Encountering Pratijñābhaṅga: BJP’s Jumla Politics and the Hollow Piramal Promise
This article argues that the political formation presenting itself as temporal guardian of Sanātana Dharma stands convicted, by that tradition’s own oath-jurisprudence, of serial pratijñā-bhaṅga (breach of the solemn word). Classical Indian thought treats the given word as a binding bond, its rupture punished both in the seen (dṛṣṭa: curse, fine, exile, infamy) and unseen (adṛṣṭa: loss of merit, hell). Reconstructing this jurisprudence from Vedic, epic, Nyāya and Dharmaśāstra sources, the paper applies it to two cases. Focus One: the Hollow Piramal Promise in the DHFL insolvency, where Piramal Capital publicly pledged fixed-deposit holders an extra 10% over the CoC plan yet delivered only 23.08% recovery (~77% haircut on ~₹5,375 crore), while assigning ~₹45,050 crore in alleged-fraud recoveries to the acquirer for one rupee. Focus Two: BJP’s jumla politics—the serial non-coherence of promises from ₹15 lakh and two crore jobs to Acche Din, Smart Cities, Housing for All and Viksit Bharat 2047. Method is compelled juxtaposition of promise against record; pseudology is treated as a discursive property, contested claims are marked, and the Piramal material is offered as opinion and fair comment on a matter of public interest. The finding is arthānupapatti—its Vedic name anṛta, the untruth opposite to the ṛta these guardians claim to protect.
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