The Opposition must work to win back the minds of the citizens

There should be no illusion any longer that a RSS man’s first loyalty is to the Sangh rather than to anything else

NH Photo by Pramod Pushkarna
NH Photo by Pramod Pushkarna
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Zafar Agha

India is now clearly divided into two ideological camps: the Hindutva camp and the liberal camp. The presidential election of 2017 sharply underlines the “battle of ideas’’ between these two camps. Congress president Sonia Gandhi has already given the call to fight this battle of ideas “hard’’. The Congress president does not want “to let India hostage to those who wish to impose upon it a narrow-minded, divisive and communal vision”.

Indeed, it is a hard battle as Sonia Gandhi claims. Because the Hindutva idea of a ‘divisive and communal’ India is now sweeping across the country. It has seized Indian minds like never before. Narendra Modi has successfully won almost all the elections - from the 2014 general elections to the 2017 UP Assembly polls except for Delhi, Bihar and Punjab.

The issue is no longer electoral victories of the BJP alone. There has been a paradigm shift from the BJP of the Vajpayee days. Modi is not here to just govern like Vajpayee did. He is out to transform India which he himself termed as “new India”. This new India is the euphemism for Hindutva India, which is a clear departure from both our constitutional norms as well as from the syncretic India of Gandhian and Nehruvian liberal values.

The 2017 presidential poll turns historic in this political backdrop. It is no longer an electoral battle between Ram Nath Kovind and Meira Kumar. Kovind will be the first RSS man to occupy the Rashtrapati Bhawan for a period of five years. As the constitutional head, he will enjoy the liberty of playing with the country’s Constitution. There should be no illusion any longer that a RSS man’s first loyalty is to the Sangh rather than to anything else.

So, India has entered that crucial phase when the bhagwa (Saffron) shadow over its Constitution is a grim reality. It is also a foregone conclusion that Kovind will win the presidential race hands down. What to do now when the very idea of India is threatened? The liberal camp should first try to understand the hard ground reality before devising any game plan to fight ‘divisive and communal forces’ as Sonia Gandhi says.

What is the ground reality? The BJP has seized Indians’ minds. There must be no illusion about it, especially after the BJP’s grand victory in the UP elections despite people suffering from demonetisation. Everyone grumbled against demonetisation but voted for the BJP at the end of the day. The BJP won municipal and Assembly elections post demonetisation, except in Punjab.

UP Assembly election results were unbelievable. The BJP won because Modi could sell demonetisation as a ‘fight against black money in the interest of the poor’. Sangh foot-solders like Yogi Adityanath worked hard to communalise the ground. Modi’s pro-poor rhetoric, mixed with the Sangh’s divisive campaign, did wonders for the BJP even after demonetisation. The voter did not vote on his personal experience’s basis. Instead, he voted with a clouded mind seized by the Hindutva forces.

So, the battle of ideas is no longer just an electoral battle. The BJP will continue to win electoral battles if the liberal camp treats it only as an electoral battle. The battle of ideas has now turned into a battle of minds. Those who will capture minds will win; those who don’t won’t win elections either. The need, therefore, is to capture minds.

It is a difficult battle and needs to be fought hard as Sonia has rightly said on the eve of the presidential election 2017. She has even given a call for the “conscience vote” as Indira Gandhi did during the 1969 presidential poll. But 2017 is not 1969. Hindutva forces are at their peak now while liberal India under Indira was peaking in 1969. There must be no illusion about the possibility of black sheep from the liberal camp crossing over to the Hindutva side and voting for Kovind this time round.

How to fight the battle of ideas under circumstances when even elections are hard to win? The liberal camp needs to win over minds. Unless you win over minds, you cannot win elections. Well, how to win minds?

The battle of minds cannot be won in Delhi alone. India’s most successful Opposition leader Indira Gandhi has left behind a template to win over peoples’ mind when she was fighting Janata Party government between 1978 and 1980. Indira wasted no time inside Parliament. Despite winning the Chikmaglur Lok Sabha seat after she lost hers in 1977, Indira barely visited Parliament during that period. Instead, she was constantly touring India’s nook and corners, its villages, mufassil towns, big cities. She was all over India as the Opposition leader.

Indira Gandhi won the 1980 Lok Sabha elections with a thumping majority against the Janata Party despite losing the 1977 elections massively. People pardoned even Emergency excesses. She was back to power within three years of losing the same. No other Indian politician has been able to match Indira Gandhi’s magic as the Opposition leader during the brief interregnum between 1978-1980. She could do it because she won back the mind of the Indians. And, she did it through her intense struggle amidst the people of India.

The Indian Opposition needs to take a leaf out of Indira, the Opposition leader’s book and go to people like she did. Parliament sessions will come and go. Parliamentary forum alone can no longer help capturing peoples’ mind. There should surely be intervention against the government during parliamentary sessions. But Parliament should not be the lone forum to fight the government. Unless you win over minds, opposition on the floor of Parliament will be counter-productive. So, Opposition leaders must spend their energies where majority of India lives.

Delhi alone is not India. India lives in its villages, mufassil towns and medium cities. The battle of ideas is to be fought in these places. The battle of ideas does not end with an election. It is spread over many years of intense struggle amidst people.

The liberal camp may lose the office of the President to Hindutva forces. But the battle of minds does not stop at that. So, it is time to win back peoples’ minds. It is, therefore, all the more reason to go back to people like Indira Gandhi did.

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Published: 17 Jul 2017, 6:27 PM