The Mewa Parable in
Political Matters: “Who Deserves To Eat the Mewa?”
Shrikant G.
Talageri
On 15 January 2026, the Municipal
Corporation elections took place in 29 cities in Maharashtra, including Mumbai.
As the results poured in, as was expected, the BJP alliance swept the polls
capturing an overwhelming majority of the corporations, including the BMC
(Brihanmumbai Metropolitan Corporation) the richest corporation in the whole of
Asia.
I had written about these
elections a few days earlier. In that article, “The Morals/Ethics of Voting (Or Not Voting) In
Elections”, I had written: “So NOTA is really a purely symbolic feature.
Whether I will participate in this symbolism or whether I will simply sit at
home and refuse to participate in it is the only question before me, which I
will decide as per my mood or whim on election day”. In other words,
I was going to either not vote at all, or vote NOTA.
However, three days before the
election (after seeing the UBT-MNS rally in Shivaji Park) I changed my mind − or mood or whim. I had
written earlier on in that very article: “So to my mind the only question (for the coming
election) is whether I should simply not step out of the house to cast my vote,
or whether I should go and cast my vote for NOTA (although on at least two
occasions in the past I have been forced by my conscience to follow the
allegedly Muslim tactic of voting for “anyone but the BJP” since I strongly
believe that in many ways the BJP is much more dangerous for Hindus, Hinduism
and India culture than even the Breaking India Forces).” And
ultimately I did follow the allegedly Muslim tactic this time as well: I
decided to go and vote for the UBT-MNS candidate standing from my constituency,
since I do regard the BJP as being in exactly the same category (in the realm
of electoral politics) of being worse than any of the others “somewhat like the “minor”
who raped “Nirbhaya” in the famous Delhi gangrape case who inserted a rod into
her and pulled out her intestines”. As it turns out, and as I knew
would happen, the BJP won here.
In earlier times throughout my
life, I used to be hyper-excited over election results, pleased to ecstatic
when they fulfilled my wishes, and displeased to miserable when they were
opposite to my wishes. But nowadays, although I do want, and wish
for, certain results, I find myself personally very little affected by
the results, and in fact, knowing beforehand what the results are likely to be,
very little surprised by them. The first point is of course that I have learnt
to distinguish very clearly between what I want and what I get. I have realized
that one need not get what one wants, and need not want what one is likely (or
sure) to get. The two are distinct things, neither one of them dependent on the
other. I have since long realized that victory in any battle is never
correlated to what I want, or to what (in my opinion, if you will have it that
way) is right or correct.
What is the one factor which
leads to victory in any large scale political battle (which does not necessarily
require violence and brute force), whether an electoral one or a civilizational
one? One can always want one side to win, and one can very strongly and
sincerely believe (rightly or wrongly) that one side is in the right and the
other is in the wrong, but one must always recognize the truth that wanting one
side to win, or feeling, or even knowing, that one side is in the right (with
the other definitely being in the wrong), are not necessarily the factors which
lead to victory.
Then (leaving aside questions of
right and wrong, as well as questions of what one wants and does not want) who
usually wins, and does that winning side (regardless of our wishes and the
rightness of the matter) deserve to win? I have realized in the last few
years that I have to look at it in the form of a parable, or whatever one may
like to call it, treating “victory” as being represented (to choose arbitrarily
from various items) by “mewa” (dried fruits and nuts or rich sweets, considered
in folk jargon to be a desirable symbol of wealth, luxury and power): “who
deserves to eat the mewa?”.
The parable (made up by myself)
is as follows: There is a woman who has two sons. One of them (call him A)
loves to eat mewa, while the other (call him B) hates to eat mewa. But whenever
she gets mewa from anywhere, the mother (for some reason) always refuses to
give any mewa to A, and instead compels B to eat all the mewa. Is her attitude
right? Who should get, or who deserves to get, the mewa − leaving aside questions
of which of the two boys is right/good and which of them is wrong/bad, as well
as questions of what she wants and does not want? Clearly her attitude is
wrong, and I realized quite some time ago that I was behaving exactly like that
mother.
This parable, applied to battles
where one side wins and one side loses (if getting to eat the mewa is to be
construed as victory in a battle), applies in two cases at least in my
perception and my case: the civilizational battle between Hinduism and
the Breaking India Forces (and particularly the strongest of the BIFs: Islam),
and the electoral battle between the BJP and the non-BJP parties.
In the first case, I want Hinduism
to win, and I know fully well that Hinduism is in the right.
Likewise, I want the BJP to lose, and I know fully well that the
BJP is more absolutely in the wrong than any other party. Yet in both cases, it
is the other (than what I want) side which always wins. Islam generally wins
against Hinduism and will definitely triumph in the long run, and the BJP generally
wins against other parties and will definitely triumph in the long run.
The wrong thing in the picture is
not who wins, it is my wanting (like the mother in the
parable) the other side to win. Because it is Islam which deserves
to win the civilizational battle, and it will ultimately win that battle; and
it is the BJP which deserves to win the electoral battle, and it will
ultimately win that battle.
When I want a certain side
to win, and I also know that that side is in
the right (or at least that the other side is more in the wrong),
why do I say that the other side (which I don’t want to win, and
which I also feel is in the wrong and should not win) deserves
to win? Because I have realized that the side which deserves to win is not
the side which I want to win, or which is in the right, it
is the side which wants to win. Just as in
the parable, the boy who wants the mewa deserves to be
given the mewa and not the boy who does not want it (regardless
of what the mother wants and which of the two boys is a “better” person), likewise,
in all such battles the side which wants victory deserves to win whether
it is desired/right or not.
It does not mean I will side with
Islam or with the BJP: I will not. It simply means that I will recognize the
fact that Islam/Muslims want to win and Hinduism/Hindus don’t,
and that the BJP wants to win and the non-BJP parties don’t.
I have already elaborated on
these matters many times in countless articles, without reaching this absolute
conclusion. Here I will only give the basic points in short:
The most salient points in the case
of Hinduism/Hindus vs. Islam/Muslims:
Islam teaches Muslims to strive
for victory at every point and to be ruthless and uncompromising in reaching
the goal of domination.
And Islamic Muslims want
Islam and Islamism to rule over the world and win against everyone else. While the
overwhelming majority of non-Islamic Muslims (i.e.
non-traditionalistic, non-fundamentalist, modern or even atheistic Muslims) may
not exactly believe in or support Islamist views or want to live in a
state governed by Islamic laws, but they want Muslims as a people
to dominate over others (i.e. non-Muslims) and are fully with the Islamic
Muslims in attacking non-Muslims or claiming that non-Muslim entities (Hindus
and Jews in particular) oppress Muslims.
On the other hand, Hinduism
(at least in its stories and moral preachings, though not in its wisdom
teachings or in the message of the Bhagawadgita) teaches Hindus to bow down and
capitulate before its sworn enemies and to consider the interests of these enemies
before their own interests, to value “saintliness” and “self-sacrifice” even
against hostile forces, and to treat victory as ephemeral and non-essential. I
have written many articles on this subject and need not mention them again
here.
And Hindus want certain
parties, institutions, organizations and individuals to win, or achieve victory,
or rule. Even among Hindus spouting “Hindutva” slogans, Hindus really don’t care
for victory for Hindus/Hinduism: their only concern (overt or covert) is to see
their pet political personalities and parties eating the loaves and fishes of
power.
The most salient points in the case
of BJP vs. non-BJP:
The BJP wants to win
power, and will do simply anything to win power. I have written
so many articles on this that I will not bother to repeat the details here.
Neither Hindus or Hinduism in general, nor its own BJP voters
in particular, nor its BJP cadres and loyal workers in
most particular, matter in the least little bit to the
persons who control the levers of power within the party. Like a power-winning
steam-roller, the BJP machine moves ruthlessly ahead. throwing all
these entities to the dogs whenever required or considered desirable, and even
handing power to the others in each of the above categories (i.e. non-Hindus
and the Breaking India Forces in general, and the leaders
and cadres of other non-BJP parties) when those others
join hands with the persons who control the levers of power within the party.
And BJP voters include
a large number of voters who admit openly, or show by their words, that they
have no interest in or concern for Hindu-related issues and only support
the BJP for caste/economic reasons or because it is the
winning/ruling/dominant party in India today. And those who claim
to be BJP voters because the BJP is a Hindu party
will continue voting for the BJP even when the BJP indulges in
the most blatantly anti-Hindu activities which would have put the
non-BJP parties and even the Breaking India Forces
to shame: these voters will continue to insist the BJP is a Hindu
party, and that non-BJP parties are anti-Hindu,
and will ignore, whitewash, defend, support or even glorify everyt anti-Hindu
act of the BJP.
[A personal anecdote: when I nominally
“joined” the RSS in 1978, a staunch swayamsewak staying just
opposite our society told me: “I cannot believe that someone from your
Saraswat colony has joined the RSS! All the people in your colony are staunch
Congress-supporters!” And it was true: at that time, I supported the Jana-Sangh
and the whole rest of my residential colony supported the Congress (except
for a few who supported the Communists).
Today the whole rest of my
residential colony supports the BJP and I alone am staunchly against it. Ostensible,
all of us have changed our stand!
But actually, not one of us
has changed our stand. We all follow the same ideal or principle we followed
in 1978: I still continue to oppose the most anti-Hindu
party (it was the Congress in 1978, it is the BJP today). And the
rest of my colony still continue to support the winning/ruling/dominant
party in India (it was the Congress in 1978, it is the BJP today).
And the support for the BJP
today is not based on any principle. A few days after the recent BMC
election results, I passed some residents of my colony sitting in the premises.
One lady brightly spoke to me about the BJP’s victory, and when I told
her I had voted against the BJP, she gasped and said: “But I thought
you were a supporter of Hindutva”. Although I knew it was futile, I pointed
out in a few words why the BJP was the most anti-Hindu
party today. When she looked at me blankly, I told her: “All of you did not
vote for any Hindu interests. You voted for the BJP. And you would have voted
for the BJP even if Asaduddin Owaisi were the BJP candidate”. She readily
accepted it, and said they would vote for anyone who stood from
the BJP. I likewise would have voted for Asaduddin Owaisi if
he had been the main non-BJP candidate against the BJP, because, of
the two, I know the BJP to be more dangerous for Hindus
and Hinduism.]
So yes, India will definitely be
a Muslim country in 50 years time with a large Christian minority
and a smaller Hindu minority. And it will still be ruled by the “BJP”.
Because Muslims want, and therefore deserve,
to win; and because the BJP wants, and therefore deserves,
to win.
All this will not affect or
change my actions. But it will guide my expectations and reactions.
APPENDIX ADDED 28 January
2026 11.15 PM:
Great news for my reputation as a
modern-day Nostradamus!
I had called Ritu Rathaur the “Last
Hindu Standing”. Someone just sent me the following tweet uploaded by her today:
https://x.com/RituRathaur/status/2016480248276357347
“Vishguru
wanted to protect his dear Pasmanda. The easiest way to do that? Include OBC in
the new #UGCRegulations.
So he did. Now just pause and think: In Modi’s New India
Pasmanda OBC students are branded as “historically oppressed”, while General
Caste Hindu students, whose ancestors fought for this nation and for Dharma,
are painted as “historical oppressors”. Let this sink in.. Support #Feb1BharatBand”
5:25 PM · Jan 28, 2026.
Let me repeat my
prediction:
“India will
definitely be a Muslim country in 50 years time with a large Christian minority
and a smaller Hindu minority. And it will still be ruled by the “BJP”. Because Muslims
want, and therefore deserve, to win; and because the
BJP wants, and therefore deserves, to win.”
