The Big Story: Centralising forces

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s recently concluded national executive, held in Odisha, was something of a celebratory gathering for a party that has been in a triumphant mood ever since it notched up a massive victory in Uttar Pradesh last month. BJP President Amit Shah took the opportunity to tell the party’s leaders that the work had just begun, insisting that their “golden era” was still ahead of them. He asked the party’s leaders to work towards a BJP win in every state, and said that the aim was to be in power from panchayat to Parliament.

While every state might be a bit too ambitious of a target, there is no doubting that the BJP has become a hegemon. It is now the pole around which Indian politics rotates, with other parties defining their presence based on their relationship to the BJP’s politics and what it stands for. Shah pointed out in particular that the BJP wanted to push into states like Kerala, Odisha and West Bengal, where it has been making enough progress to start challenging the established powers.

But what will this hegemony look like? An examination of beef politics gives us some idea. While the Hindutva-focused party in the cowbelt has turned cow-protection into one of its central planks, as is evident in Uttar Pradesh, its politicians in Kerala and the North East have even made providing beef a campaign promise. Whether one feels the Uttar Pradesh campaign is divisive and unnecessary, the difference between the BJP’s approach in that state compared to other parts of the country is not hypocrisy. It reflects a large party that will inevitably have to incorporate local cultural norms within its approach.

But this diversity is undercut by the centralising forces within the party. To some extent, that is represented by Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, both of whom come from the same state and have shown that they have a similar, specific worldview. But this also emerges from the parent organisation that tends to have an enormous influence on the BJP: the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Even as the BJP might have been showing off its diversity with different approaches to beef, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat was calling for a national ban on cow-slaughter, a move that would inevitable turn off politicians in some parts of the country.

As the BJP continues to grow, the question that is bound to affect the party that has promised cooperative federalism is simple: Can it ignore the centralising tendencies of the RSS and Hindutva, and transform into a party that truly reflects the diversity of the country that it wishes to rule?

Punditry

  1. Chakshu Roy in the Indian Express points out that simply making laws isn’t enough, Parliament also needs to pay close attention to how rules are framed .
  2. Asset Reconstruction Companies can still help solve India’s non-performing asset problem, writes Ajay Shah in the Business Standard, but setting up a government company doesn’t make sense. [Paywall]
  3. The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management committee’s report does well to set tough fiscal goals for a country prone to high inflation, says a leader in Mint.
  4. Ashutosh Varshney in the Indian Express says we are still not grasping the full meaning of the Bharatiya Janata Party picking Yogi Adityanath to lead Uttar Pradesh.

Don’t miss

Shreya Roy Chowdhury explains how the Delhi government is shutting its schools to migrant children by making Aadhaar mandatory.

“The insistence on Aadhaar by schools and their lack of identity documents have made parents doubly insecure. The residents of Sagarpur slum, who have been evicted several times, are desperate for a pehchaan patra that, they feel, would buttress their claim to the spot they occupy by the stormwater drain. They have visited several Aadhaar enrolment centres, sometimes accompanied by members of non-governmental organisations. ‘A couple of times, they took our photos,’ said Reshma, whose daughter, Neha, has joined Class I at the Vashisht Park municipal school. ‘Other times, they refused because we have no documents.’ None received an Aadhaar number.

The teachers have even approached police officials, hoping they would agree to be Aadhaar introducers for parents, but without success. Consequently, even if the children manage to get Aadhaar cards, their uniform money and scholarships would be held up till their parents get the unique 12-digit number.”