What’s the ideal formula to win an election in India? You may think a good candidate or great work in his or her area by the sitting candidate. You are wrong. According to a study by Data Journalism site Indiaspend, the successful formula is to spew venom.

The study conducted for a period of last 10 years indicate that candidates with hate-speech cases against them have a 30% greater chance of winning elections. No party has taken this so seriously as the ruling BJP which has fielded almost 100 candidates out of 400 booked for hate speech, with most of them successful. Aping them are other parties.

So whose fault is this? Obviously ours. In fact the joke is on us, the country with 1.3 billion people, where each candidate takes a self-sworn oath to the election commission, declaring that the party will adhere to the principles of “socialism, secularism and democracy”. And exactly hours after this, their hate speech begins flouting all norms and rules.

With a series of state elections coming up in India, a lot of hate speeches are now being scripted perhaps to uphold the sovereignty, unity and integrity of a country which can easily be divided by any one. We cannot blame them because election is ultimately a business where you invest a few million to get back a billion. And moreover if Donald Trump can do it in America, why cant we do it here, the Indian politicians must be thinking.

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