Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat played ‘good cop’ a week after the voters gave the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Narendra Modi a serious reality check in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He pointed out that ‘decorum’ was not maintained by the BJP leaders during the election, that ‘restraint’ was often forgotten. Unfortunately, Bhagwat was silent when Modi was playing ‘very bad cop’ and making hate speeches against Muslims, calling them ‘ghuspaitis’ or infiltrators, and the ‘community that has too many children’.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
It was a new low for a prime minister to legitimise the crass hate against India’s Muslims and other minorities that chokes social media and the WhatsApp universe. So, Bhagwat’s gentle rap on the knuckles was purely for public consumption, tokenism to mollify liberal news editors. It actually meant little.
If ‘Ahankar’ is wrong, what about ‘Modi ki guarantee’?
Bhagwat also said that a true ‘sevak’ (servant) of the public does not demonstrate ‘ahankar’ (arrogance). But he was late with that homily too. His observation should have come when the election phrase ‘Modi ki guarantee’ was floated at the start of the BJP’s campaign. That’s when the party itself faded into the background. Modi’s media managers made it very clear that it was not the BJP or the Sangh that was the vote catcher, it was only going to be Modi.
No single pre-election event underlined this ‘ahankar’ more than the Ram Mandir inauguration, where even Lord Ram was reduced to being a prop. Images of a little Lord Ram, being led by the towering figure of Modi towards the Mandir summed up the ‘media message’ being invoked. The event was designed to build the persona of Modi as a ‘saviour’ and ‘defender’ of the Hindu faith.
Discussions driven by ‘godi’ (lapdog) media, videos reeled out by ‘bhakt’ (devotee) Youtubers influencers, and an editorial blitz by central ministers and BJP ideologues grandiosely positioned the Mandir inauguration as a ‘pivotal moment’ in the ‘revitalisation’ of the Hindu civilisation – all of this too being ascribed to Modi.
Ram Mandir as sandcastle and other rickety concepts
On top of this fundamentally flimsy sandcastle, more rickety concepts were added. For instance, Modi embodying India’s role as ‘Vishwaguru’ in world geopolitics, best portrayed in a widely circulated BJP ad claiming that Modi had actually ‘stopped’ the Ukraine war to get Indians out of there. It seemed Modi also began to believe his own ‘spin’. In interviews given to cherry-picked news editors he even portrayed himself as a ‘celestial being’, sent down among us lesser ‘biologicals’ with the higher divine purpose of leading India into a halcyonic Ram Rajya.
Unfortunately, on counting day, the voter shot it all down. The BJP fell a substantial 32 seats short of a simple majority.
What Bhagwat did not do, or was in fact, unlikely to do, in his benign chastisement of Modi and the BJP, was point out that all these sandcastles and mirages constructed by the BJP and Modi’s spin doctors, had in fact blinded them to the real issues that a vast number of voters were actually struggling with — massive joblessness, millions of collapsed small and medium businesses, raging abject poverty and inequality.
Modi also studiously stayed away from issues and places where he would not ‘look good’, for instance, staying completely away from Manipur. Not just during the election campaign, but ever since violence broke out there in early 2023. This too was pointed out by Bhagwat, again unfortunately, a year late.
But such glaring and deliberate acts of omission on Modi’s part, was not only his hubris, they also represent a fatal flaw in the very nature of Hindutva.
Hindutva, just a political ‘toolkit’
Hindutva has for long been a political ‘toolkit’ (to borrow a pejorative from Hindutva trolls) masquerading as an ideology. It has always been subservient to the task of bringing the BJP to power. In the process it has consistently been antithetical to the core values of Hinduism. For instance, the idea of inclusivism. While Hinduism is tolerant, Hindutva, in practice, is not. While Hinduism has no need for ‘enemies’, Hindutva feeds off enmity, and this fundamental feature of Hindutva determines the BJP’s politics and colours its election campaigns, slogans and speeches.
Also read: So, What Happens to Hindutva Now?
While Hinduism doesn’t need to have a symbiotic relationship with a particular political party, Hindutva and the BJP are ‘Siamese twins’. While Hinduism has no political goals, Hindutva has a clear political goal – to unify the Hindu vote in favour of the BJP. But the paradox is that it is these core values of Hindutva that prevent it from achieving its political aim.
The failure of the Ram Mandir to draw votes is proof of that. Why? Well, for Hindus this Ram Mandir was just another temple, but for the votaries of Hindutva and for the BJP it stood for their climb to power. While for BJP and Modi only this Ram temple mattered because it represented their political triumph, Hindus celebrate Ram in thousands of temples across India. And so, despite all efforts, India’s Hindus did not embrace this glittering new mandir in the same way. Only the BJP’s die hard core supporters did, which ‘godi’ media raved about as a massive ‘Hindu reawakening’ and a pre-cursor to the BJP winning 400 seats.
A flawed understanding of ‘Ram Rajya’
In much the same way, India’s voters and the BJP and Hindutva’s high priests also differ over the meaning of Ram Rajya. For most Indians, even several BJP supporters, Ram Rajya is not about shrill and brute authoritarianism. It is not about the systematic targeting of a minority by running massive disinformation and hate campaigns against them. It is not about tolerating violence and calls for violence against minorities. It is not about passing legislations that aim to relegate minorities to being second class citizens. It is not about using paranoia and hate to cajole the majority community to coalesce and vote together to fight this imaginary ‘minority enemy’.
Today those trolling the Hindus of Ayodhya for not voting for the BJP, calling them ungrateful, calling them ‘Hindu traitors’, simply don’t get this. In fact, they may even troll the people of Prayagraj, for not supporting the BJP despite the change in the city’s name. Surely such a superficial, cosmetic act should have been sufficient to paper over the BJP’s actual failures of governance. Similarly, the trolls could target the Hindus of Varanasi too, for allowing Modi’s margin of victory to fall dramatically from over 4.79 lakh in 2019, to 1.52 lakh this time around.
Challenging India’s Constitution can Cost You
Beyond the Ram Mandir fallacy, the other core feature of Hindutva that comes in the way of their goal of cornering the Hindu vote en masse, is the constant targeting of India’s Constitution by Hindutva’s staunchest supporters. Many of them reject aspects of the Constitution that are hallowed for most Indians — the repeated targeting of the words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ are well known. Even more consistent has been the targeting of the safeguards in the Constitution for India’s underprivileged.
Hindutva’s supporters forget that Ambedkar and the constituent assembly wanted to bring an end to India’s rigid caste system, and therefore introduced legal guarantees of equal opportunity and access irrespective of caste, and against persecution and exploitation on grounds of caste, in a new modern India. But by suggesting that Hindutva was a counter to, or an alternative to the Constitution, the BJP and the Sangh actually pushed India’s underprivileged Hindus away from them.
Also read: Our Social Fabric is Torn, But the Poll Mandate Has Laid the Ground For India’s ‘Rehumanisation’
And this was clearly signalled by the voters. They demonstrated that the idea of a unified Hindu vote is a mirage, just as imaginary as the many myths trotted out by the BJP and by Narendra Modi during these elections. In a nuanced verdict, the voters conveyed that the ‘supreme leader’ brand of politics that relies only on shallow spectacle, does not impress them. They also underlined that the opposition too has a lot of work to do. They made gains, but they still weren’t handed the mandate to rule.
It would help India’s netas, from across the political spectrum, remember the essence of ‘Ram Rajya’ as Gandhi envisioned it — inclusive, compassionate, and simple. Not grandiose, divisive, and violent. A ‘Ram Rajya’ that was about good governance, about putting India’s most disadvantaged first, and one where the ‘ruler’ was always accountable to the people.
Rohit Khanna is a journalist and video storyteller. He has been managing editor of The Quint, and is a two-time Ramnath Goenka Award winner.
Read all of The Wire’s reporting on and analysis of the 2024 election results here.
