What are kins supposed to do with political legacies? Well, they are expected to keep it intact while taking it forward. But in Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav is hellbent on outcasting his own father’s political theories and equation which took Lalu Yadav years to form. Tejashwi Yadav’s recent remarks on the loudspeaker row are an evident deposition of the same.
Tejashwi Yadav on Loudspeaker row
Tejashwi Yadav, since the day has stepped into politics is trying to carve out his niche and is drifting away from Lalu Yadav’s method of ‘politics’. Lalu Yadav throughout his political career relied on the M+Y equation and practised appeasement politics, well his son and political heir has rather taken a ‘secular’ line.
Tejashwi Yadav recently spoke on the ongoing loudspeaker row and presented forward his ‘secular’ approach. Yadav took to the micro-blogging site Twitter to make his remarks about the ongoing loudspeaker row. The leader of the opposition in Bihar wrote, “I want to ask a question to those who have made an issue out of loudspeakers. They were invented in 1925 and have been used in temples and mosques of India since the 1970s. Didn’t God exist when loudspeakers were not there? Didn’t prayer happen without loudspeakers?”
लाउडस्पीकर को मुद्दा बनाने वालों से पूछता हूँ कि Loud Speaker की खोज 1925 में हुई तथा भारत के मंदिरो/मस्जिदों में इसका उपयोग 70 के दशक के आसपास शुरू हुआ।
जब लाउडस्पीकर नहीं था तो भगवान और ख़ुदा नहीं थे क्या? बिना लाउडस्पीकर प्रार्थना, जागृति, भजन,भक्ति व साधना नहीं होती थी क्या?
— Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) May 1, 2022
Tejashwi traces a path unknown to RJD
The Rashtriya Janta Dal has ruled the state of Bihar for around 15 years and the essence of the party’s politics was appeasement of Yadavs and Muslims. Contrary to his political legacy, Tejashwi commented that communal colour is being given to an unnecessary issue.
Read More-Lalu Yadav— a pariah in his own party
Any other leader apart from Tejashwi Yadav would have tried to encash this situation where the administrations are asking religious places to abide by court orders and follow permissible levels while using loudspeakers. Any other opposition party would have begun ranting about “PM Modi’s anti-Muslim agenda” keeping in view the removal of illegal loudspeakers from religious places in BJP ruled states.
But Tejashwi Yadav attempted to take a ‘secular’ approach, without blaming the incumbents and by giving up minority appeasement.
Why is Tejashwi Yadav doing so? Has he given up his father Lalu Yadav’s politics of appeasement? Actually not, Tejashwi Yadav’s secular approach stands deposit for the shrinking votebank of his party in Bihar.
Read More-The Bhumihar card played by Tejaswi proves that Lalu’s M+Y equation isn’t working
Tejashwi’s desperation advocates for shrinking M+Y voterbase
Tejashwi Yadav has learnt the fact that the M+Y equation engineered by Lalu Yadav is losing its relevance and he has begun acting upon the same. Well, only time will tell about the benefits his actions will reap.
Tejashwi Yadav, as soon as he lost the Bihar assembly election ditched his legacy and is moving towards making RJD a party of all. In the assembly elections, the minority pockets that were once a stronghold of the RJD, were swept by Assaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM. AIMIM won 5 seats, out of 14 Muslim dominated constituencies it contested and majorly dented the Mahagathbandhan in the rest of the constituencies where it did not manage to register a victory.
On the other hand, the NDA alliance in Bihar, most apt to say the Bhartiya Janta Party in Bihar has started catering the Yadavs along with non-Yadav OBCs, with the sole agenda of breaking RJD’s hegemony over the Yadavs of Bihar.
After witnessing that both the loyal votebanks of the Rashtriya Janta Dal are drifting away from the party, Tejashwi Yadav began a brilliant psy-op and began portraying as forwards in the state are voting for RJD. His psy-op gained pace after the party’s win in Bochcha bypolls, where he advocated that the Bhumihar community have sided with the RJD.
The above-mentioned incidents prove that the statement on loudspeaker row has been spoken by the RJD supremo was in desperation to present himself as an inclusive leader. It was an attempt to woo the Hindus and especially forwards by painting himself as a ‘secular’ leader.
