Modi’s victory - a win for Hindutva or something else?

Ziauddin Choudhury

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party have won again. BJP led alliance has won
350 parliamentary seats out of 543 routing all opposition and topping its previous record of 336 in 2014
elections. Of this BJP alone has secured 303 seats surpassing a single party of win of such magnitude in
last five decades.

This eye-popping success comes in the wake of the requiem for BJP and Modi that was sung even a few
months before these elections by all who hated Modi. They called Modi a pretender who manipulated
the populace first time around with his piety, modest living, and pseudo nationalism. He was called a
populist who maneuvered a population tired of being led by feckless leaders by promising a corruption-
free government and society, fast economic growth and prosperity, and rebuilding the image of India in
the legend of Ramayana and Mahabharata. But the irony is Modi used these castigations in his favor and
fought his campaign with the same slogans that he had used before. And he succeeded bamboozling his
opponents once again. So much so that even in West Bengal, an anchor point for BJP opposition led by
its chief minister Mamata Banerjee, the party has captured 18 seats, something that never happened
before. The party has boldly captured seats in states where the party was just a name in last elections.

Pundits will have several and many explanations for this massive victory of Modi, key among which will
be India’s economy, healthy state of its agriculture, and Modi’s stature vis a vis that of his main
opposition, the Indian Congress led by a relative neophyte Rahul Gandhi. The opposition was not able to
cobble together a strong alliance that could provide a credible alternative to Modi. But these factors
alone do not explain the Modi phenomenon.

Modi’s rise is synonymous with the rise of a different breed of politics in India away from the secular
politics of Nehru and the party which led India to its independence. The Indian Congress was molded in
ideals of secularism, and a concept of nationalism that went beyond religion, cast or creed. It embraced
anybody who believed in this ideology and worked for it. For years the party won elections under this
model and led successive governments both at the center and most of the states. But then everything
started to fall apart emanating from party squabbling after the death of Nehru and later iron handed
control of the party and its politics by his daughter Indira Gandhi. The erosion in the party’s super
structure would invariably affect its ability to continue to hold the ground, which first came apart with
the capture of power at the center by a dissident party led by Morarji Desai of Janata Dal in 1977. The
Indian Congress led by a repentant Indira Gandhi did return to power couple of years later and would be
still leading the Government under her son who got elected largely on sympathy vote after Indira
Gandhi was assassinated. But by then, the Congress had mostly been decimated in real strength.

What was happening in the background since Nehru’s death was the slow but sure emergence of an
alternative politics in India that drew its strength not only by opposing Congress and the status quo, but
by a strident group of Hindu conservatives with its call away from secular politics. The pioneers of this
alternative politics were Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani who had originally formed a right-
wing political party under the banner of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which drew its cadre from the extreme
right wing Rastriya Sayam Sevak Sangha (RSS). Jana Sangh later entered into alliance with similar minded
smaller parties to contest elections with moderate success, and in 1980 its leaders would form a new
party under the banner of Bharatiya Janata Party. Atal Bihari Vajpayee became its first President, who
would later become India’s Prime Minister when the party captured majority in the elections.

Although BJP had contested elections during Vajpayee on a more moderate platform and was able to
attract some minorities to its agenda, it transformed into a more right-wing political party after the
assumption of Presidency by Lal Krishna Advani. Advani was a devout Hindu who had strident views of
Hinduism and a passion for Hindu ideology, took upon himself to mold Indian politics in his belief. He
had a leading role in the campaign against Babri Mosque and re-establishment of Ram Janma Bhumi in
the location. His leadership of BJP would direct the party to a new direction not only for the party but
also India, away from secularism. Narendra Modi, a loyal acolyte of that of ideology barnstormed the
country in 2013-14 with a call for return of India to the golden days of Hinduism, which according to him
would ensure India its proper place in World History.

But it will be an oversimplification to explain the Modi phenomenon to the rise of Hindu nationalism and
ideology only. This rise in Modi’s popularity and that of his party goes beyond that. There are several
other factors. First is growth of right-wing voters over the years through length and breadth of India
from North West to North East. BJP won seats in faraway states like Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and
Manipur where the party was hardly known before. This has happened because the country has
changed a more nationalistic identity advocated by Modi and his party. Second is Modi’s narrative of
India’s military prowess demonstrated by his strong tackling of foreign intrusion (Kashmir incident), and
handling of terrorism. Third is Modi’s exploitation of the economic success of India and his appeal in
rural areas through his clean toilet campaign and aid to farmers with direct cash aid. Fourth is Modi’s
relatively clean and corruption free image stands in direct contrast to the motley collection of
opposition leaders. Several of Modi opponents such as Mayavati of UP and Laloo Prasad Jadav of Bihar
whose political career is tainted with crime and corruption (Laloo Prasad suffered Jail sentence). Last but
not the least is his ability to draw support of India’s youth who he successfully recruited to campaign for
him and his party. They viewed Modi as a leader for modern India as he had no baggage from the past.

Narendra Modi may be a devout Hindu at heart as well as in his work. But he is also a shrewd politician
and a strategic vote getter. He has successfully used all his weapons including call for Hindutva for
getting elected. But he knows even though India has moved away from secularism a modern India
cannot be sustained by a slogan of religion. After all Modi is just not a leader for the largest Hindu
population of the world, he is also a leader of a country that has the third largest Muslim population of
the world. Hindutva is just a strategy, one of many that Modi has in his bag.