National Special Articles

How Leftist Pro-Congress Propaganda Outlets Came Together To Run A Flop Show And Other Meltdowns On BJP’s Victory In Hindi Heartland

December 5, 2023
The Commune

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s victory in 3 states in the Hindi heartland seems to have left the pro-Congress and leftist propaganda outlets with a lot of heartburn. Let’s take a look at how the meltdown occurred and what kind of reasons were named for the failure of the Congress to stop the BJP from winning in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh. 

While it was a surprise for almost everyone that BJP won Chhattisgarh, it seemed like the Congress itself was pretty sure that it would lose the polls in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Here is how the leftist media melted down after the results were announced.

The Wire

While this article published in the leftist media portal, The Wire, came out in November 2023, it seemed to have been trying to set the stage already for the loss by blaming EVMs. 

Alleged psephologist and failed politician Yogendra Yadav wrote in The Wire that the claims of an imminent Lok Sabha hat-trick were actually a narrative that was being set and that there were challenges. He claimed that despite winning three states, the BJP received fewer overall votes than the Congress in the four states (Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, MP, and Telangana). He wrote that historical patterns show Lok Sabha outcomes differ from state assembly results and that the BJP’s challenge was to maintain its seats, while the Congress, with nothing to lose, was eyeing national gains. In the 2024 scenario, using assembly results, the BJP Yogendra Yadav feels might lose 19 seats, and the Congress could gain 22, signalling a “potential shift” despite the claimed hat-trick.

Newslaundry, The News Minute & Other “Independent” Media

The Newslaundry in partnership with The News Minute conducted a live streaming of election results analysis on counting day. 

They streamed for nearly 8 hours and going by the comments it felt as if the viewers had come by only to leave “Moye Moye” comments and have a field day laughing at the meltdown of the people on screen. 

Newslaundry and TNM were seen begging for donations through their videos as well as their newsletters and are said to have collected election funds to cover the 5 state elections. Their goal was to collect Rs 44 lakhs and they ended up collecting close to 20 lakhs. The initial viewership was not even 2000. 

YouTuber Kushal Mehra pointed this out and wrote on his social media handle, “Newslaundry did a 7-hour livestream where, for 4 hours, people in their live chat were typing moye moye.”

Geopolitical analyst Abhijit Iyer-Mitra ridiculed how the “independent media” portals begged for donations and how the audience reacted to it.

Here is another video of the “begging”. 

In the same video, one viewer had even left timestamps for future viewers to enjoy the meltdown.

Speaking about Madhya Pradesh, Wire journalist Arfa Khanum Sherwani discusses the strategy that one had to adopt while doing politics. In a video clipping from the “independent media’s” 8-hour livestream, she said, “When we went around in Madhya Pradesh, the politics of soft Hindutva, all of us here will probably not be in agreement of it, there is an idea that the pressure of Hindutva is so much on Indian politics that you cannot do idealistic politics and you have to make this side also happy. Once you win the elections, then you can do secular politics.”.

Other Leftist Reactions

Some other leftists were also having a meltdown blaming the “illiterate voter” of the Hindi belt. Here are a few reactions:

 

Meltdown In The South

Down south was no different. In an election analysis programme conducted by News18, a pro-BJP speaker said talking about DMK spokesperson and advocate Saravanan who is fondly referred to as Melting Point Saravanan in X circles, “He is lecturing about social justice, social justice is just lip service. Vengaivasal still remains the same, last week also some incident happened in a school. Time and again social justice is suppressed in Tamil Nadu. This is not the Dravidian Model. This is Maximum Politics, Minimum Governance. This is the Tamil Nadu model. The DMK is only capable of doing this and nothing else. The Dravidian Model is for their party not for the people of TN.”

In response, Saravanan said, “He is speaking as he wants to about the Dravidian Model, looks like he is in a victorious joy. He will speak like that only. You cannot just blabber as you wish, just keep your mouth shut for some time.”

He added, “You do not know what the Dravidian Model is, let me explain. People from all castes can become priests, this was done by DMK’s Dravidian Model for the first time in India.”

Refuting this, BJP spokie, Srikant Karunesh said, “Try making people from all castes the head of DMK party then. From 1964 till date, there have been 13 leaders in the party and it has always been Karunanidhi, Karunanidhi, Karunanidhi, Stalin, Stalin, Stalin, and then Udhayanidhi, Udhayanidhi, Udhayanidhi. How is this social justice, ask them to change it.” 

To this, Saravanan said, “Hey you, Shut up!”

Other leftist propagandists were also melting down. One example is alleged journalist, Swati Chaturvedi, who blamed Udhayanidhi Stalin’s “eradicate Sanathana Dharma” remarks as the reason for the Congress’ loss. She wrote, “The Sanatan Dharam attack may have given Jr Stalin a national public profile but has cost the Congress a huge loss in the North. The BJP expertly played up the indiscreet sweeping comment & the voter heard no Cong repudiation”

Quoting Swati, a Dalit activist from TN, Shalin Maria Lawrence, felt those remarks were blown out of proportion by the national leaders and that the news reached only the urban crowd and not the rural people. She rebuked Swati and said, “Let me put it as bluntly as possible. Udhayanidhi’s comment on Sanatana was made a big issue by BJP TN and very few national leaders. And the news only reached urban crowds who follow politics and IT wing groups.Which might look like a big num (hindsight bias) which it is not .In fact most voters from rural areas who form a big chunk of the population are neither on social media nor are they exposed to news room debates .And the comment was not that strong that it would send a ripple across the country. It made for poorly written articles on communemag and opi India.That’s it . Therefore to think that a tribal person from Chattisgarh,a farmer from MP ,or a marginalised person from Rajasthan came to know about Udhay’s comment and voted against Congress is laughable. It’s the most stupid thing to say . In fact DMK has said more notorious anti -brahmin stuff and is still won in parliamentary election alliances . Do read and cultivate knowledge.”

Netizens showed Shalin the mirror for underestimating the rural public and their sentiments towards the comments made by Udhayanidhi Stalin.

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