Events & Issues
New Delhi, 4 June
2022
BJP’s
Politics
END OF
SOCIAL JUSTICE?
By
Sagarneel Sinha
The Narendra Modi-led
Bharatiya Janata Party government has completed eight years in power and amidst
this the country has seen changes in society and politics. Both sides, Modi
supporters and his critics, agree on this, although their interpretations on
the end result of these changes are poles apart.
Since coming to power
after winning General Elections 2014 with a clear majority, the dispensation
has faced allegations of favouring majoritarianism and weakening democracy.
These charges have grown after Modi stormed back to power with a stronger
mandate in 2019. Supporters of the dispensation, on the other hand, claimthe BJP’s
electoral success since 2014, including the twice saffron victories in Assembly
elections in the most politically significant Uttar Pradesh, are a clear
indication that caste-oriented politics is no longer applicable to the country.
Besides, Kamandal (the temple-oriented politics) has swallowed Mandal
(caste-oriented politics), and many others view it as the end of social justice
politics. Is it so?
There’s no denying
that in thesepast eight years, BJP has strengthened itself and deeply
penetrated into rural areas of the Hindi-belt. It has resulted in weakening of
caste-based parties, such as Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP),
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Janata Dal-United (JDU), Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD)
etc have partially or largely lost their core bases to the BJP. These parties
attribute their strength to the Mandal politics of the 1990s, pitted against BJP’s
Kamandal politics. Parties such as the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Samajwadi Party
in recent times are trying to look beyond their caste-arithmetic and focussing
on economic issues. This is a clear confirmation that they too are accepting
that their old caste formula isn't drawing the masses’ support.
Just because caste-based
parties are struggling, it doesn't mean it’s an end of social justice politics.
In the name of social justice politics, these parties practice the bitter truth
is that they have failed to benefit all sections of the society. Even those in the
backward classes, who aren’t powerful and are divided into small groups didn’t
get the benefit of social justice politics practised by these parties. Lalu
Prasad Yadav’s RJD claimed to represent the oppressed, but it represented the
Yadavs in Bihar.
The same happened
with SP of Mulayam Singh Yadav and later Akhilesh Yadav of Uttar Pradesh. The
Dalit-centric BSP under Mayawati came to be actually representing the interests
of the Jatav Dalits. Although during elections these parties try to attract
other communities, the truth is that the power of these always remains in the
hands of those coming from their core community. As a result, the other
backward communities wanting a share in power were often left unhappy and
angry.
The BJP and its
ideological parent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), understood this and took
advantage of the weakness of the Mandal parties. The saffron party guided by
the Sangh Parivar started engaging with these left-out backward sections. As a
result, today in Uttar Pradesh, the non-Jatav Dalits are identified as vote
banks of BJP — not Mayawati’s BSP! Even a section of Jatav Dalits too have
moved to the saffron camp in UP. The Dalits are accommodated in power centres
both at State and Central level. In addition to this, the various welfare
schemes of the Modi government are successful on the ground, and the
beneficiaries also include the left-out sections of the society.
Importantly, one
crucial aspect that often gets ignored is that the Sangh Parivar itself sees
casteism as a barrier against its mission of Hindutva, which seeks to unite all
Hindus under one umbrella. So, to assume that under the dominance of BJP, the
politics of social justice has been weakening doesn’t reflect ground realities.
Basically, the politics of social justice has undergone a change in the present
era. Now, the baton of the champion of social justice has passed from the
earlier caste-based parties to the Hindutva-oriented BJP.
On the other hand,
the arguments of caste-based politics almost coming to an end, as pointed out
by leaders of BJP, including Modi, on the basis of the electoral outcomes
during these eight years also don’t seem to be reflecting the exact ground
reality. Whether one likes or dislikes the bitter fact is that caste does
matter. It is a ground reality. The arguments of Kamandal eclipsing Mandal,
often heard, are overly exaggerated because it’s a given that even BJP devises
its election strategy keeping the various caste-equations in mind. Then how
come the saffron party’s victory represents the end of caste-oriented politics
or more properly Mandal politics?
Obviously, there has
been a change. The change is that BJP’s style of doing politics of social
justice is mixed with the Hindutva agenda. Its agenda is not to discard the
Mandal politics but to align it with Kamandal. Earlier Mandal and Kamandal were
poles apart and were two sworn enemies but now under BJP’s rule, the party’s
main agenda is to make Kamandal the best friend forever of Mandal.
Coming to the issue
of the rise of majoritarianism under these eight years, what the Left-leaning
intellectuals ignore or may be simply not interested to know, is that Hindutva
itself has many shades. It isn’t a uniform idea. That’s also the reason it is not
rejecting Mandal politics, but carefully appropriating it only to align with
Kamandal.
Interestingly, many
of the Right-leaning activists or more properly those associated with Sangh
Parivar too ignore the fact that Left itself has many shades, including extreme
ones. It has been seen that most of the time these factions of the Left don’t
get along. Similarly, there are extreme factions along with the moderate ones
within the Hindutva movement. These extreme factions try to unnecessarily
vitiate the society through their vicious ideas. The extreme factions of the
Left too do the same. Basically, both extreme sides complement each other.
Like minorities,
majorities are also human beings having their own issues — religious, social or
economic. The BJP as a ruling party has the responsibility to understand the
concerns of the majority too. They also have their own legitimate concerns.
Those worries can’t be just brushed aside. It can seriously affect the health
of our democracy. Understanding worries of the majority shouldn’t be
constructed as a stand against minorities and is not healthy to term this as
“rise of majoritarianism”. Importantly, in this country often the word minority
is associated with the minority religious communities forgetting that there are
other minorities too, ethnic and linguistic.
Obviously, there are
some legitimate concerns from some sections of religious minorities too — and
those need to be addressed. It is the responsibility of the saffron party,
being the ruling party, and also the Sangh Parivar to keep their extreme
factions under check. After all, such factions complemented by the extreme ones
of the Left only ferment unrest in the society. The claims of rise of
majoritarianism under BJP rule, however, are highly exaggerated. ----INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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