the texts of Mahabharata and Ramayana or mocks at it, end up not just “hurting the religious sentiments” of Hindus, though neither of them are religious texts, but also cements the support of Hindus for the BJP.

The greatest tragedy of all this is the texts of Mahabharata and Ramayana becoming either a text to worship or ridicule. While the BJP and its supporters do a religious reading of the epics, the liberals and radicals do a very ideological reading of the epics. Both the extremes fail to see the texts as poetry, as an inquiry into the human existence. Both the extremes distort the inherent philosophy of the text. In this boxing ring we all have lost a poetry which has the ability to illuminate our lives.

If it’s the poetry which is lost in this tug of war, the clear cut winner is of course the BJP, which reaps the benefits also of the criticism that comes their way.

The radicals need to find ways in which the strategies of the BJP can be punctured; especially when it comes to texts such as Mahabharata and Ramayana. Else the valid and creative criticism of the ways in which the BJP looks at these texts will go a waste and only become a cause for strengthening the base of the BJP. While it is difficult now for the radicals to call out the BJP for distorting the epics by politicizing them, the least they can do and should do is not to fall into the trap and help the rightist ideology.

 

[Samvartha ‘Sahil’ is a freelance writer based out of Manipal, Karnataka. An alumnus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi and the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune he has earlier worked as an academician at Manipal University and as a journalist with The Hindu. His book on the travel experiences in Jammu and Kashmir during the 2016 uprising is about to be published by the Karnataka Sahitya Akademi.]

Comments

Arron Menezes
 - 
Saturday, 12 May 2018

This is a  valid explanation. either i too dnt see any possible benefit in connecting religion to todays science.

there is one more point, negative publicity also makes more impact than positive one. ridiculing our epics will create impact as rightly said attacking religious views, and feeling of endangerment.

 

Indians are by and far religious in nature and anything spoken against, religion or god makes them offended. that negativity will subliminally helps to negate anything else to flurish. Reasoning becomes less when one is overwhelmed by negativity.

 

nice article. looking forward for more.

J. M.
 - 
Friday, 20 Apr 2018

seems like a typical left conspiracy theorist.

 

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

- Hanlons Razer

Hari
 - 
Thursday, 19 Apr 2018

The reason behind the "fool decision" strategy is simple..

 

 
By those decision we may mock them, but wont protest against him. and he can easily divert people's attention from the actual issue/sim/trick

Xavier
 - 
Thursday, 19 Apr 2018

Even Modi's intention is different.. actually they making us fool by pretending as fools. That Digital money issue proves their hidden agenda. He made Paytm owner a richer guy by  one night.

Danish
 - 
Thursday, 19 Apr 2018

Great observation.. good job sahil

Kumar
 - 
Thursday, 19 Apr 2018

True.. Some fools might be there in BJP but party wont consist fully with only fools

Ganesh
 - 
Thursday, 19 Apr 2018

I felt the same. They are making us fool

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coastaldigest.com news network
July 1,2020

Udupi, July 1: In a concerning development, another SSLC student in Udupi district has tested positive for covid-19.

With this the number of covid-19 patients among SSLC students in the coastal district rose to three. All of them are girls.

The fresh case has been reported from Byndoor. She has already written three papers.

She had reportedly developed some of the symptoms and hence her throat swabs were sent for testing on June 30. Today she received positive report, sources said.

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News Network
April 15,2020

Mumbai, Apr 15: A 35-year-old man, who worked as a priest in suburban Kandivali, allegedly committed suicide on Tuesday afternoon, hours after learning that lockdown to contain coronavirus has been extended.

The deceased was identified as Krishna Pujari, native of Udupi in Karnataka, who was attached to Durga Mata temple in Iraniwadi area of Sanjay Nagar.

Pujari, who lived with three other priests, was waiting for the lockdown to end as he wanted to go back to his hometown, a police official said.

When he learnt that the lockdown has been extended till May 3, he was terribly depressed and allegedly hanged himself in kitchen, the official added.

No suicide note has been found, he said.

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coastaldigest.com web desk
July 15,2020

Bengaluru, July 15: The family members of a 67-year-old man, who had developed some symptoms of Covid-19, was in for a rude shock when a “reputed” private hospital in Bengaluru’s Whitefield quoted estimated bill of Rs 9.09 lakh for 10 days.

The elderly man was rushed to Columbia Asia Hospital even before receiving his covid-19 test report. But after a look at the estimated bill, the family chose not to admit him there.

The break-up of the estimated bill included Rs 1.40 lakh for ventilator, Rs 3 lakh for medicines, medical supplies and consumables, Rs 2 lakh for laboratory investigations, Rs 75,000 for room rent, Rs 75,000 towards professional fee, Rs 58,500 for nursing charges, Rs 35,000 for radiology investigations and physiotherapy, and Rs 25,000 for equipment and surgical items.

The hospital authorities reportedly told the family members that the actual bill could be higher in the event of complications, unanticipated extension of stay and comorbidities.

“He was tested on Sunday and we were waiting for the result. On Monday, he started gasping for breath. Columbia Asia Hospital told us they had an ICU bed and we rushed him to the emergency care. When they showed us the estimate, we were shocked,” said Abdul Bashir, a nephew of the patient.

“We then contacted Dr Taha Mateen of HBS Hospital through an NGO ‘Mercy Mission’. We got him admitted there for just Rs 25,000,” he said adding that Hospitals should not take advantage when emotions are running high. 

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