Explained : Bangladesh Deadlock: If Cricket Moves South, It’s Admission of North’s Poisonous Politics and Its Impact

There is another angle to the story.

South India is far removed from the impact of Hindutva. Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh are states where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has never formed a government and has a very minuscule presence.

Karnataka is the only South Indian state where the BJP has a substantial social base and has successfully formed governments in the past.

In Kerala, the BJP has recently won local body elections in Thiruvananthapuram and could install its own mayor, a first, and also has an MP.

In Tamil Nadu, the BJP has been trying very hard to make a breakthrough but has failed miserably. Since the demise of Jayalalithaa, the BJP has been trying to control AIADMK politics, but has not succeeded beyond a point. Tamil Nadu is the land of Periyar, who, much before Independence, launched an anti-Brahmanical, anti-Hindi movement.

In Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the BJP has again not been able to make any breakthrough. It has no option but to piggyback on regional parties.

Since 2014, the BJP has played a different game to take control of the politics of these four states. The governors appointed by the Central government have made life miserable for state governments. They are behaving like Opposition leaders—and a power centre unto themselves.

All the South Indian states, except Andhra Pradesh where the BJP is an alliance partner with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), have another serious complaints that they are being penalised for being states who have been doing a good job on the issue of economic development, and North Indian states are pampered at their cost despite having record of bad progress and economic development, and falling behind south on all the human and social indices. They say that they earn more money, which is then spent on the North Indian states.

North Indian states are being pampered despite being losers. Then, South Indian states are also worried about delimitation, and they are right when they argue that after delimitation, South India will lose its political power too, and the North will relatively gain much more in terms of seats in the national parliament, due to not working on population control. 

Their concerns are genuine, and they should be addressed in time.

If in Telangana and Tamil Nadu the per capita income is around $4,500, then in Bihar it is less than $900.

One more thing that needs to be noticed is that in their own way, these states are far away from the Hindu-Muslim binary, which has become the defining creed in North and East India. Hindutva forces are dictating terms to social groups. Minority groups and their institutions are majorly targeted.

Members of the minority communities are facing targeted violence by Hindutva bigots—and earning a bad name for the country. The Central and state governments are directly or indirectly sponsoring such lumpenisation of politics. The Mustafizur Rahman incident is a strong example of how these elements are dictating terms to the government. 

If Bangladesh matches are shifted to the South, then it will be an admission of the fact that divisive and poisonous politics has created an atmosphere in which even a cricket match can become a source of law and order problem; that social cohesion is the first guarantee for the civilised and peaceful life; and that politics around religion is bringing global embarrassment for the country.

And, above all, that Hindutva is no guarantee for bringing back the old Indian glory which it espouses so vociferously. It’s only a slogan devoid of any substance.

(The writer is an author and former spokesperson of AAP. He can be reached at @ashutosh83B. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)