Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas is the campaign slogan that has nailed Narendra Modi’s credibility to the mast. Every passing day as Prime Minister, it seems to take a knock. One has to ask why since it got him elected? Mufti Mohammad Sayeed just reminded him of it, even as the cow, beef, and murder controversy raged.
Modi’s relentless projection of vikas as his leitmotif claims to be inclusive. It is certainly ambitious and showing some results 16 months on. But this economic inclusiveness cannot substitute for the all-encompassing bias in their favour that the minorities are used to.
Yet, the voting public, many of them young people, fervently want real progress. The superb popularity ratings that the Prime Minister still enjoys suggest that the people have not lost patience with him.
Torn Between Development and Hindutva
Modi elicits ecstatic responses from the diaspora too and warm goodwill from other heads of government. But at home, the domestic intellectual and sections of the media mistrust Modi’s Hindutva antecedents.
But the very foundations of the BJP are built on it. It is Hindutva that provides Modi his sea legs. So, how can he pull off a submersion of its obscurantist and communal notions in a sarovar of vikas?
This, even as Modi’s economic intentions are believed. Perhaps to the extent that voters, most of them Hindus, are willing to see the Nehruvian fabric as torn apart as long as it delivers Gujarat’s 10% growth rate, jobs, and prosperity everywhere.
As if to illustrate this, the latest Bihar legislative assembly pre-election poll gives the NDA an overwhelming majority. This soars above all the caste, class and religious calculations. But why? Where is the Opposition traction despite citing Modi’s allegedly dark communal agenda?
But is Modi really intent on nudging the country towards a majoritarian future? And if so, is the voting public complicit in this, the sound of warnings notwithstanding?
Breaking the Hindutva Mould
- Modi’s Hindutva antecedents viewed by a section of intellectuals and media with mistrust
- A majority of voters however, disillusioned with Nehruvian ideals, keen for the Gujarat model of development
- The ‘truly secular’ ideological and cultural shifts were also promised ahead of 2014 polls
- BJP glued perennially to its ideological guide, the RSS, which provides the manpower for campaigning during polls
- Prime Minister Modi needs to negotiate with the Sangh for the sake of the development mantra
Parivar: BJP’s Umbilical Cord
Certainly, the Sangh’s grassroots organisation, the best in the business today, will have its say. The Parivar, including, most significantly, the RSS, provides the lakhs of pracharaks toiling away in Bihar. They are the ones doing the infantry work in the political trenches, working with zeal and dedication from the booth and block level upwards.
What do they want in return? Can they be blamed for thinking this is their time, particularly now that the BJP is in power at the centre and with an unprecedented majority?
Besides, not only did the BJP/NDA win and form the government in May 2014, but, thanks in good measure to the pracharaks, it has won and/or formed all the state governments in coalition since – with the sole exception of Delhi.
Sabka Statesman
Modi consequently, voluble as he is, is trapped into deafening silence. Speaking out against communal remarks and actions could destroy him politically and be dangerous. How can he deny his own political DNA?
The facile question however is why not? Is he not meant to represent the entire nation?
If not this, then what? Can he splice something and change the DNA of the Sangh Parivar itself? Will continued electoral success and the benefits of power help the endeavour beyond the maunvrat?
There are religious convictions underpinning Hindutva, of course, but can they be diluted and taken out of policy making? After all, ‘truly secular’, ideological and cultural shifts were also promised.
The Labour Party of Britain was once arch-leftist/trade unionist/anti-monarchical/anti-EU but quite godless. In between however it went centrist, right through the Tony Blair years, before going far left once again lately.
Modi’s BJP and its Sangh affiliates are already on the economic and cultural right. Modi’s own head-and-shoulders-taller-than-the-rest style and veiled authoritarianism echoes, in fact, the ‘not for turning’ Margaret Thatcher.
So, isn’t there an opportunity here? If anyone can remake the Sangh to make it fit India’s future destiny, it is Modi. Because he alone has risen much beyond the expected and probable bandwidth of a life-long pracharak – to become, not only PM, but a budding sabka statesman.
(Gautam Mukherjee is a plugged-in commentator and instant analyser.)