Breaking barriers

March 08, 2018 14:21

"With the Tripura outcome, many stereotypes have been broken. First, it is grossly inaccurate to attribute the BJP victory to any explicit anti-Muslim propaganda. The Bengalis of Tripura are predominantly from refugee families from erstwhile East Pakistan and Bangladesh. But Tripura, unlike West Bengal and Assam, doesn't have any significant Muslim population. If there was any hate politics at work, it was the accumulated hatred against the local tyranny of the Left - a phenomenon that Mamata Banerjee exploited in West Bengal. Hindu nationalism was not a factor in BJP's Tripura victory, though its existence in the larger BJP ecosystem didn't prove a deterrent either."

Swapan Dasgupta on the Tripura elections and what the vote signifies.
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