oppn parties South Versus North: Dangerous Narrative

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South Versus North: Dangerous Narrative

By Linus Garg
First publised on 2024-02-04 07:24:28

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.

It is indeed ironical that when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is walking from Mizoram to Mumbai to jodo (join) Bharat, members of his party are talking about Bharat todo (break). D K Suresh Kumar, Congress MP from Bengaluru Rural and brother of Karnataka deputy chief minister D K Shivakumar has said that since the southern states were being treated in a step-motherly manner by the Centre and since the amount collected as taxes from them is being given to states in the north, the time has come for a separate nation of southern states. Whatever the reason or excuse for making such an inflammatory demand, Suresh Kumar is guilty of talking about breaking India which is a serious offence.

Earlier too, after the BJP won the three large Hindi heartland states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, there were disparaging comments in the south about the cow belt and North Indians having a different DNA. An attempt was made to create a north south divide which was in bad taste. Before that, the southern states were rightly piqued that despite doing a wonderful job in family planning campaigns, they were penalized by getting lower Lok Sabha seats.

There may be several grievances that are peculiar to states in south India. In a federal structure, these grievances need to be raised in proper forum and redressal should be sought from democratic institutions meant for such issues. But to politicize each and every issue, to claim that the states in the south are superior to those in the north or to otherwise lower the esteem of people from the northern states (DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran said people from UP and Bihar "clean toilets" in Tamil Nadu) is in bad taste. It also shows them in poor light as despite claiming to be superior, they stoop so low to 'prove' their point. 

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