INDIA: The leader of India's main opposition Congress Party has lashed out at the ruling right-wing Hindu nationalist BJP party. Ms Sonia Gandhi accused it of "playing the politics of hatred" at a rally in riot-scarred western Gujarat state, which goes to the polls to elect its assembly later this week
"The BJP has never understood the secular nature of India. They are playing the politics of hatred," Ms Gandhi told 30,000 people at Mehsana, 75 km north of the state's largest city Ahmedabad. "No one in society can benefit from spreading poison. Society can only benefit where there is sentiment of harmony and brotherhood."
Gujarat goes to polls on Thursday at the end of a year marred by communal violence in which over 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, died and after a poll campaign scarred by religious hatred. Ahmedabad bore the brunt of the violence.
The BJP's chief minister, Mr Narendra Modi, has been accused by the opposition, human rights activists and independent observers of organising a pogrom of Muslims which lasted several months.
Meanwhile, rival political parties have roped in Bollywood movie stars into campaigning for the elections and mobilised "godmen", soothsayers and numerologists to manage their political futures.
The BJP has Bollywood's ageing "dream girl", Hema Malini, oozing her still-considerable charm to woo voters in what is building up to be a contentious election. "Love has become religion, loyalty has become faith, expand your heart to engulf the whole of India", Malini said at one of her rallies at the weekend, which draw far larger crowds than those addressed by veteran politicians.
Malini, who was Bollywood's femme fatale for over two decades, playing the risqué heroine in more than two dozen films, also made a strong pitch for Mr Modi whose administration is blamed for the Hindu-Muslim rioting.
The sectarian clashes which began in February and went on until May were sparked off by a Muslim mob burning a trainload of Hindus in the state.
Mr Modi's campaign, unable to capitalise on his administration's achievements, is centred around establishing Hindu hegemony by portraying Gujarat's and India's Muslim minority as a security threat. Muslims constitute about 12 per cent of India's population of over a billion and Hindus more than 82 per cent. They form about 11 per cent of the state's 32.8 million voters.
Although the BJP has many more film stars lined up for campaigning - it has two hugely popular former Bollywood heroes as cabinet ministers - the Congress Party is relying on old warhorses like Sunil Dutt and Dilip Kumar who is a Muslim. Both stars monopolised the Indian screen for over two decades till the late 1970s.
"We are talking about equality, be it a Hindu or a Muslim. We will treat all as one," Mr Dutt, a former Congress MP, said while campaigning in Ahmedabad.
The Congress Party is also fielding a look-alike of India's cricketing idol Sachin Tendulkar. "He will be campaigning in all cricket-crazy places across Gujarat," a member of the state congress said.
Astrologers are dusting off their cosmic calendars and honing their star-reading skills to help Gujarat's politicians in the elections. Scores of mendicants and yogis or religious men, known for "delivering" electoral successes, are busy organising the heavens for candidates from all parties willing to patronise them by paying them large sums of money and promise of more benefits after they are elected.
In the prevailing political uncertainty, scores of candidates do not eat, travel or hold meetings unless their "celestial minders" declare the moment propitious. "The greater the uncertainty, more is the need for astrologers as guides into the unknown," says an astrologer who has ably "guided" many successful candidates through rocky periods.
Few Indian politicians do not have a string of astrologers, palmists, numerologists or occultists on their payroll, dominating every move. Whether they believe everything their astrologers tell them is another matter, but as one senior federal politician said, there was no celestial advice he would forego. It just might work, he added.