Dear reader, The first phase of the assembly elections in UP was held on Thursday — 58 seats in Western UP recorded 60.17 per polling, nearly four per cent less compared to the voting in the same seats in 2017. Hectic campaigning is on in all five states, four of which, including UP, have BJP governments. The intensity of the battle is now felt beyond the poll-bound states. In Karnataka, a row has broken out over Hindutva groups demanding a ban on girls wearing hijab in schools and colleges. The government in Bengaluru backed the demand with the ruling party, the BJP, framing it as an issue of secularism. The issue is now before the high court. The video clip of a bunch of young males, allegedly students, harassing a girl wearing a hijab, and the latter spiritedly countering them, gives a sense of the polarised atmosphere in the state. Janaki Nair (‘In the name of secularism’, February 8), recalled that the weaponisation of secularism was taking place when “public space and public discourse in Karnataka, in short, is suffused with neo-Hinduness”. The Indian Express editorial (‘Her right to learn’, February 8) said that, “by backing the ‘ban’ on wearing the hijab to colleges, the BJP government in Karnataka violates the fundamental freedoms of students — and promotes an exclusionary code of public behaviour”. The state government had asked colleges to ensure that “clothes which disturb equality, integrity and public law and order should not be worn,” which the editorial pointed out, “is dubious framing — and one that does not stand the test of the Constitution, which guarantees citizens the right to equality, the right to education, and the right to practise their religion”. Parinitha Shetty of Mangalore University argued for maintaining the sanctity of the classroom. In her reflective essay (‘Not so uniform’, February 10), she wrote: “I write as a teacher who for many years has taught students in Mangalore, a sharply polarised region in Karnataka that is seeing bitter clashes over a dress code in educational institutions. My students have come from different religions, castes and nations. They spoke different mother tongues, ate different kinds of food and wore different kinds of clothes and ornaments. Some wore the markers of their married status, some wore the habit of their religious order, some wore the clothes that denoted their geo-cultural location, some wore the symbols of their religion and caste, and all conformed to the protocols of gender. These differences in appearance and beliefs and practices of thinking and speaking and eating and appearance, never ever disturbed our sense of belonging to a classroom community.” Shetty warns: “When the classroom becomes a space where students are disciplined into a narrow uniformity, then, learning becomes a means of straitjacketing the body and the mind. When the uniformity of the classroom is shaped by political considerations and implemented through the authority of political power, then, teaching is replaced by indoctrination and learning is replaced by unthinking parroting of political ideologues. When education becomes the handmaid of hate, then, the creativity and joy that sustain the great variety of life are destroyed. When teachers become the gatekeepers of bigotry and parochial political interests, they forfeit their right to the trust and responsibility that a community places on them to guide and shape its future possibilities. When the classroom is used to catalogue, classify and exclude, it inaugurates a future of insane hate and mindless cruelty.” Yogitha Shetty’s poignant article (‘My friend, Nadeem’, February 11) on an old friendship is a lament about a lost world, where religious faith was not a threatening presence in daily life and relationships. The political fever in poll-bound states also found its way to Parliament, which saw much grandstanding. The prime minister spoke at length in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha and listed out the follies of the Congress. He accused the Opposition of trying to divide the country (vibhajankari maansikta) and called the principal Opposition party the leader of the “tukde-tukde gang” and under the influence of “urban Naxals”. His narrative on the government’s response to Covid, where he sought to blame the Opposition-run governments for the spread of pandemic, was short on facts and in poor taste. The Express editorial (‘Motion of Attack', February 9) said: “The sudden lockdown which rendered many jobless, the lack of a financial safety net, the fear of the unknown, all worked together to set off a humanitarian crisis with migrants and their families hitting the road to trudge to the familiar assurances of their villages. Thousands of unemployed young men and women in election-bound UP and other states have faced the brunt of Covid distress. For the PM to tell them that the ‘Opposition’s sin’ is to blame for their plight is cynical politics and an attempt to brush the second-wave mismanagement under the rhetorical carpet.” Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath provoked a strong response from politicians in West Bengal, Kerala and Jammu and Kashmir, when he asked for votes so that UP did not become like the three states he referred to. The appeal was a thinly veiled dog whistle since the BJP had performed poorly in all these states, which have a large Muslim population with a relatively significant presence in politics and economy. The Express editorial (‘Dog-whistle politics', February 12) said: “It is a self-goal when Adityanath has to talk about other states in the Union to strike imagined fears, raise old bogeys, to attract voters rather than let his own record in office speak for itself.” Shah Alam Khan’s article (‘State of ill-health’, February 12) looked at National Family Health Survey data, and the conclusions suggest that UP’s health indices are appalling. Tributes poured in for Lata Mangeshkar, who passed away last Sunday. Pratap Bhanu Mehta (‘Our inner voice', February 7) Mrinal Pande (‘Lata Ji', February 7) and Dhanmanjiri Sathe (‘The solitude of Lata Mangeshkar', February 8) explained the significance of the great singer while Farah Zia (‘Listening to Lata in Lahore', February 9) wrote about Mangeshkar’s fandom in Pakistan. The Indian Express editorial (‘India’s song’, February 7) noted: “With Mangeshkar’s passing, India is struck silent, so essential has she been to how it imagines itself through music and song. If there is succour in this moment, it is to be derived from the formidable and multi-hued oeuvre that she leaves behind. It isn’t often that musical virtuosity falls in place with lyricism, spirituality, integrity, expression — and soars.” Thank you Amrith | 
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