BJP Still Believes in Hindutva: It has a Different Reading of 2024 Result
STORIES, ANALYSES, EXPERT VIEWS
The Opposition strongly believes that issues like unemployment, inequality, and poverty were more important than Hindutva and PM Modi’s popular appeal in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. That is why they scored more even in states like Uttar Pradesh. The BJP however, continues to double down on Hindutva. UP, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh governments for example, have instructed eateries to show owners’ nameplates on the routes of ‘Kanwarias’ (pilgrimage of Hindu devotees of Shiva).
One needs to see this, writes DK Singh (Political Editor at ThePrint) “in the context of what other top BJP leaders are doing. Union Home Minister Amit Shah was speaking about ‘land jihad’ and ‘love jihad’ in Jharkhand and describing the opposition as Aurangzeb’s fan club in Maharashtra. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is talking about his state becoming Muslim majority by 2041. His Rajasthan counterpart, Bhajan Lal Sharma, sees no change in ‘one category of people’ when it comes to population control. And then BJP MLA Balmukund Acharya says that ‘four begums and 36 children’ will not be allowed.”
BJP leaders ‘obviously know something more than what others don’t’
So, "if the 2024 Lok Sabha results were a signal to Modi-Shah to shift from Hindutva politics to addressing issues like unemployment, inequality and day-to-day concerns of the common man, why are they not getting the message?……They obviously know something more than what others don’t. Their political adversaries might be tempted to think that the BJP is doing communal politics because that’s all it knows. Or that it is mistaken in continuing with what one may call the politics of vicarious identification. So, if someone is unemployed, they think that their turn hasn’t come but eight crore others have got it. A middle-class person would think that it’s okay to pay much more for vegetables or petrol because an old mother in a village is getting a gas cylinder…..” And so on.
These presumptions about the BJP’s politics of vicarious identity “may still be valid. But the Opposition should probably give more credit to Modi-Shah because if they could redefine Indian politics, they must know more than others. They are reading something different in the 2024 public mandate…..”
Despite day-to-day issues, people still with BJP
The CSDS-Lokniti post-poll survey gives an indication. Yes, there was a slight dip from 2019 in the percentage of people being fully satisfied and somewhat satisfied with the government’s performance—from 65 per cent to 59 per cent—but the most liked work of the government was still the construction of the Ram temple (22 per cent). Most disliked works of the Modi government were price rise/inflation (24 per cent), growing unemployment (23 per cent) and increasing poverty (11 per cent). But here is the catch. Even among those who had a negative assessment, 40 per cent of those for whom price rise/inflation was an issue voted for the BJP as against 21 per cent for the Congress. For growing unemployment, the post-poll survey figures of voters read 36 per cent for the BJP and 20 per cent for the Congress. It’s 32 per cent for the BJP and 23 per cent for the Congress for increasing poverty.
That, according to Singh “should explain why the BJP is doubling down on its Hindutva politics. The above-mentioned data suggest that poverty and unemployment might be matters of concern for the people, but they don’t necessarily drive their voting preferences. Modi-Shah’s politics post-polls suggests as much. They don’t see anything amiss in the public mandate, not in terms of voters’ rejection of their politics or governance. They seem to be looking for the fault somewhere within: Internal sabotage, failure to counter the Opposition’s propaganda about ‘400 paar’, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) apathy, bad ticket distribution, and allies’ below-par performance, among others?…”
