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Modi minus RSS: Time for BJP to ditch social as well as economic agenda of Hindu right
February 20, 2015, 12:08 am IST TOI Edit in TOI Editorials | Edit Page | TOI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi won the national election on a platform of modernity, good governance and economic change — which is at significant variance with the cultural as well as economic agenda of RSS and affiliated far right organisations. Contradictions were subsumed during the heat and dust of the election campaign by a national clamour for change. But it has become the biggest diversion for Modi`s government in its first few months.
This is why his speech reiterating freedom of religion in India this week was so important: it indicated a clear crossing of the Rubicon. That RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat also chose to emphasise in the same week that `our mothers are not baby-making factories’ and VHP leaders cautioned their followers to make ‘balanced statements’ which won’t ‘trouble the government’ suggests concerted messaging. This is a welcome shift. But the internal challenge for Modi is more fundamental.
Now some Sangh-related outfits are even joining hands with the Left to agitate against what they call the government’s ‘anti-poor’ and ‘anti-farmer’ policies. Basically there is a fundamental dichotomy between the promise of a modernist, aspirational India that drew so many new voters to BJP in 2014 and the obscurantist and Luddite notions of society and economy that still typify most of the Sangh. Modi’s challenge is that much of BJP’s traditional constituency, as opposed to the new voters who joined its electoral juggernaut in the past year, comes from RSS cadres. However, these voters have nowhere to go but BJP. To appease them BJP must not alienate a larger segment of new, aspirational voters who have been won over by Modi’s promise of development and modernity.
In that sense, to truly deliver on his electoral promises, it is time for the PM and BJP to cut the umbilical cord with the Sangh. Pushing forward on the second wave of economic reforms and ending socially divisive rhetoric require such a move to go beyond the politics of ritual assurances. BJP needs to structurally reduce RSS influence on the party and expand its own cadre independent of the Sangh. A BJP minus the Sangh would have greater political leeway. To shore up its organisational strength and grassroots connect, it would do well to borrow some of the innovative political mobilisation techniques that AAP has pioneered in recent times.
This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.
Modi minus RSS: Time for BJP to ditch social as well as economic agenda of Hindu right - TOI Blogs
February 20, 2015, 12:08 am IST TOI Edit in TOI Editorials | Edit Page | TOI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi won the national election on a platform of modernity, good governance and economic change — which is at significant variance with the cultural as well as economic agenda of RSS and affiliated far right organisations. Contradictions were subsumed during the heat and dust of the election campaign by a national clamour for change. But it has become the biggest diversion for Modi`s government in its first few months.
This is why his speech reiterating freedom of religion in India this week was so important: it indicated a clear crossing of the Rubicon. That RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat also chose to emphasise in the same week that `our mothers are not baby-making factories’ and VHP leaders cautioned their followers to make ‘balanced statements’ which won’t ‘trouble the government’ suggests concerted messaging. This is a welcome shift. But the internal challenge for Modi is more fundamental.
Now some Sangh-related outfits are even joining hands with the Left to agitate against what they call the government’s ‘anti-poor’ and ‘anti-farmer’ policies. Basically there is a fundamental dichotomy between the promise of a modernist, aspirational India that drew so many new voters to BJP in 2014 and the obscurantist and Luddite notions of society and economy that still typify most of the Sangh. Modi’s challenge is that much of BJP’s traditional constituency, as opposed to the new voters who joined its electoral juggernaut in the past year, comes from RSS cadres. However, these voters have nowhere to go but BJP. To appease them BJP must not alienate a larger segment of new, aspirational voters who have been won over by Modi’s promise of development and modernity.
In that sense, to truly deliver on his electoral promises, it is time for the PM and BJP to cut the umbilical cord with the Sangh. Pushing forward on the second wave of economic reforms and ending socially divisive rhetoric require such a move to go beyond the politics of ritual assurances. BJP needs to structurally reduce RSS influence on the party and expand its own cadre independent of the Sangh. A BJP minus the Sangh would have greater political leeway. To shore up its organisational strength and grassroots connect, it would do well to borrow some of the innovative political mobilisation techniques that AAP has pioneered in recent times.
This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.
Modi minus RSS: Time for BJP to ditch social as well as economic agenda of Hindu right - TOI Blogs
