The election fever was obvious at the center today. Many of the learners were chanting slogans and asking me who I would vote for and telling me that I should vote one way or another. While not surprising at all I noticed quite some toxicity building up due to this election narrative. While some Muslim learners were using very foul language about Modi (Eg: Sare Jahan se accha, Modi *** ka baccha), one Hindu learner was telling me that the Muslims should all go to Pakistan. Most of the learners didn’t really seem to have an understanding of why they felt this way. It seems that while they had picked up on the sloganeering and the narratives from the community they did not know much about local leaders or what this meant exactly. It did seem like quite a high octane environment and that could be a reason why some of the learners were on edge today. I have to figure out some strategies on how to go about handling these conversations. Invariably I found myself avoiding the topic. Involvement and awareness of politics is definitely a good thing and running away from dialogue is definitely not the way to go. It would be great if we could somehow have the learners discuss and dialogue about their different views. I was really happy to note that one girl said that she did not want anyone to win and that she would grow up and contest in the elections herself.