Saffron parties sharpen animal instincts with eye on civic polls

Mumbai: The BJP-Shiv Sena have invoked wildlife imagery to roar at each other in the run-up to the 2017 civic elections which experts said will see the saffron partners sharpening their animal instincts.
It began with senior BJP minister Prakash Mehta exhorting party activists not to be deterred by the tiger, a reference to the Sena’s emblem of the last five decades.“The days of the tiger are over. Now, the BJP’s lion will roar in Mumbai,” mewed Mehta at a recent meeting in the city. But observers said this was uncharacteristic of the minister who generally refrains from locking horns with the Sena.
Stating that the lion had “greater might” than the tiger, Mehta launched a broadside against the Sena. No prizes for guessing that Mehta’s lion belonged to the iconic Gir forest in Narendra Modi’s Gujarat.
A stung Saamna on Thursday published on the frontpage a rare photograph capturing the blood-curdling combat in one of Africa’s deep forests in which a tiger is seen attacking a lion.
“The photograph shows the tiger baying for the lion’s blood... every tiger has its own territory. If a lion tries to poach over the tiger’s territory, he will meet the same fate as the lion in the picture. It is the tiger alone who rules over his terrain with a firm hand and enjoys unbridled power over his territory,” read the Saamna caption. “But the Saamna tiger wears white skin. It is different from the Sena tiger,” hissed a BJP activist at the party’s Nariman Point headquarters.
Moreover, the Sena has put up a hoarding in Ghatkopar (E), Mehta’s stronghold and state assembly constituency, showing a ferocious tiger attacking the minister. Mehta has been turned into a well-fed cat, a curled tail, whiskers et al. There are blood stains on the cat’s head as the tiger is all set to take yet another leap at it.
“This cat has fattened itself on (the Sena’s) tiger. And now it is flexing its muscles. It’s time the fake lion’s true identity is brought before people,” read the slogan on the hoarding.