Modi Wave 2.0: A New Beginning Against An Old Order
A confident Hindu core is the reason this has happened, that’s the key takeaway of these 2019 elections.
It wasn’t supposed to happen. Narendri Modi and his evil BJP were supposed to divide the country along its faultlines, especially through communialism, divisive rhetoric, religious supremacy, Muslim bait and switch tactics, violence, intimidation, thuggery and good old fashioned economic ineptitude. Except nobody except the Club sect and their western NGO media echo chambers was listening.
It was a difficult battle for Modi and the BJP to surpass for it was accused to have thrived purely on minority politics, that it existed to ‘other’ minorities but the reality is that the message of a thriving, confident, Hindu core was always-and will be-at the heart of why Modi 2.0 is happening. It is an identity based on inclusiveness, Dharmic ideation and resurgent nationalism in the might of the Indian citizen, regardless of class, creed and religion.
Despite what the Indian media class and their hopelessly supine Western medic champions believe, in 2019 you cannot win elections by being Hinduphobic or a hater of minorities, even if India is a Hindu majoritarian state. The silent Hindu vote has risen, angered to the back teeth by opposition efforts to divide the country on the basis of language, history, caste and religion. Yes it was Congress and the political chattering class that tried to divide not Hindutva, the RSS, Modi or the BJP.
What’s remarkable this time around is that the wave is even bigger than five years ago, even if the economics haven’t necessarily played to Modi’s strengths. But this is a vote for identity and collective pride, a true MAKE INDIA GREAT AGAIN moment.
Anti-Hindu politics have lost.
In state after state, BJP net losses were minimal, and the gains in new territories significant, thanks largely to a Hindu vote consolidation.
Remarkably in West Bengal, where I am from, we saw a remarkable turnaround with a leftwing elite given a proverbial thrashing despite playing the minoritorian card. It’s the most obvious example of a counterattack by a pro-Hindu consolidation, ignoring the violent and histrionic mood in Bengal that turned ugly. Fortunately the pollers were not listening to those who wanted to point their Hinduphobic fingers at Modi.
The Left has lost everywhere — West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala — largely because it chose to position itself as a “secular” party in opposition to its Hindu base everywhere. This is the calling card of Congress ever since India earned its independence. It survived on vote bank politics to gain minority votes, polarising classes and led directly to the rise of an authentic and credible Hindu party through the BJP.
The BJP knows that while corporate business may provide the big headlines, it is by focusing on the poor that it can get truly understand the heart of India, balancing its priorities between centre-left to centre-right positions, depending on the issue at hand.
The BJP has shown its message is all encompassing, not isolated to Hindu heartlands, spreading its saffron wings to the east, taking over many states in the North-East, and now becoming a strong alternative to the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal in Odisha. The Left’s defeat in Kerala portends the rise of the BJP in this state in future, and its ability to gain seats in Telangana just months after being trounced by the Telangana Rashtra Samiti in the assembly elections shows that the BJP footprint is spreading in the south too.
What the Left in India (and in the West given the hateful diatribibes by some ‘Indians’ in media outlets) never understood was that its tactic of divide and rule led to the loss of the Hindu vote, determined to remain Hinduphobic, self hating, often jumping to defend Hinducentric issues when its allegiances were placed under the political microscope.
Nobody in India cares about the dynasty-the lustre of Gandhian secularism has worn off. The English language media and opposition parties simply could not bring themselves to tell their hero Rahul Gandhi that nobody is buying what he is selling, not least because of the corruptive and maligned reputation his father and his party brings with it wherever they attempt to tell Hindus how much they should hate themselves.
Nationalism IS important in Indian politics, Indians-and Hindus-do not want to see their country broken up by opposition parties that are so anti-Modi that they are willing to use free speech to encourage self contempt for history, culture and religion.
So what happens now? Modi 2.0 must focus on economics first, it’s all about the jobs in India and the agricultural polity must be dealt with through labour and land reforms.
It must then ensure its message spreads all through India. Good work has been done in Bengal and Odisha but the typically left leaning South, especially Tamil Nadu, must awaken to the BJP message. If Modi accomplishes this It wil be the first party after the post-independence Congress to develop a footprint right through India.
Of course there is the elephant in the room-India’s Muslims. The BJP must now reach out to them and they must be willing to listen. They will listen if their economic and social ambitions are respected, not through cheap identity politics. At the same time it cannot forsake its Hindu orientation by simply appeasing Muslims, it must foster genuine dialogue with them, bypassing any risk of contradiction so that no seeds of suspicion are sown. Thankfully they will now look at evidence rather than listen to Hinduphobic propaganda from the Gandhi dynasty.
