Can so much division be good?

One man in Uttar Pradesh chopped off the index finger of his left hand after mistakenly voting for the BJP, which is the party of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he wanted to vote for the BSP, which was formed as a party for lower caste Hindus and is led by Ms Mayawati. Ms Mayawati has chosen not to contest these elections but will campaign for an alliance she has formed with SP and RLD. India stopped using paper ballots since electronic voting machines (EVMs) were first used in assembly elections in 1998. Each political party has been allotted a symbol by the Election Commission of India because large numbers of people are illiterate. So, there is the name of the candidate, the name of the party and the symbol of the party next to each button and the voter is required to press the button of his choice to register his vote. Although BJP and BSP may sound similar the symbol for the BJP is a lotus flower and that for the BSP is an elephant so even a totally illiterate person should have no trouble distinguishing the two. The alarming thing is that he chopped his finger in disgust, showing how divided our society is. Anger is not limited to supporters of the BSP. BJP candidate Pragya Thakur created a storm when she said that Hemant Karkare was killed because she had cursed him. Thakur was charged with terrorism after a bomb hidden in a scooter went off in Malegaon in Maharashtra in 2008. Thakur later apologized for her statement but claimed that she had been falsely charged and tortured while in police custody. Karkare was killed in action during the Mumbai terror attack in 2008 and is a hero. Thakur is standing as BJP candidate against Congress leader Digvijay Singh who initially blamed Hindu groups for the killing of Karkare. The other accused, Lt Col PS Purohit was swiftly reinstated in his post by the army, which never accepted his involvement, after being released on bail. India maybe the only nation in the world where politicians seek to gain minority votes by falsely blaming a whole community for terrorist attacks. Then there is the difference between the north of India and the south. The BJP is seen as a party of Hindi speakers and has little presence in the south, except in Karnataka. Far away from India's land borders with Pakistan, China, Myanmar and Bangladesh, the south is less concerned with defence matters and has other concerns. People of south India resent being stereotyped as Madrasis by people of the north. Southern states feel that they a smaller share of total tax collections from the center while states like Bihar and UP get more. While patriotic films were very popular in the north, films in Tamil Nadu were anti-establishment and anti-Modi. A country so divided is very difficult to govern. On the other hand, it can never become a dictatorship. A blessing?