Electoral scene

How did the banks help BJP to win UP? https://www.cenfa.org/how-did-the-banks-help-bjp-to-win-up/   By Thomas Franco | March 11, 2022

Under PM Jan Dhan Yojana, 31.28 crore Rupay cards have been issued, and the account holders can avail a credit of Rs.5000.

​In UP alone 7,86,65,390 accounts have been opened of which 5,33,66,913 have been issued Rupay card. 7.8 crore accounts are a huge number!

​Under the PM Mudra Loan Scheme, you can avail a loan of Rs.50000 under ‘Shishu’ up to Rs.5 lakhs under ‘Kishore’ and upto Rs.10 lakhs as ‘Tarun’. So far in the country, as a whole 339332942 loans have been given (34 crore borrowers) with loan sanction of Rs.1826042.57 crore. In UP in the year 2019-20 alone 5861422 loans with an amount of Rs. 30949.36 crore were sanctioned.

So approximately 3.4 crore borrowers in UP have availed loans of Rs. 182604.2 crore. As per the 2011 census, UP had 3.34 crore households. That means every household had access to a loan that could give credit to the Prime Minister, Mr Modi.

https://twitter.com/TeestaSetalvad/status/1502224597558886400

36 Muslim candidates have won in UP 2022 (24 in 2017): 9 % legislators when population is 18-20 %.  Better than all-India rep of minorities in Lok Sabha (4.9 per cent of MPs) - Teesta Setalvad

How would the numbers stack up if those who did not (or could not) vote had in fact voted? Do the opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh not bear any responsibility for the fact that they did not work hard enough to ensure that more anti-BJP voters turned out on polling days? How hard did they work to make them feel safe, or wanted, or important? What role did the refusal of the opposition parties to take a clear stand against the brutal suppression by a Hindu fascist regime of Muslims and Dalits in Uttar Pradesh play in ensuring that many Muslims and Dalits in UP have no faith any longer in the political process? How may that have translated into the fear, apathy, and reticence of UP’s Muslim and Dalit voters? S Shukla

Those who are serious about the future of democracy in India might do well to reconsider their emotional over-investment in a rigged electoral system and return to reckoning with a politics of popular movements that seek to disarm power, not through the fakery of elections, but through sustained peaceful mass movements. This doesn’t necessarily mean you abandon elections and electoral politics. It means you see participation in elections as just one aspect of the vocabulary of a new politics. - Shuddhabrata  Sengupta..  for full text of post

Read more …

 UP Election Result : Rakesh Tikait ने बताया क्यों उनकी अपील के बाद भी जीत रही BJP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8aMC2k-M9I 
Mar 10, 2022 .  Voting and Andolan as methods of change need to be seperated, says Tikait. Farmers will still have faith in Andolan process, even though the way of garnering votes goes on a parallel track.   Andolan will continue, says tikait as the farmers issues are still pending.

while the Tikait response that the andolan track is distinct from the electoral track..may get those of us in the periphery of governance politics may get us some breath/breadth Those of us who work for system change need to re-examine how distant we are from our goals. We have not not been able to consolidate even the simple gains of democracy. workers and toiling peoples struggles, the women's and gender movement, the peace movement, the environment movements. While there were many in farmers movement who spoke of systemic issues, of organiic, decentralised production and marketing, there wasnt a groundswell of anger to the corporatisation and centralisation/monopolisation of agriculture. The peace movement could not make a dent into the polarisation on communal lines - perhaps the people votes on religious rather than caste lines. Perhaps the perception was that people has to choose btween one strong-man v/s the other , as they have done in Lakhimpur! Eithe way it is not only the Congress that has to introspect. Even the entire middle ground, and new progressive, and alternatives , or even the "Nirman" forces failed along with the "sangharsh". They weren't directly in the fight, but their ideas, values, analysis took a beating.. or are we going to say "pehle aap"?..