The Secular Collective

Modi promised us a New India during his campaigns, and just one day after the results were announced we hear a horrific story from Seoni, Madhya Pradesh - of how five cow vigilantes beat up three people (including a woman) for possession of beef. The police who rushed to the spot arrested the victims instead of catching the goons. But Subham Bhagel, one of the five guys, with utmost recklessness, uploads a video on Facebook of how he, along with his co-ideologues thrashed the victims - thinking this might make him the local attaboy (the link to his Facebook profile can be found below). He apparently belongs to a right wing fringe group called Shri Ram Sena which is known for Mangalore Pub Attack. The video goes viral, receives public condemnation, Subham deletes the video, but it was too late and the police were pressed to arrest the five. Subham now becomes the main accused, a merit that might win him BJP's candidature in the future. Click the link if you want to have a look...

As BJP's Narendra Modi who has always taken pride in calling himself a Hindu Nationalist wins big securing his second consecutive term today, Congress stands humiliated once again bagging only 52 of the 543 seats. It is very clear that right wing populism is on the rise in our country because, despite laugh-worthy policy mistakes in the last five years, rising unemployment and spewing hate during election campaigns, BJP has won massively. While the opposition has no clue of what went wrong, some people spin conspiracy theories around EVM malfunctioning, others believe Pulwama did the trick for Modi, and yet others blame it on the lacking persona of Rahul Gandhi. There are also people who feel BJP has bought all the journalists. I don't believe any of these to be true/right. The problem lies deeper. In Rushdie's words, reality moves phantom-wise beneath visible fiction subverting all its meanings. The real reason for Congress's defeat is their failure to under...