Was Delhi victory for AAP completely on the developmental issues? No it's a mixed arithmetic.Why does kejriwal have to recite Hanuman chalisa or or provide free Hindu Pilgrimage (तीर्थयात्रा) or Chant Jai Hanuman or immediately after the victory go to Hanuman mandir with all the media around? He has time and again reinforced his 'Hindu' identity. Kejriwal had congratulated his twitter followers when Aurangzeb Road was renamed APJ Abdul Kalam Road. So he became a party to the Hindu rightist 's vision of the bad vs good Muslim. Kejriwal had supported the scrapping of Article 370 and had even distanced himself from the Shaheenbagh protest.
So, Even leaders like kejriwal now have to succumb to this 'soft Hindutva' and majoritarianism even after delivering on developmental goals and vociferously asserting it. Earlier it was wearing skullcap or visiting shrines or sharing the stage with a Muslim Maulana type leader to woo the Muslim voters. Now it's Ram and Hanuman. Let us not forget that the edifice of Hindutva has been built by the BJP on the foundations of Muslim appeasement by secular parties.When would this religious appeasement end?
Non-BJP Parties like AAP and Congress have taken the Muslim votes for granted and have started wooing the core BJP voters by the 'Soft Hindutva'. Where the choice is between soft and hard Hindutva, Muslim voters are bound to choose the former.Left is no longer the antidote of right. Unfortunately, Muslims are now bound to choose between different shades of Saffron. In the wake of extreme 'Hindutva' , this may be political pragmatism but It risks India becoming a nation where politics is arranged on the different wavelengths in the Right-wing spectrum.
