Econ_May_05_2018

40 / 100

40 Asia The Economist May 5th 2018
Indian politicians
Giggles and gaffes
FOR a novice politician fromone of
India’s smallest andmost remote
states, BiblapDeb hasmade a big name
for himself. Since assuming the leader-
ship of Tripura (population 4m) inMarch,
Mr Deb—who belongs to India’s ruling
Bharatiya Janata Party—has so often hit
national headlines that journalists now
hang on his everyword. Alas this is not
because of bold newpolicies, but rather
the silly things he says.
Earlier thismonthMr Deb told some
computer trainees they should be proud
that Indians invented high-tech commu-
nications “lakhs of years ago“ (a lakh is
100,000). Drawing on a passage in the
Mahabharata, an ancient Hindu epic, he
asked howSanjaya the charioteer could
have relayed a blow-by-blowaccount of
the progress of the battle ofKurukshetra
to hismaster, the blind KingDhritarash-
tra, without internet and satellite links
(the scene is pictured).
Scarcely had a stormof social-media
ridicule died down beforeMr Deb stirred
it againwith some impromptu remarks
on beauty pageants. He lamented the
victory of an Indianwoman in theMiss
World contest of1997who, he suggested,
failed tomatch classical ideals of femi-
nine beauty as represented by Laxmi and
Saraswati—the goddesses ofwealth and
wisdom. (Women should eschew
make-up and bathe inmud, he said.)
Soon after apologising for that, Mr Deb
was back to gaffe-making. Most recently
he has threatened that his critics should
have their nails cut off, because they are
like peoplewho spoil vegetables in the
market by poking at them.
Numerous higher-rankingmembers
of his party have had similar lapses.
Earlier this year Satyapal Singh, India’s
minister of state for human resources,
declared that the theory of evolutionwas
“scientificallywrong” because no one
had everwitnessed an ape turning into a
man. Mr Singh has also said that students
should be taught that a Vedic scholar
called Shivkar Babuji Talpade invented a
flyingmachine eight years before the
Wright Brothers. NarendraModi, the
primeminister, says his party’s poli-
ticians should cease to “givemasala to
themedia” with such utterances. But Mr
Modi himself has form. Before he be-
came primeminister, he suggested that
the elephant-headedHindu godGanesha
furnished proof that ancient Indians had
invented plastic surgery.
Some tribunes of the people love to talk tosh
Next time just ask Alexa, your majesty
I N THE first half of next year India will
notch up the usual array of superlatives
when the world’s biggest democracy
stages the largest voting event on the plan-
et. The parliamentary polls will also be
among the most expensive staged any-
where. The Centre for Media Studies in
Delhi estimated that campaign spending
in the elections that brought Narendra
Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
to power in 2014 was nearly $5bn, more
than twice as much as in the previous gen-
eral election and eclipsed only by the
amounts involved in America.
In Karnataka, a southern state of 64m
people (about as many as in France), par-
ties have been loosening their purse
strings for a crucial limbering-up. On May
12th voters there will vote in elections for
the state legislature, which is currently con-
trolledbyCongress, the country’smainop-
position party. If Congress wins in Karna-
taka, many analysts will conclude that it
might have a chance of performing at least
respectably in next year’s national polls,
even if the odds remain in Mr Modi’s fa-
vour. Victory for the BJP in Karnataka
wouldmakeMrModi a surer bet.
A study by the Association for Demo-
cratic Reforms, a non-partisan group advo-
cating transparency in campaign finance,
has found that in the year toMarch 2017 the
BJP has raised almost five times asmuch as
Congress for the national campaign. And
that is only the amount declared. Candi-
dates commonly exceed official spending
limits by ten to 100 times. Congress will
find it all the more difficult to fill its cam-
paign war-chest if it loses in Karnataka—
the only big Congress-held state with a
humming economy.
The BJP has a chance in Karnataka. It is
the only one of the five southern states
where the party has ever succeeded in cap-
turing power (it did so in 2008, before los-
ing again to Congress in 2013). The state’s
uniquemix of religions, castes and linguis-
tic groups has proven surprisingly amena-
ble to the appeal of the BJP, a Hindu-
nationalist party which normally enjoys
strongest support in the Hindu “cow belt”
of western and northern India. In rural
and coastal regions of Karnataka that have
sizeable Muslim populations, the BJP’s lo-
cal bosses have tried to rouse Hindus’ re-
sentment against their “jihadi” neigh-
bours. Mr Modi has asked them to desist
and focus on his preferred themes: fighting
corruption and boosting the economy.
But the BJP has nominated a controver-
sial figure for the post of chief minister in
Karnataka (the winner will be chosen by
the new legislature). He is B.S. Yeddy-
urappa, who held the post during the last
periodof BJP control ofthe state.MrYeddy-
urappa’s government was accused of in-
volvement in illegal mining operations
that led to his criminal indictment and res-
ignation in 2011. (Hewas acquitted in 2016.)
Amit Shah, the party’s national head who
is Mr Modi’s right-hand man, inadvertent-
ly reminded his audience of this at a rally.
“If there were a competition of the most
corrupt government then the Yeddy-
urappa government is number one,” he
said. He had meant to say the government
of Siddaramaiah, the current chief minis-
ter (who has only one name).
The BJP, however, believes Mr Yeddy-
urappa canwin votes for the party. He is of
the Lingayat faith, which accounts for
about one-sixth of Karnataka’s electorate.
But Mr Siddaramaiah, a non-Lingayat, has
skilfully sided with a Lingayat faction that
wants the tradition to be treated as sepa-
rate from Hinduism. In recent polls Linga-
yats have mostly voted for the BJP. Some
may now turn to Congress.
Whichever side emerges victorious
when counting is finished onMay15thwill
claimthat the outcome is aharbinger ofthe
national fight to come. The barely con-
cealed anti-Muslim rhetoric of some BJP
candidates, and the hypocrisy of the
party’s efforts to wage an anti-corruption
campaign, may prove to be leading indica-
tors of uglier battles ahead. 7
Indian politics
Southern booty
BANGALORE
Elections in a big southern statewill be
closelywatched inDelhi
РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News"