Atal Bihari Vajpayee from the BJP was in power in India from 1999 to 2004. He ended up with a big defeat in 2004’s general election. The reason for the defeat was explained as prevalent ‘silent poverty’ in the Indian villages. A similar level of poverty prevailed in Narendra Modi’s tenure too.
Even after resorting to all kinds of tactics such as unceasing donations and all kinds of support from corporate owners, constant publicity in almost every media, spending huge amounts of money, using state institutions for party interests, harassing and intimidating opposition parties in various ways and freezing bank accounts of political parties and leaders, BJP did not receive expected mandate from the people. Its position is far below the number required to form the government. If all those unfair tactics were not adopted, maybe the opposition party i.e. India Alliance would have formed the government.
To gain public confidence, BJP-backed ‘corporate forces’ invested huge amounts in the stock market and artificially inflated the index during the election. Pro-BJP research teams have shown a huge victory for the BJP by manipulating booth-return polls as well. But the end was not saved. Finding the answer to the question ‘why not’ would be a much-needed lesson for all of us.
BJP holds the flag of Hindutva. BJP is not only Hindu-nationalist but also radical capitalist. Its reflection can be seen in the behavior and activities of the party and its leaders. It is evident in the clothes of Narendra Modi himself. According to Hindustan Times and India Today, Troy Costa, a fashion designer who makes dresses for the male stars of the Mumbai film industry, also makes dresses for Narendra Modi. After becoming Prime Minister for the first time, he made a gold-studded suit worth 9 lakh rupees. Tony Blair, Prime Minister of England, was nicknamed ‘President of England’ for his looks and mannerisms. This disease of Narendra Modi or Tony Blair is called Capitalism.
In this context, I remember the second Prime Minister of India, Lal Bahadur Shastri. Let me mention just one incident. Shastri was a minister without portfolio in Nehru’s last cabinet. Nehru once wanted to send him to Assam. Shastri went out after understanding everything from Nehru. Nehru suddenly thought, ‘It is very cold in Assam now, but Shastri, as far as I know, has no coat to prevent the cold.’ Then he called in Shastri again. Nehru said, ‘You are going to Assam, where it is very cold now. Do you have a coat?’ Shastri remained silent, which made it clear to Nehru that he really didn’t have one. Then Nehru gave him his own coat to wear.
Like Lal Bahadur Shastri, Narendra Modi too came from a poor family. But there is no way to understand that background by looking at his attire today. Arvind Kejriwal gave a long account of how Narendra Modi has come up with loan waivers, concessions and special benefits to corporate owners. But on the other hand, the poor farmer had to fight for preserving their rights to land. In doing so, they were even shot and died while some committed suicide. This favoritism to the rich and injustice to the poor are the symptoms of an extreme form of capitalism.
BJP failed to get the desired majority due to several reasons. There was a disgusting tendency among Christian missionaries in India to take advantage of poverty to convert Hindus into Christianity. Swami Vivekananda said to them, ‘We have enough religion. We Need Food. Just give us food.’ These are actually the words of the entire Indian population. It means, to save life, people need food first, then religion. BJP has overplayed religion by not providing food, i.e. creating jobs for the people. People were angry about it. That the BJP lost the seat in Ayodhya itself where they built the Ram temple, gives testimony to this fact. Anger grew further when they realized that the BJP was trying to take away their land and give it to corporate owners. They Realized that the BJP was not their friend, but the friend of the rich.
Dalits, Indigenes, Backward Classes, etc., constitute 52% of India. In 1955, the Kalelkar Commission proposed to preserve their quota in jobs and school-college admissions at 25-40% and then in 1980, the Mandal Commission proposed 27%. The BJP called for giving the people a chance to win two-thirds of the vote, so that they can change the constitution. They wanted to make India a Hindu State and annul reservation— this propaganda of Rahul-led Congress and other parties was believed by the people and prevented such a victory of BJP.
We have seen a genre of the Hindu state in Nepal during the rule of the king. Creator Brahma created the highest caste, Brahmin from the mouth and Shudra i.e. the lower caste from the feet; therefore, all the rules and regulations of the state should be formulated placing the Brahmins on the highest seat. For example, no capital punishment can be given to Brahmins, no matter how great the crime he commits; Brahmins may be imprisoned for three years at the most etc.
Those who know this terrible form of Hindu state, can never support the religion-state in this age of modern science, reasoning and humanism. Why should the backward classes accept such a discriminatory state system?
The Narendra Modi government is destroying the institutions that India built over 70 years by appointing party men to the police department, the central bank, the judiciary, the election commission— even the historical record commission. The central bank governor in the Modi government was the renowned economist Raghu Rajan, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago, who was nominated for the Nobel Prize. He was removed because he did not approve of Modi’s ‘demonetization’ policy. Later we have seen this policy causing great damage to the economy. In the name of curbing corruption, this policy has actually allowed his close associates to grab thousands of crores of rupees. On the other hand, the common people of the country were suffering endlessly. Voters didn’t forget those sufferings.
The awareness level of Indian voters must be appreciated. They remembered the promises made by Modi while asking them for votes. He promised that the income of the people in the villages would be doubled, the unemployment rate would be halved, and inflation would be kept at a bearable level. In reality, Modi has completely failed to deliver on his promises.
The BJP’s defeat in West Bengal can be explained as the defeat of Hindutva, i.e. ‘One Country, One Nation, One Religion, One Language’ theory by linguistic regional nationalism— in this particular case, Bengali nationalism. In fact, the people of West Bengal are terrified of this theory. They wanted to stop the Hindi aggression. Secondly, the public welfare schemes of the Mamata government have benefited women, in particular. So, the people voted for the Trinamool Congress despite its boundless corruption of the provincial government. However, instead of building an industrial base for the state, Mamata Banerjee is spending money on populist schemes, which is not only dragging the state back, but also unemployment keeps increasing day by day. This is a disastrous form of vote-politics indeed.
Professor Keynes, the most influential economist of modern times, wrote, ‘In the long run we are all dead.’ This axion explains why people decide to vote based on what they receive in the present moment. India has sent a spacecraft to the southern hemisphere of the moon, the volume of the Indian economy is soon to be the fourth largest, the size of the stock market has surpassed that of Hong Kong, the growth in the first quarter of 2024 is 7.8%— all these stories do not matter to the public. Because these stories do not touch their lives. They want a job, they don’t want any favor— they rather want to stand on their own feet and earn their own living, they want food, they want education for their children, they want clothes to hide the shame of a young girl, they want to marry away their daughter to a suitable boy and finally, they want some rest, sleep and healthy entertainment.
The extreme manifestation of capitalism appeared in the US, where Bill Clinton came to power in 1992 against George Bush with the slogan ‘The Economy, Stupid’. Because like the Indians, the Americans too want to live a standard life, which requires money.