Madhya Pradesh polls: BJP's politics turns cow into party campaigner

Campaigning for the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections is in full swing. Vyapam scam whistleblower Dr Anand Rai tweeted a picture, which is said to have been taken in the capital city of Bhopal. The picture shows a cow painted in the colours of the Bhartiya Janata Party’s  (BJP’s) flag. A lotus can also be spotted on the cow’s belly. Rai tweeted, “Madhya Pradesh chunav men rashtra mata gaay se BJP ka prachar. Siyasat ka asar dekhiye, gaay bhi pracharak ho gayee. BJP rashtra bhakt, baki sab secular ho gaye.” (The 'mother of the nation' cow has been campaigning for the BJP in Madhya Pradesh. Politics had turned the cow into a campaigner. The BJP is the worshipper of the nation, while the others are seculars.)  

Divyang versus nishaktjan

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been criticised by some for coining the term divyang , or 'divine limb/body', to refer to differently abled people, instead of viklang, which means physically challenged. If imitation is the best form of flattery, and the Prime Minister has received a vote of confidence for that term from an unlikely source. The Congress manifesto for the Chhattisgarh assembly polls, released on Friday, refers to the differently abled as divyang. However, the Congress manifesto for Madhya Pradesh, released 24-hours later on Saturday, doesn't use the term divyang, but refers to them as nishaktjan. 

The PM had first suggested the use of the term divyang in 2015. The Union government has started using the word in some of its official communication.

Me or my son

In an interesting turn of events, the Congress has had to replace its candidate from Burhanpur in Madhya Pradesh. The party had initially announced Hamid Kazi's name from that assembly seat, but local leaders vehemently opposed his candidature. Kazi informed the party that he had been convicted for a two-year-term and his appeal against the judgment was pending. He opted out of the race, saying he was not sure how the case against him would unravel. While he demanded a ticket for his son Noor Kazi, the Congress, after much deliberation, named Ravindra Mahajan as its candidate from the seat.