BJP and Shiv Sena may be on a collision course, yet they have one common feature: the perennial search for an enemy. Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray used the war cry “Marathi manoos” against Tamils, Gujaratis, Muslims and later north Indians in general. For BJP and sangh parivar, from “Babur ki aulad” of the 1990s Ayodhya movement, to “Bangladeshi Muslims” today, the Muslim is the foremost enemy. While politicians keep creating enemies to build frenzied political movements against these enemies in order to grab power, the real need for people is to build trust. Without trust, as Amartya Sen has reminded us, there can be no vikas.
Enemy-focussed political mobilisation isn’t new. Indira Gandhi repeatedly invoked the “foreign hand” and “CIA Read More
