Mounting Majoritarianism and Political Polarization in India https://carnegieendowment.org/2020/08/18/mounting-majoritarianism-and-political-polarization-in-india-pub-82434 NIRANJAN SAHOO
Polarization in India is more toxic today than it has been in decades, and it shows no signs of abating. August 18, 2020

Three crucial drivers of increasing polarization have been India’s ongoing economic transformation, changes in traditional and social media, and the rise of competitive caste politics. Hindu nationalist organizations have been able to harness the power of each of these drivers in ways that their opponents have found difficult to match..

Paradoxically, the Congress Party’s reforms proved a huge boon for the identity politics of the BJP, as urban voters tend to be more rather than less supportive of Hindu nationalist narratives.16 As Christophe Jaffrelot argues, “Urbanization has transformed Hinduism more than any other development...The economic inequalities created after 1991 thus have allowed the BJP to build a coalition of odd bedfellows.

TRADITIONAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA:In the realm of traditional media, biased or partisan-leaning outlets have become increasingly influential, at the expense of nonpartisan news sources. Changes in media ownership likely have played a role in this transformation..

CASTE POLTICS As OBC parties began to win a larger share of the vote in the 1980s and 1990s, the BJP and the Sangh Parivar doubled down on religious polarization, mainly by stoking tensions over the Babri Masjid. This strategy has allowed the BJP to separate Hindu Dalits, the class of Indians at the bottom of the Hindu caste hierarchy, and lower OBCs from dominant OBC groups within the caste-based parties..

The BJP thus was able to win over Hindus who might otherwise have voted along caste lines. Recent data from the 2014 and 2019 elections suggest that the party’s deft use of Hindu nationalism played a key role in blunting caste divisions and securing landslide victories for the BJP.

REMEDIAL ACTIONS
Initiatives to address the causes and consequences of polarization in India can be roughly divided into two categories: those that seek to counter majoritarian politics and those that aim to improve civic dialogue.

All kinds of Mining on non-forest land adjoining forest even before forest clearance is given   https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/mining-on-non-forest-land-before-final-nod-approved-101675882793031.html   The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) decided in October 2021 to approve coal mining on non-forest land adjoining a forest. Now this seems to be extended to all kinds of mining..In 2014, a three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by justice RL Lodha said mining companies that invested money in blocks without getting all clearances took the decision at their own risk. Any investment made in anticipation of clearances cannot be justified and such coal blocks cannot be protected if the companies fail to get clearances within the time frame fixed under the law, the bench had said. Environmental experts said commencing of mining on non-forest land would result in expectations that the entire mine will be accorded clearance because of the investment involved.

Post of WhatsApp: A tribal Girl is disqualified in police cadre based on her height. Are there any studies from Maharashtra on nutritional status of Tribals? 

Undernutrition among tribal children in Palghar district, Maharashtra, India https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6392283/
Soumitra Ghosh... , to improve tribal women's overall health development state government interventions need to introduce on nutritional health in among tribal and in general population specifically needy sections. Furthermore, it is imperative to create awareness, and health care infrastructure with the delivery system should be designed effectively. To address the tribal women's nutritional health, health services must focus on tribal culture.

The present study confirms that despite several nutrition programmes, the extent of undernutrition has remained extremely high in the children living in predominantly tribal rural areas of Palghar district, Maharashtra. One of the possible reasons for having persistently high level of undernutrition among tribal children is the decline in the budgetary allocation on ICDS in recent years [20]. Our analysis of the state’s budget also reveals that the nutrition expenditure as a percentage of the state budget has drastically declined from 1.68% in 2012–13 to 0.94% in 2018–19 (S1 Fig). Moreover, Singh and Sethi [22] showed that tribal sub plan funds have been underutilised by Maharashtra, particularly in two sectors (rural development and nutrition). As the main underlying cause of undernutrition among the tribal children is the poor socioeconomic conditions of the tribal population, there is a need for a multi-pronged strategy for redressing this problem.