BJP on winning curve because people have accepted its majoritarian agenda: Author Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay

Noted author and journalist Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay feels that the BJP is on a winning curve in the country because the electorate has accepted its majoritarian agenda, something which is unlikely to change in the near future.

In an exclusive interview with Zafar Agha, Group Editor-in-Chief of National Herald, Mukhopadhyay said that the BJP has mastered the art of winning elections by projecting a notion that minorities, especially Muslims, need to be ‘fixed’, which is something only it could do.

“The recent assembly polls were a test case about the basis on which people made their electoral choice. The factors at play included the poor financial situation of the common man in the country due to BJP govt’s economic policies and the devastating second COIVID wave during which the govt was conspicuous by its absence. In UP, for instance, which went to the polls, thousands of bodies of those killed by the coronavirus flowed down the rivers in summer last year,” he said.

“However, what we saw was that anti-incumbency against the BJP governments in UP, Uttarakhand and Goa to some extent, did not throw up expected results because of the build-up of BJP's Hindutva brand of politics. In UP, law and order was touted as a major issue, as a part of which the word criminal was virtually projected as being synonymous with Muslims,” he said.

“In that sense, the BJP has perfected the art of using the dog whistle. Early on during the campaigning, Yogi Adityanath declared that the state polls were a contest between ‘80 and 20’. Even an illiterate person understood that he was referring to the 20 per cent Muslim population in the state. It was as communal a statement as it can get,” he said.

“Unfortunately, we have a pliant Election Commission which did not take cognisance of such a provocative speech which tried to spread animosity on the basis of religion. But then, we have seen how the EC paid no attention to several instances where hate speeches were given by top BJP leaders during the campaign. It wasn’t the first election where it happened, but it has been increasing exponentially since 2014,” Mukhopadhyay said.

Asked if he thought that EC wasn’t fair, he said, “Since 2014, the integrity of EC has been on a decline. It is reflective of a general decline in institutional integrity over the last eight years”.

Asked about his opinion on the shape of national politics in the next few years, Mukhopadhyay said the events in Ayodhya, starting with the Ram Janmabhoomi movement and culminating in the demolition of Babri Masjid, had changed the face of politics in the country vis-à-vis the BJP’s ascendancy.

“Those events reconfigured Indian politics. It’s as if a new hard drive is now in play. Today, more than 65 per cent of people are under the age of 35, and they have no recollection of those years. They believe in the notion of a de facto temple existing in Ayodhya. I would say that all the pet projects of the BJP, like ‘love jihad’, population control, Gujarat riots, have their roots in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement,” he said.

“Ayodhya is the central theme of the BJP, and it led to the creation of the lab of Hindutva, as they say. And this majoritarian agenda will only become stronger in the near future,” he added.

Asked to elaborate, he said, “The BJP’s national footprint is increasing except in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It is in a strong position at almost 400 seats across the country. It is gaining support in Andhra Pradesh and Telengana. Even in Odisha, no one knows how the situation will pan out after Naveen Patnaik exits the scene.”

Asked if it will continue to win polls across the country, especially with respect to the next phase of state Assembly polls, Mukhopadhyay said, “It is difficult to project that right now, but support for its brand of politics will not decline in the near future. This is because Hindus seem to have fallen for its politics of hatred against minorities, especially Muslims. It has managed to spin the narrative that they are welcome to stay, but only if they accept the protective umbrella of Hindu politics,” he said.

Asked if the BJP will go on to amend the Constitution to suit its agenda, Mukhopadhyay said that in a way, it had already done that. “CAA changed the character of the Constitution by linking religion to citizenship. All of Modi’s talk about Constitution being a holy book and Parliament being the temple of democracy was hollow. They will not rush into changing the Constitution but continue to amend it bit by bit to suit their agenda. And they will, of course, keep deploying the dog whistle effectively,” he said.

“I feel that Opposition parties are not half as hard working as BJP. And people have accepted that the problem is not poverty but Muslims. They need to blame somebody, and they blame Muslims. And the idea has gained acceptance that only the BJP can ‘fix’ them,” he added.

He pointed out that the BJP seemed to have succeeded in its agenda of ‘social engineering’ by attracting votes from the OBCs, Dalits etc. “However, it’s still steeped in Savarna politics. In UP, the media went overboard in remarking how so many new ministers were OBCs, Dalits etc, but the reality is that it is still disproportionate to their actual percentage in the population. This caste issue is huge faultline as far as the RSS is concerned,” he said.

Mukhopadhyay, however, opined that the freebies being offered by the BJP to the people in the form of free ration etc may lead to a huge problem. “They can’t continue with it forever. But there would be mass anger the moment they stop it. It remains to be seen how they manage that situation,” he said.

Summing up the situation, he said, “The BJP’s ascendancy cannot be permanent. Every nation goes through phases. We don’t know what the future holds. There could well be some dramatic developments and people might start seeing through the BJP”.

Watch the video of the interview: