Reading Between the Lines?

The poll debacle has compounded organisational crisis in the ruling BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP). The apparent rift between BJP and its ideological mentor RashtriyaswayamSevakSangh [RSS] seems to be widening with every passing day. Modi is no longer a blue-eyed darling of Nagpur. Then they don’t know how to reconcile themselves with the unexpected loss in Uttar Pradesh which actually decides the shape of the Indian parliament. In truth, UP has a tradition of supplying India’s prime ministers since the days of Nehru. Modi was a notable exception. As the crisis in the party deepens, they are talking in multiple voices.

They are trying to find a scapegoat for their election disaster in UP while debating whether the party is bigger than the government. It’s a meaningless exercise though. The factional fight in UP BJP is more about how to capture the chair by using the pretext of setbacks in elections. It is not going to weaken BJP politically much but the RSS question is different.

Very recently RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in a veiled attack on Modi said some people despite being human lacked human qualities and they should inculcate it first. ‘Before God, be human’. That was the message from Bhagwat. He was actually addressing a village-level workers’ meeting at Bishnupur in Jharkhand’s Gumla district. The remark by Bhagwat clearly indicated that the RSS boss was not “liking the pride and arrogance” of Modi.

During the election campaign, Modi began to believe himself to be a “non-biological” person sent to the world by God. The statement was so nonsensical and ludicrous that even the Modi worshippers in the pliant media didn’t take much interest in it. That RSS was not subscribing to Modi’s absurd idea is now clear from Bhagwat’s plain and simple talk.

For one thing, Modi has been assiduously trying to build a personality cult around him ever since he became prime minister in 2014 while legalising his dictatorial style of functioning by every possible means. Many in the saffron party see Modi’s authoritarian approach to popular issues as the real reason for their electoral defeat and failure to secure an absolute majority. Whether Modi is going to fend his way remains to be seen.

Modi and his important cabinet ministers have an RSS background. At one stage one of his associates expressed his dissatisfaction with RSS and hoped to win elections without their support. But the murmur subsided in no time. It is not that easy to deny their RSS past and defy the dictate of the supreme authority. Not that only one factor is responsible for the BJP’s poor show in the Parliamentary poll; there are many and Modi is one.

Because of increasing discord in the BJP, Congress is reading too much between the lines. To over-read the verdict as a validation of its apocalyptic framing of the constitution- in-danger doesn’t reflect the ground reality. They have nothing to cheer about as there won’t be any split, not to speak of any vertical split in the saffron establishment without which it will be business as usual.

Not just the BJP, but even the Congress-led Opposition will be deluded if it convinces itself that it has won. This fractured election mandate is made of many parts that must be pieced together state by state, which behave differently. No doubt the BJP plunged by 63 seats with a decline of less than 0.7 percent in its national vote share compared to 2019, and Congress raised its vote share by only 1.7 percent to nearly double its tally of seats from 52 to 99. What it means is that the work of the Opposition is not yet done. What is more, they are deriving comfort from their limited success only to allow the BJP to regroup itself without changing its basic orientation of appeasing the corporate lobby and spreading the culture of hatred.

21-07-2024

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 6, Aug 4 - 10, 2024