The boomerang effect of this general election

There are many lessons to be learned from the verdict on the 2024 general election. Some say it has expanded the space for dissent and democracy that was shrinking, while others say it has raised hope for future change by restraining what some have called Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s de facto dictatorial rule.

But these are just the visible effects.

This judgement has deep philosophical implications. It is indeed an opportunity for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its establishment to strike back at civilisation. The Hindutva project spearheaded by Mr Modi has reawakened doubts about the old civilisation in the minds of secular Hindus. Far from creating a Hindu monolith, it has only created conflict among Hindus themselves.

Clearly, Hindutva’s call for Hindus to unite against enemies, mainly Muslims and liberals, and reclaim India’s “glorious” past has proven counterproductive. The 2024 verdict proves that Hindutva politics has polarised Hindus rather than uniting them.

The Constitution as a Turning Point

This is amply borne out by the prominence given to the theme of the Constitution in the 2024 battle. The Constitution has been under attack from the sovereignty movement ecosystem ever since it was being formulated and debated. With Modi riding a wave of unprecedented popularity, the Hindutva ecosystem has gained strength in Parliament and also thought it had enough moral authority to start talking about “Constitutional reform”.

The Opposition began by accusing the BJP of orchestrating a “false” campaign against it, alleging that it was trying to amend the Constitution to strip backward castes and tribes of their statutory affirmative action privileges. But they were merely picking out talking points from a few statements made by BJP leaders and election candidates.

Modi also went into the election with a strong and repeated demand that his party’s seat count be 400. The key question here is: why this number if not for constitutional reform?

As questions started coming in, PM Modi tried all possible measures to neutralise the perception on the constitutional issue, but the impression had run deep and the damage was already done.

The most encouraging lesson to be drawn from this battle between the Hindutva civilisational haves and have-nots is that the Constitution itself, which embodied the essence of the civilisational course correction that the leaders of the independence movement had painstakingly promoted, proved to be the reason for this realisation about the true intent of the Hindutva civilisational project, which was to ‘decolonise’ the collective mind of Hindu society through a project that essentially depends on reviving the so-called great and glorious past of Hindu civilisation and poisoning the minds of people with a pathological hatred towards those who do not belong to Hindu civilisation.

The Constitution itself was made necessary by the deeply inhuman inequalities inherent in Hindu civilisation.Indeed, constitutions all over the world are made necessary by similar concerns.

However, right-wing intellectuals have very subtly tried to downplay the groundbreaking contributions of the founders of modern India by arguing that the great value of the Statute Book is not due to any external influence but rather that it flowed from the “great” Hindu values.

One of the most commonly cited examples in this debate is that secularism has always been inherent in the Hindu mindset, and it found expression in the constitutional framework.

However, at the same time, the advocates of Hindutva are proving themselves wrong by indulging in demonising Muslims and other minorities.

This hatred towards non-Hindus is not the only thing that contradicts the “justice” that Hindus claim to have in their ancient civilisational past. It is the affirmative action section of the Constitution that Hindu nationalist revivalists often find hard to accept. Thus, while many of its advocates openly support reservations, they are often also openly scornful of them and pioneers of “protect the merit” campaigns.

It also appears when they start glorifying Manusmriti and try to introduce it in the curriculum of schools and colleges.

Clearly, their claim that the Constitution is a reflection of past glories is an excuse to cover up the past sins of their ideological forefathers who opposed the Constitution in debates in the Constituent Assembly and in articles in right-wing publications at the time of its creation. But that cover-up has been exposed.

Overrated “political acumen”

The Hindu have-nots are now crystal clear that the BJP could upend the Constitution, reshaping it to fit its vision of India, which is rooted in deeply problematic sociological assumptions. This realization will have the most profound impact on the 2024 elections, a humiliating reversal for Modi’s mission. And as is clear to all, the BJP has only itself to blame; the opposition has spotted a weakness and exploited it to stunning effect.

What Modi and the entire Hindutva ecosystem need to understand is that their social engineering and Hindu integration efforts over the past few decades have been a waste of their own making. They tried to stand on two legs — anti-minority platforms and anti-constitution — only to end up falling somewhere in between. They tried to unite caste Hindus (with whom the upper castes were always naturally in favor) against Muslims, but at the same time antagonized caste Hindus, the pawns of the anti-Muslim agenda, with anti-constitutional bravado. In the process, they paid a heavy price.

There are several examples in this election that confirm the boomerang effect. But nothing illustrates this problem more than the defeat of the BJP in Ayodhya in this election. The victory of an opposition Dalit candidate fielded by the Samajwadi Party shows that people do not accept the Ram temple as a place of honor, but that social justice is the real concern of the people. It also exposes the overestimation and weakness of the political skills of the self-styled Chanakya faction of the BJP.

So where does this leave the fading Hindutva movement? Will this doubt imprinted in the minds of the Hindu poor linger or fade with time?

Looking a little deeper at the junior party side of this election, it seems that the benefits of the BJP’s Rabati (beneficiary system) have been largely negated by talk of Samvidhan (Constitution) as the Rabati demographic is almost the same demographic that has been upset by the BJP’s Samvidhan scheme, rendering the BJP’s best-laid plan ineffective.

The opposition must regain its voice

Modi will have to run a coalition government and the constitutional dispute may remain latent unless the opposition continues discussions.

And it must be burned, because the majority of Hindus have been deceived into believing that the real fight is not with the Hindutva rich but with Muslims, when in fact it is the other way around, if at all.

The framers of the Constitution drafted it keeping in mind the deep divisions in India, especially in Hindu society, and non-BJP governments have managed to keep the basic structure of the Constitution intact, not only uniting Hindus and non-Hindus but also maintaining a deeply divided Hindu society as one whole.

Now the Constitution has fought back and given the BJP a civilised response.

The Opposition has a lot of work to do: it must continue this fight for social justice and prevent the Hindu poor from being exploited to achieve Hindu nationalist communal goals.

The Hindu have-nots must stop being complicit in the right wing agenda because they must fight and win for themselves against those who have misled them into believing that the real battle is outside the teachings of Hinduism.

Vivek Deshpande, a freelance journalist currently based in Nagpur, was a contributor to the Indian Express.