http://www.epw.in/editorials/bjp-fringe.html
The BJP Fringe An election campaign on development has done nothing to change its Hindutva core. The Narendra Modi-for-prime minister campaign has been managed so tightly with a single-minded focus on "development" that many observers have been surprised that in recent weeks there has been a sudden resurgence of Hindutva voices sending out messages of violence and hate. First, there was the speech by the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Uttar Pradesh in-charge and Modi loyalist, Amit Shah, calling upon the Hindu voters of western Uttar Pradesh to take revenge on those who had violated the honour of their womenfolk (which is normal Hindutva code for Muslims). This was followed by Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi claiming that the BJP will build the Ram temple in Ayodhya. Then BJP's Jharkhand and Bihar leader, Giriraj Singh, warned that once Modi becomes the prime minister, all those who oppose him (referring to the Muslims, yet again, but also to "secular" Hindus) will be sent off to Pakistan. If former BJP president Nitin Gadkari shared the stage with Giriraj Singh while he made these comments, Narendra Modi himself smiled benignly in Mumbai when Shiv Sena leader Ramdas Kadam called Muslims traitors and warned that they will be taught a lesson once Modi assumed power. There have also been exhortations that if Hindus do not vote for Modi this time then their existence is threatened. The media outing of the speech of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia calling on Hindus in Bhavnagar to usurp Muslim property was yet another example of an anti-Muslim tirade, even if it was not part of Modi's election campaign. It must be remembered that while these statements have taken the focus away from the development slogan, Modi's election campaign has always existed on a bedrock of Hindutva support. The makeover of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi from aggressive Hindutva icon to a proponent of "development" can be traced back to about 2007. That was when the international public relations firm APCO was hired by the Gujarat government to market the state as a preferred destination for capital and to promote Modi as "business-friendly" development-oriented administrator. It was thereafter that the line of top Indian industrialists started the "Modi-for-PM" chant. Not surprisingly, each of those who joined this chorus had received exceptional incentives from the Modi dispensation in Gujarat - land at throwaway prices, government support in "clearing" environmental and labour protection rules, tax breaks, etc. Already, by the 2009 elections, there was a demand that Modi be nominated as the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP, but it was still not strong enough to steamroll opposition within the party. Over the last five years, the Modi campaign (which, it must be remembered, is distinct from that of the BJP) has worked with a single-minded focus on making the Gujarat chief minister the unquestioned candidate of the BJP and building enough of a push from outside to get him the prime ministership. One of the central strategies of this campaign has been to mould Modi as a political leader focused on "development" and to put up Gujarat as the model state for development. Gone was the Narendra Modi who justified the killing of Muslims in Gujarat through the Newtonian action-reaction metaphor, who (in)famously spoke of the refugee camps of the riot victims as "child producing factories", who launched the Gujarat Gaurav Yatra to instil "pride" over the defence of "Hindu honour" in the 2002 riots. Despite this development makeover, Modi has never disowned his Hindutva politics and his campaign has tried to use communal violence and prejudices to consolidate "Hindu" votes (successfully in Muzaffarnagar and not as successfully in Kishtwar). It has been a fine balancing act, with Hindutva consolidation being conducted largely below the media radar while the official message, amplified through a hundred talking heads on television and thousands of sponsored accounts on social media, has continued to state that development is above religious affiliation and that the "rising tide lifts all boats". It may not be too much of an exaggeration to state that Narendra Modi's campaign for prime ministership has been India's first public relations curated, media-driven operation. The recent shrill Hindutva rhetoric has alarmed many of those who had bought into the Modi propaganda and has led to calls to "rein-in the fringe" and "control the extremists". Five years of Modi-for-PM public relations and many seem to have forgotten that Hindutva has always been, and remains, the core of the BJP and Narendra Modi. It is talk of development and a certain liberal veneer that is the fringe, masks which Modi and the BJP have put on to make themselves electable, to get the non-Hindutva voters to believe that they have abandoned, substantially if not symbolically, their violent, sectarian ideology and politics. It would be foolhardy to forget that the BJP remains wholly under the control of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), pursuing an agenda set by it. The RSS had to officially forsake politics in order to placate Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel into lifting the ban on it in the aftermath of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination. It was a consequence of that tactical withdrawal that it started doing its politics through the Bharatiya Jan Sangh. The Jan Sangh's inheritor, the BJP, continues to be the "electoral front" of the RSS, just like the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad is its students' front, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh is its trade union front and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad is the front for organising those at the "margins" of Hindu society through the mediation of religious figures. The BJP winning elections means that the RSS will control governmental power and state institutions, nothing less. The slipping of the Modi-for-PM campaign's "development" sheep-skin is perhaps only an indication that the election race is now in its final laps and the limitations of focusing only on the liberal fringe are beginning to slow it down. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. 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