"Look at Kerala" call by BJP backfires as Karnataka rejects propaganda, says Kerala social media
Bengaluru: The recent election results in Karnataka have sparked a wave of celebration in the southern Indian state of Kerala. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promoted the film ‘The Kerala Story’ during the campaign, which is based on the ‘love jihad’ conspiracy theory and was criticized for being anti-Muslim and political propaganda by opposition parties. The BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, had warned the people of Karnataka to “look at Kerala” and suggested that if they did not vote for the BJP, their state would become like Kerala.
However, the election results in Karnataka showed that the people rejected this propaganda and looked for real issues. Congress emerged as the winner, which is being celebrated in Kerala as a victory over the BJP's hate campaign against the state. Kerala's social media is awash with trolls referring to the call by the BJP leaders to the voters of Karnataka to look at Kerala.
A report authored by KK Shahina for the Outlook sheds light upon how people in Kerala have been expressing their emotions over the development and how the Congress victory in Karnataka has become a subject of rejoicing in its neighboring state.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan commented on the victory of Congress, saying that "The entire South is liberated from BJP. This gives a clear indication of the future of the country. The Prime Minister camped for around 10 days for the campaign, yet the people of Karnataka rejected the hate campaign and gave a fitting reply."
The social media responses in Kerala suggest that an aggressive form of nationalism would cause the emergence of sub-nationalism as a form of resistance. The posts in Malayalam referring to the Dravidian identity of the South and the legacy of Basaveswara, the 12th-century Lingayat social reformer, and philosopher, gained wide popularity in the Facebook constituency of Kerala. A poster of ‘South India Story’ with the pictures of the Chief Minister of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana along with Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar went viral on social media.
Senior political leaders also joined the celebration on social media. Dr. Thomas Issac, CPI-M leader, and former Finance Minister, wrote on Facebook that the Karnataka results are a tight slap on the face of the BJP that spewed venom to win an election. He wrote, “In the last moment, they even tried their luck with a third-rate propaganda film ‘The Kerala Story’. The Home Minister Amit Shah took up the lead with a hate campaign against Kerala. Nothing worked in favor of them.”
Some other messages going around in Kerala’s social media circles are:
“Modi and Amit Shah reached Karnataka and asked the people to look at Kerala. They did and found no BJP there.”
“Amit Shah warned the people of Karnataka that Kerala is their neighboring State. If they don’t vote for BJP, Karnataka will become like Kerala. The people of Karnataka decided to be like Kerala.”
The social media responses in Kerala suggest that the mood set in these posts does not cater just to the cultural identity of Kerala but that of South India as a whole. The posts in Malayalam referring to the Dravidian identity of the South and the legacy of Basaveswara gained wide popularity in the Facebook constituency of Kerala. The victory of the Congress in Karnataka has been widely celebrated in Kerala as a moment of victory over the BJP's hate campaign against the state.
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Suicide abetment case: Accused who assaulted Latur man, called him Pakistani still at large
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (PTI): Police teams have been formed to apprehend the man who allegedly called a Latur resident "Pakistani" and assaulted him, an official said on Monday.
Amir Gafur Pathan (30), a resident of Latur city in central Maharashtra, allegedly hanged himself on the evening of May 4. His wife claimed that an unidentified person had accused him of being "Pakistani" and assaulted him a day before the incident.
Based on a complaint, the police have registered a case of abetment to suicide and criminal intimidation under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the official said.
"We are searching for the accused, and the police have sent teams to apprehend him," he said.
The deceased man's wife, Samrin Amir Pathan, who works as a deputy manager with a private bank in neighbouring Dharashiv, has stated in her complaint that he usually picked her up on a scooter when she returned by bus in the evening.
On May 3, when she got down in Latur city and called her husband, she overheard Pathan pleading with someone, asking the other person not to hit him.
Later, she found Pathan at Samvidhan Chowk with his shirt torn, she said in the complaint.
He told her that while he was waiting for her, an unknown person alighted a car, accused him of being from Kashmir and Pakistan, and assaulted him, the woman said.
The assailant claimed to be a journalist and threatened to make her husband's photos and videos viral on social media while labelling him as a Pakistani national, the woman further claimed.
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