The Question on Hindu Cause

The cradle of Hindu politics has seemingly taken a bit of a hit. A lot has been spoken by different groups and individuals regarding the Lok Sabha results. Some are questioning the fundamentals of social engineering and the motto of social justice, while others are wary of the functioning of the BJP as a political unit. This commentary reminds me of the statement made by the RSS chief after the BJP's debacle in the 2009 general elections. He said, “If ordinary Indians have tears in their eyes and they feel the defeat of BJP as their defeat, then that party will rise back from the ashes.”

But coming back to the main question: What does this result entail for the RSS as a socio-cultural organization, and for every individual wanting to live and contribute to the idea of Hindutva?

Political chest-thumping around the victory of the NDA is the work of the political unit, i.e., the BJP. They have the messenger and mechanics to do this. But on a more socio-cultural level, this result brings to light some harsh realities of our society and politics. There can be multiple disagreements with the current BJP leadership, but one cannot deny that this government has contributed significantly to the ideological awakening. In fact, not only awakening, but they have also successfully executed some of the major ideological issues that plagued us for a long time. Those issues kept us agitated and on edge. Finally, as a society, we came at ease after the execution of these major ideological planks. While everyone thought that this time the BJP would easily cross the 300 mark, democracy surprised each one of us. Everyone associated with this ideology in some form or another was taken aback.

Take, for example, the Faizabad seat in Uttar Pradesh. The BJP lost despite the construction of the Ram Mandir and the state government's undertaking of several other developmental projects in the district. As we know, the caste mobilization of SC in favor of the Samajwadi Party candidate damaged the prospect of a BJP win. Yes, you read it right. This has caused some unease. The Faizabad seat has not been a BJP stronghold. Even after the Babri demolition, the BJP lost badly in Faizabad. It was only after 2014 that the BJP won the seat. Before that, it won in 1996 and 1998. So why is there unease about the Faizabad seat despite it not being a BJP stronghold? The hue and cry mainly arise from the notion where everyone assumed that the compass had shifted and politics had become Hinduized. Taking this as a presumption, it is quite natural that the breeding ground of the Ram Mandir movement and the region that holds Ram Mandir not going with the BJP has disturbed the entire Indic/Hindu ecosystem. The result simply suggests that the compass of Indian politics or society hasn’t shifted much. Local factors, candidates, and other issues of rural distress have come back to determine the voting pattern, ignoring the ambitious ideological project undertaken by the BJP government in the last five years (read three as two years were lost to COVID-19). I took Faizabad as a case study; a similar argument holds true for other seats as well. Votes for almost every senior leader have dipped, including the PM. The PM being the best candidate and having undertaken a plethora of work in Varanasi, yet it remains a mystery why the votes cast in his favor dropped while the number of voters increased. Essentially, votes polled for the PM should have seen some increment.

This raises some serious questions about Hindu mobilization.

1. Will fatigue and, more importantly, anti-incumbency set in even after so much ideological and developmental work?
2. What will it take for Hindu society to vote as Hindus after visibly seeing core ideological agendas being executed on the ground?
3. Will our politics be driven only by caste mobilization and not by the larger Hindu identity?
4. Lastly, and most importantly, what is the incentive for the political party to take up and execute major Hindu causes if they aren’t rewarded for the same?

Just to juxtapose this with the community-level clarity of Muslims: they voted en bloc in favor of the Indi Alliance in UP, but in Nagina, they mobilized in favor of Chandrashekhar Raavan as they saw him best suited to defeat the NDA/BJP. The clarity is phenomenal and appreciable, at least in a political sense. They get what they aim for, i.e., to defeat the BJP. I know I can be blamed for taking a very linear view of the Indian elections, and there are other regional factors alongside the anti-incumbency against the existing MPs. All of it is valid, and honestly, such points are valid for all regular elections. What I wanted to witness was the mobilization of Hindus cutting across caste lines like never before. If the abrogation of Article 370, the construction of the Ram Mandir, the implementation of the CAA, fighting COVID-19, and building major infrastructure in every part of the country cannot push people to look beyond local issues and think of the nation as a unit in this national election, then we all have to ponder our ways of dealing with the politics of the day. We don’t need to unite only when the nation is at war but even despite that.

PS: This is not to say that the government has done everything right. No government can claim to be right after governing for more than 10 years. Some or other groups will naturally be unhappy and might see themselves as left behind.