Saffron is not BJP.

• I see some elite disconnected posters say that ochre robes should be called out. Made invalid. Because the posters disagree with BJP.
  
  Since when did ochre become the colour of BJP ? 
  

  I differ with BJP on most issues.
  
  And yet to me ochre is holy, and is certianly not handed over to BJP. So also the cow. In my village we worship the cow. So also Rama. Whose nama japa has given me solace in the hardest of times.
  
  

  • Shyam Sekhar The problem is with people who want to mock these, identify these with one party and yet want to appropriate it. You cant do all three things at the same time. That is what is causing the so called elite discourse.

  • Aparna Krishnan They dont want to appropriate them. They want to toss them out.
    
    They understand neither holiness, nor the soil, nor the peoples of this soil.
    
    They are all best exported to USA or Australia. Or Mars. 

    
    

    Shyam Sekhar Aparna Krishnan you seem really angry. Best to ignore insensitive thoughts from such people. 

    
    

    Aparna Krishnan No, no not angry at all. Just that for too long the reins of this land has been in the hands of people who have lost touch with this land. And so they cannt be ignored either. Their superciliious comments have to be called out.
    
    If I could I would people the planning commissions with the peoples of villages. Also the judiciary. With the people who belong to the soil of this land.
    
    The rest of us who know reading and writing and English can do all the detailed clerical work. But the essential directions is best given by them. 

    
    

    Shyam Sekhar Aparna Krishnan New feudals replaced the old feudals. That is our democracy in one sentence. 

    
    

    Aparna Krishnan The white man was clearly the Other. The coconuts, white men in brown skin, are more devastating. Seeming one of us, yet completely recacinated by education and upbringing.
    
    The power has to return to the people.  

    
    

    Hariharan Sukumar We may have to think of the otherside of this issue.. It may so be that BJP could be using our sentiments towards ochre to its benefit.. There lies the success of BJP, which was able to create an impression that ochre is BJP and BJP is ochre.. 

    
    

    Viswanath Lakshmanan Problem is that BJP has appropriated Hindu symbols and also given hope to Hindus that some of the systemic deficiencies crippling Hindu society will be remedied. Unfortunately, they have turned out to be more shameful than the proclaimed left-libs. Result is that Hindus are left high and dry and bereft of their symbols too.
• Aparna Krishnan Amazes that many of his articulate followers cannot see the utter emptiness of his rhetoric. They bend into the most complex contortions to defend him. 

  
  

  Chitra Sharan We should wear saffron and post saying I am not BJP.
• Aparna Krishnan No, saffron is the badge of the highest renunciation.

    

  Chitra Sharan You have a point 
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  T.R. Shashwath It always happens when one extreme group picks something as a symbol, and it gets associated with that group. Reclaiming such a symbol is an uphill task, becoming more and more difficult as the group in question becomes more and more extreme and exclusive.
  
  Two extreme examples (and before anyone complains, I'm not comparing the current situation with any of these): the appropriation of the Swastika by the Nazis, and the colour red by the Communists.