Identity politics

The recent landslide win of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh has caught many "secularist" political pundits off guard. In their postmortem analysis, they pin it all on BJP's evil an divisive identity politics. But the truth is, identity politics is a worldwide phenomenon... Not something that has been "misused" by the "evil" BJP. When Obama contested for president of the USA for the first time, he was able to mobilize the African Americans like never before. When Trump contested for president of the USA last year, he was able to mobilize the "high-school educated, low income, whites". Yes, in UP, BJP did play religious politics (appealing to the Hindus) but the BSP and SP have played both Caste politics (identity based on Caste) and religious politics (appealing to Muslims). The Congress lost grounds in most states in the 60s and 70s because they weren't able to appeal to the ethnic fault lines in those states... the regional parties did and they have never left Congress even a sniff of power in local politics. But Congress did turn into a populist party (politics of convenience) but it was too late by then. The only place Congress is successful at the regional level is Kerala, where it has clearly been playing identity politics very conveniently (appealing to Christians in the Kottayam belt, appealing to the Hindus of Malabar and appealing to the Muslims of Malappuram and Kasaragod) and has the support of the Muslim League, which clearly, as the name suggests is appealing to the Muslims… I don’t recall a time when Malappuram voted the Muslim League out of power for poor governance and corruption. This is the unfortunate state of affairs in global politics… identity over ideology. A consolation to this dirty affair that identity politics is that we are in a democracy and there are checks and balances… Even with a negligible presence in the Indian parliament, the Congress is able to filibuster the BJP’s legislation proposals. We are lucky not to be in Saudi Arabia or China, where identity is the only politics. Democratic politics is as Churchill once said, “the worst form of government, except for all the others.”