As state polls are announced, a look at Modi-Shah BJP’s method of co-opting regional cultural icons 

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There are two things unique about BJP:- 1. They understood the power of social media and it's role in changing people's minds pretty early. 2. They never take any election lightly.

I don't want to use the word "hijack". That's a smart way to inject it and then distance yourself.

The advantage BJP has is that congress will never felicitate any leader from their party apart from someone belonging to the nehru gandhi family. So BJP can co-opt any leader it wishes

You left out another Congress leader co opted by BJP - Pranab Mukherjee who was invited to RSS and given Bharat Ratna

I didn't know that BJP gave padma bhushan to tarun gogoi. Can't expect same from Congress.

just one correction: Bankim Chandra Chatterjee was not poet but primarily a novelist. Vande Mataram, is taken from the novel Anandamath.

Too much coverage of Modi, Shah or BJP might decrease your viewership because: " Modi-Shah jab naam sunave Pseudo liberal nikat na ave"

BJP is great at politics and has strong leadership compared to others. BJP has learned their lessons after losing many elections. They deserve to win.

SG might not be a fan of right wing politics but as political animal he's clearly in awe of BJP the election machinery 😀

Pakistan mein bhi BJP ki sarkaar aayegi 😂🙆🏻‍♀️

They don’t have problems co opting these icons because their politics is not “breaking india” type. India had cultural unity even before it became a republic.

One more icon whom BJP should never forget is Rahul Gandhi .. without him BJP can't win elections

Mother Teresa, who was engaged in conversion was conferred Bharat Retna .is " nationalism " Honoring Swamy Vivekanda is ' false nationalism " and part of hardcore Hindutva?

Question: after co-opting so many cultural icons, is BJP still "not inclusive"?

Bringing regional icons to the national stage is good. For too long have many of the regional icons been ignored or even erased from the public memory. This will definately give us the overall perspective of the great personalities in every part of our Country, instead of bandying a few family members since independence.

Congress' blunders have now become BJP s thunder!

I am a Bengali born and raised in Lucknow. And Mamata Banerjee throwing temper tantrums makes me cringe really hard.

If economy gets back it's feet, all India will be saffron!

As a Bihari, I am quite hopeful that if BJP come in Bengal, it will be better for Bihar, Bihar can't be developed without developing Bengal

Congress humiliated Kamraj and neglected him. He died a pauper. BJP has a right to claim him.

All the centrists unite at this channel and i like that. Very frank and mostly unbiased opinions these days. 🙌

BJP is good at politics and why's shouldn't they be coz It is what they do. I want congress back in the game without Rahul Gandhi because without them politics will become boring and also a strong opposition is good for democarcy.

Similarly, the day Manmohan Singh announces retirement from active politics, BJP will own him too...he will be given well-deserved Bharat Ratna to begin with..

Honouring leader's nothing wrong, expected norm is only Gandhi family. If others even mentioned, it's conspiracy.

Who is behind the think tank of BJP? Is it IAS officers 😂

It’s important to understand Islamic opposition to Vande Mataram. It brings up the question of loyalty - is Islam first or India first? For Hindus, India is their land just as Israel is for Jews. Hindus don’t force their personal god on anyone else. Why don’t we challenge Muslims to come up with alternatives for Vande Mataram that’s acceptable to everyone?

Statue to Patel, Bharat Ratna to Pranab Mukherjee, Teary tribute to Azad, Guys come on add more.

Shekhar's personal anecdotes and relating current affairs with his experiences and expertise makes the topic a lot interesting and interested viewers can then search more on the topic... Explaining cluttered information into chewable bites... He gives away a lot of information that one can refer too, this makes CTC so exclusive and genuine....

Mr.Shekar Gupta and Team deserve PhD's for Articles such as this.

In Tamilnadu mere naming few castes as Devedrakula will make INROADS as it makes pride I identify vote catching strategy

The bjp reaches out to everyone and co-opts leaders from every part of India - yet they are not inclusive - right SG?

You left one thing, Making Hima Das DSP in Assam.

.....As long as they are not one of the Gandhi's. 😂

K kamraj and Raja ji both were great scholars who were repeatedly humiliated by Nehru and Indira. Kamraj and Raja ji deserve praise from BJP.

Plot Twist:- BJP is just trying to revive the forgotten cultural icons

Btw when will we get a CTC on the new rules on social media and ott by the government. Thanks

*Fun Fact* : Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay was the author of the book “Anandamath”, from which the song “Vande Mataram” has been adopted. That book talked about a band of rebels who fought an armed revolution to establish a nation based on *Hindu Nationalism* . That book served as an inspiration for thousands of Bengali youths to take up arms for freedom struggle. Maybe that’s why BJP is very keen to adopt Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay while TMC always maintain a respectable distance from him.

Kamaraj was an amazing leader who is not remembered in national politics anymore. It's really sad. Also, Kamal Hassan is portraying himself as a scion of MGR than BJP.

Who had thought of names like Chotu Ram, Rani Gaindalu, Raja Suhaildev, and many more. Atleast names of these personalities has gone into the mainstream now. BJP is now increasing its core votes from Hinduism to now more cultural identities and therefore is becoming more expansive and well established.

Owaisi's presence is like good luck charm for The BJP.

“I am narendra you are devendra “- another entry into Tamil Nadu

Here're some numbers. *Phases in W.Bengal Election*:- 2021: 8 2016: 7 2011: 6 *Phases in Tamil Nadu Election*:- 2021: 1 2016: 1 2011: 1 Why are they acting like this is some totally unseen and crazy different plan? Feels like a pre-loss excuse to me!

Jihadis: every one is bhakt 😂😂😂

It's positive politics by BJP.

So what's wrong to adopting cluture of that group, it isn't called a nationalist thought to take all with them ? Rather than dived and ruled on based of region,caste,or something you name it.

Lutyens journos and Andolanjivis are failing to understand the underlying reason for Modi Shah strategy.....!!!

In TN at least, the BJP scored its biggest one yet by doing a really laudable thing. It has acceded a long standing demand of the Devendra Kula Vellalars.

It's not just Hindutva, Hindus were concerned seeing Congress opening doing their minority appeasement politics

Kind of sad to see Mr. Sekhar not remembering the name of the writter of Vande Mataram correctly.

Correction: Vande mataram was written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee

His full name is Bidhan Chandra Roy. The 1st C.M of W.B

What’s he saying? He keeps saying he’s taking facts. But almost 80% of his Monologue got is opinion based

What a joke . Myslims might gave cultural difference but muslim brotherhood is the unifying theme.. sach bolne mein darte hain gupta hee

BJP is doing this because Mamata Banerjee, atleast in rural Bengal has been successful in convincing people that this as a Bengali vs NonBengali election. She has run a “Bengal ki Beti” campaign. This is why BJP has to do this. You mentioned Tamil Nadu. There also the local parties have successfully kept out BJP by painting them as outsiders. BJP doesn’t use this strategy in other states as much.

Feel better that my party is so smart... give their best all the time

I think this "cut the clutter" becomes part of my daily routine....

I am already excited about the May 2nd episode of cut the clutter

I'm not a admirer of Congress, but Kamraj was a great leader and great nationalist. There has been no national leader of his stature from TN since Kamraj

Shekhar saheb now openly taking side... Cool. Keep it up

Hi sir please do a program to declutter various wars fought by india like 1962 war etc Great programe . You are neutral but most of the young journalists on your chanel are strongly biased against the ruling government please ask them to correct this .

More people should be inducted into BJP.

Today's remarkable 50 word edit shows that there's so much more to SG sir than politics

After BJP will Form Government in Bengal , you will see huge Ghar wapsi of nashya Shaikh community Nashya Shaikh are more than 45 million Divided in North Bengal and Lower Assam Some are there in Bangladesh too Sorry for my engalish 😁

Summary of Mr Shekhar’s full talk here - BJP ALWAYS remembers ALL deserving Indians, so BJP ALWAYS plays ONLY politics!

So many new topics popping up in the last couple of days. Must be challenging to choose one.

This is definitely one of the best CTC of this year. So much research and hard work must have gone to prove his points. This is the reason I pay and watch CTC. Also, I would like to add one more point, it's just not the cultural Icons from each region, Modiji also calls out and applauds all the common person from different states for their bravery, innovations etc in his famous 'Mann ki baat' show. And whenever I watch that show I see a man telling whole world about India and it's amazing & skillful people, there's just no political angle to it. It's very informative and inspiring to watch. Thank you Modiji for making me aware and proud of my own country.

1 like for 1st 1min - why we are here Mr. Gupta listing you👍

12:24 "Shah- Modi BJP"...was that Deliberate?

this is one of the most fascinating cut the clutter that i have heard. wonderful shekarji.

Most men in Bengal don't want to vote for Mamta because of her vicious temper tantrums

Old Congress had lot of Nationalists with Hindu thinking. But today Congress it is sin to be a Nationalist or proud Hindu. Today Congress will call Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's Congress as communal if he alive.

Sg there’s just a suggestion i think you should start giving topics for campus voice that was better and it makes everything easy!!

"I don't have that much wisdom"

i dont have that much wisdom ....lmao shekhar ...refined sense of humour...

BTW it's true that some of us who grew up during the congress tenure did forget that it was okay to be a Hindu in India.. Cultural liberation is what I experience today..

Mr Gupta in all expansive talk seems to ignore the fact that in this all India exercise of digging out Indian heroes of the past are being truly inclusive, and challenging The Family centrisism of the dying Congress. Also in his run around of accounts Mr Gupta makes a factual error by slight of hand - BJP did not rope Mr E Sreedharan. It was Mr E Sreedharan on his own volition opted to join the BJP. One of the key reasons that Mr Sreedharan offered was that he wanted to save Kerala from the prolonged misrule of both the Communists (LDF) and the Congress (UDF) and that only a government led by the BJP is capable of doing that.

He is trying his best to defend but reality is something else

I love the way mild sarcasm is directed at news channels. Very subtle and very nuanced - almost like a very lightly dressed salad.

Modi-Shah type of Cultural Nationalism required for India. Diversity in its True sense cannot be better handled by anyone else but these Nationalists. They manifest the 'Bharat to the World'👍

It's so refreshing that you are not doing poll prediction. Analysis is so important in today's day and age when there's too much information.

Dnt forget to mention Mr. Debi Prasad Ghosh of Jana Sangha.

Hey SG, will you make an episode on the recent regulations/guidelines for OTT platforms issued by the govt?

@ShekharGupta Please shift your uncut series to a new RU-vid channel as that video series is dragging @ThePrint 's RU-vid analytics because you feature political leaders which gets a lot of dislikes, you might not care about like/dislike ratio but RU-vid sure does. I was going through your analytics and it became apparent that your uncut series has a lot of dislikes.

Whoa, the BJP is really out-playing every other political party out there. BTW, this was a very insightful analysis. Thanks SG!

Nehru/Ghandhi family oppressed other top leaders in the party. What is wrong if BJP uses Kamaraj and other leaders.

Bharat Ratna to the legendary Dr (Late) Bhupen Hazarika in 2019 is another notable example from Assam.

Full marks for mayawatiji for learning and changing with the ever changing political scapes

BJP has real hardworking, smart set of people who think above their family's interests and control. It is foolish to expect a perfect party. BJP is better than everyone else for the country.

1st July Doctors day is actually Dr BC Roy's birthday... the day was selected for the said reason. And I very much doubt if Prasenjit Chatterjee is at all an icon in Bengal as you claimed.

Guptaji, one important aspect of BJP's politics is it kept the radical left out. This may sound bizarre but it is a fact. The radical left-led by Prashanth Bhushan and Shanti Bhushan wanted a political party with the support of which they can play their games. So a couple of decades ago they were in search of a political party. During the Advani era, they were almost inside BJP, but BJP did not allow this, look how angry the father-son duo is today. They ultimately got the Gandhi family and look where Congress is today. BJP has the capacity to understand the games that the Radical left plays. That is the strength of the BJP. The radical left is corrupt, anarchist, venomous, and supports dictatorship. Any party which has the capacity to take on the Radical left will definitely win. Manmohan Singh could win the second term for Congress because he stood up to the radical left.

Waiting for BJP to claim Abraham Lincoln, because there are claims that he mentioned Maharana Pratap.

One of the best CTC on BJP's politics n strategy

Can SG have a piece on V. K. Krishna Menon who famously said to one westerner "my English is better than yours. You merely picked it up: I learnt it." and the other killer one was "I can scarcely hire a bullock-cart to call on 10 Downing Street"... I believe this is one indian diplomat and defence Minister who was most unfairly criticised during the course of Indian politics and during early 60 can be said the second most powerful man in India... I am not 100℅ sure but a great parallel can be drawn between the Modi-Shah duo of today with Nehru-Krishna duo of yesteryears (60's).As in both the cases one is playing roles good cop(Modi and Nehru) and Bad cop (Shah/Krishna) but the intentions are same to project India as a strong force globally. Maybe an unbiased piece on Menon will give due credit to a diplomat who always in sole and purpose to me was a true representative of the Indian state. Even if we blame China blunder to him on strategic and diplomatic front there were lot of indigenous production of arms started during his era where India was less reliant on import and more focus was on developing in house capabilities. The whole eastern front focus come during and post Menon exit where the myth of Hindi Chini bhai bhai have been a for gone conclusion . Shekhar might have given passing reference of VK menon in his CTC but in true sense there has never been a clear picture to understand the man,diplomat,strategist and nationalist ....looking forward to a CTC report on him !!!! As the current generation has lost touch with some of the great or not so great indians whose actions have led to a tectonic shift to Indian Politics ....

After scrubbing through a lot of media organisations I can rightly say the level of research and more or less unbiased or libertarian view that Mr. Gupta has is impeccable. Really love your segment “Cut the Clutter”. Best wishes from Kolkata. 🙏🏻

Everybody know who is Bidhan Chandra Roy. Your notion is totally wrong.

How abt taking a break from BJP and reflecting on your favorite Congress party tactics.. Your God Rahul has a brilliant strategy.. "North South divide"..care to comment?

When our Kamarajar ayya died he only had a pair of chappals and 154 rs in his purse That's all he had❤️❤️ Such a truthful guy He started the industrial revolution in tamilnadu and he opened several skools colleges and maintained a perfect balance between FDI and HDI and played important role in Tamil Nadu devolopment We will never get someone like him❤️❤️👍

'Why bother about the Rajbhar, but not BJP' SG sir you are so sarcastic 😂😂😂

Mody and Shah have proved that politics is not a part-time job. India needs these kind of persons not Rahul Gandhi