The Congress erred in giving Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar tickets,an error born of hubris and arrogance. The events of the past week seem to have demonstrated to at least one of Indias major political parties that riots may be past but arent always history. Unfortunately,the other seems still unwilling to learn this lesson. The BJPs behaviour in Kandhamal has been extraordinarily irresponsible,on several levels. The state partys nominations for the affected constituencies are part of where the trouble begins. The nominee for the assembly district is one Manoj Kumar Pradhan,an RSS pracharak currently in jail for offences related to last years riots,which,while they took place in a context of historical Dalit-tribal tensions,generally targeted the Christian community. The other is Ashok Sahu,leader of the Hindu Jagran Sammukshya,who now has a warrant out for his arrest for hate speech in spite of the fact that a Varun-spooked Election Commission had ordered his campaign be video-tracked. He still managed to declare that Christian community enemies were behind various recent arrests for the riots,an eerie echo of Narendra Modis recent references to traitors when he was campaigning in the area. Whatever the short-term gain to the party and it is a sad fact that there might well be local political benefits for the BJP from this sort of polarisation it nevertheless needs to realise that with every move towards the Varunisation of its agenda in this election the BJP only makes the task of gaining votes in less-polarised areas more difficult. Not to mention making it even more unlikely that post-election allies will be queuing up outside L.K. Advanis door. Besides,its inhumane. It couldnt have been a pleasant Easter for the riot refugees. Their relief camps are shutting down and they have to return to houses that are,in large part,still burnt-out. Theyre mostly without election ID cards and quite some distance from the towns where theyre registered. Where responsible politics would heal these wounds,the local and,unfortunately,the national-level BJP as well has taken on the task of pushing things in the other direction. Yet another step backward for the BJP in this campaign.