>>> The more educated and liberal voters (usually in urban centres) > > Why do ppl have such a dim view of the rural folks? > If you can rally such undim people behind caste, how much more >difficult is > it to rally them behind religion?
Actually there are people in rural areas who are equally concerned about freedom of expression, freedom of thought. (that is what i meant) And there are a great many people living in urban areas where BJP is seen as protector of their religion, culture, etc, under one large umbrella called hindutva which can mean anything when spoken from the bjp/vhp/ram sene mouths. In Bangalore they got their votes from housewives but promising Rs2000 to each housewife if voted to power. In Bellary if a family was given a Fridge or TV, it is not at all surprising. > Maslow's hierarchy of needs comes to mind. > family just for the next day, has to trudge a few kilometers > just to get drinking water,is > worried about the possible plight of minorities, and that too a In that case these folks would be too busy to come to vote at all. The question here is why vote against the BJP. > I'm sure it is. And obviously this is my POV, but some of the > efforts of Rahul Gandhi look to me to have > very significant and I am not aware of any similar efforts by those > in the > BJP. Add to that significant infighting within the BJP leadership. Which only means that BJP was overconfident and complacent. Yes, true. They were thinking that the elections were a mere formality and that they had won anyhow. The morons were even discussing who will get what portfolio in the new govt. > I would be interested to hear what you think the BJP will do to > Muslims/other religions if they come to power. With an overwhelming majority, Exactly what they did in Ayodhya, mangalore, hubli, mumbai, gujrat, malegaon, hyderabad, etc etc. > I would actually > look forward to a uniform civil code, That there is a civil code that is favouring one community over another IMHO seems to be an exaggerated lie told by the BJP. I sincerely request you to walk me through the specific grievance on that score. Very interesting to me. > reservations based on > economic status rather than caste/religion (though I doubt > this will ever come to pass, even if the BJP > comes to power). Since you think they might do something about it, you put it here. Its all an elaborate lie. To garner majority votes. Again and again in various different ways the BJP strategy is to do just that -pull wool over your eyes. Different wool for different folks. >> Why **not** Advani? > Perhaps a look at their respective resumes would help you > understand it. > Besides that, I like the fact that Singh's skills > lie in economics rather > than politics. You could also look at the structure which has > evolved in the > Congress Party - Singh as the PM, Sonia Gandhi as the party > manager, and > Rahul Gandhi as the grassroots worker looking to grow the party. The outright nauseating properties of the sangh parivar are enough to make ones mind against voting for them. After pokharan -II BJP went berserk. When the time came to support the nuclear deal, they behaved in a negative manner. Lukhman
