A little examined and understood dynamic behind the rise and eventual triumph of PM Modi was the public perception he fostered of a one-man-army against the forces hell bent on destroying India and Hindus.
In his quest to rise above retail politics and appear Prime Ministerial he may have relinquished this hard earned and well deserved reputation of being the Hindu David against a secular, corrupt Goliath.
As I have suggested in a few previous posts (see 'PM's Dilemma') this was a natural progression given the complex set of constraints under which the PM has had to operate from the outset.
This is not to suggest that he has forfeited this great political asset for good. But if things are allowed to drift his foes could dilute this asset if not permanently reverse it.
Before we explore avenues of recovering some of this lost ground, let us first examine why it was diluted to begin with.
Explaining the ostrich like quality of European liberals and liberal political leadership Ayaan Hirsi Ali once furnished an insightful theory: Only those Europeans who have to live with Muslims on a day-to-day basis can understand the anguish of having to curtail one's god given freedoms.
Almost every urban center across India is facing a not so silent Islamic demographic invasion. In areas where Muslims have traditionally faced little to no resistance, Hindus are being marginalized and rendered as refugees in their own land.
Kashmir is being repeated across India. Hindu women are being raped, Hindu men beaten up and subjected to threats to life and property at the drop of a hat. Even traditional Hindutva strongholds like Maharashtra are no longer immune to this rising evil.
Moreover, a clearly compromised media has become an enabler of this silent Jihad. When Hindus are victims as in Malda or Pune, media completely ignores the incident and buries it. When Hindus retaliate media and their secular handlers effortlessly turn the knives on Hindus and paint the entire country as 'communal', 'fascist'.
The core BJP voter had hoped that the election of PM Modi to the highest office would help address these issues. At the very least a Hindu govt. would give Hindus a fighting chance in their own land.
But not much seems to have changed on the ground. Coupled with high prices, continuing urban decay, entrenched 'retail' corruption and govt. apathy, even the core BJP supporter is finding it hard to buy into the promise with which PM Modi was elected into office.
To be fair, we have only just completed 20 months of his govt. A wide range of path breaking initiatives have been set into motion. From Jan Dhan and Mudra Bank to Agri insurance, these initiatives are bound to usher India into a decades long hyper growth trajectory and lift hundreds of millions of Indians out of poverty.
The fear expressed by a number of PM's core supporters is that these benefits may not be visible in time to positively influence the outcome of the next LS elections.
As I have pointed out since before the PM took office that he has 36 months to deliver on key promises. Now the fear is that this may not happen and 2019 would be lost before the war is fought.
This fear may yet be premature. PM's initiatives have begun to show up in GDP projections. Most importantly a global meltdown in commodities will serve as a tremendous boost to India's manufacturing sector.
But the twin variables of time and a rapidly uniting opposition could hurt the PM in a big way.
So how can the PM remedy this situation.
Delivering on the Hindutva agenda:
A Putin or a Trump can give the world a finger but even these leaders of very powerful nations cannot go completely off the reservation and speak the language of an Yogi Adityanath or a Balasaheb Thackeray.
India is still heavily dependent on foreign nations for a vast variety of key inputs from nuclear fuel to modern weapons.
PM Modi can ill afford to anger Western nations with a hard edged Hindutva agenda. Most importantly an electorally significant number of non-Hindus voted for him and he must occupy the centrist space to prevent a anti-BJP Christlamist consolidation.
Given these constraints how can the PM deliver on his Hindutva agenda.
Enter Dr. Swamy.
Clearly these two Hindu warriors have agreed to a Good-Cop-Bad-Cop division of labor. PM Modi plays the Good cop and delivers on his development agenda while the Bad Cop Dr. Swamy goes after all the core (albeit controversial) elements of BJP's agenda.
While this is working well it may not be enough. A much larger, broad based effort needs to be instituted.
As suggested in this post - http://inflextionpoint.blogspot.com/2016/01/how-to-take-back-kashmir.html
BJP needs to develop a non-Sangh Parivar Hindutva outfit which can carry out the Hindutva agenda through legal and constitutional means.
For instance, such an organization could lead an effort to reclaim temples destroyed and desecrated in Kashmir over the past 30 odd years.
Such an initiative galvanizes all the Hindutva forces. It focuses on a positive agenda and reemphasizes the rising tide of Islamic extremism spreading across the world.
It simultaneously neutralizes pseudo secular forces as any opposition to such an initiative will quickly unmask them and force them to take sides making them combatants in a politico-cultural war.
By keeping this project within a constitutional and legal framework, BJP can prove to its core supporters that it is striving to achieve a concrete objective i.e. the eventual return of Kashmiri Hindus to their homes.
Most importantly by taking a proactive approach, it pushes BJP out of the reactive mode in which it currently finds itself.
Hope the PM and his party are listening.
In his quest to rise above retail politics and appear Prime Ministerial he may have relinquished this hard earned and well deserved reputation of being the Hindu David against a secular, corrupt Goliath.
As I have suggested in a few previous posts (see 'PM's Dilemma') this was a natural progression given the complex set of constraints under which the PM has had to operate from the outset.
This is not to suggest that he has forfeited this great political asset for good. But if things are allowed to drift his foes could dilute this asset if not permanently reverse it.
Before we explore avenues of recovering some of this lost ground, let us first examine why it was diluted to begin with.
Explaining the ostrich like quality of European liberals and liberal political leadership Ayaan Hirsi Ali once furnished an insightful theory: Only those Europeans who have to live with Muslims on a day-to-day basis can understand the anguish of having to curtail one's god given freedoms.
Almost every urban center across India is facing a not so silent Islamic demographic invasion. In areas where Muslims have traditionally faced little to no resistance, Hindus are being marginalized and rendered as refugees in their own land.
Kashmir is being repeated across India. Hindu women are being raped, Hindu men beaten up and subjected to threats to life and property at the drop of a hat. Even traditional Hindutva strongholds like Maharashtra are no longer immune to this rising evil.
Moreover, a clearly compromised media has become an enabler of this silent Jihad. When Hindus are victims as in Malda or Pune, media completely ignores the incident and buries it. When Hindus retaliate media and their secular handlers effortlessly turn the knives on Hindus and paint the entire country as 'communal', 'fascist'.
The core BJP voter had hoped that the election of PM Modi to the highest office would help address these issues. At the very least a Hindu govt. would give Hindus a fighting chance in their own land.
But not much seems to have changed on the ground. Coupled with high prices, continuing urban decay, entrenched 'retail' corruption and govt. apathy, even the core BJP supporter is finding it hard to buy into the promise with which PM Modi was elected into office.
To be fair, we have only just completed 20 months of his govt. A wide range of path breaking initiatives have been set into motion. From Jan Dhan and Mudra Bank to Agri insurance, these initiatives are bound to usher India into a decades long hyper growth trajectory and lift hundreds of millions of Indians out of poverty.
The fear expressed by a number of PM's core supporters is that these benefits may not be visible in time to positively influence the outcome of the next LS elections.
As I have pointed out since before the PM took office that he has 36 months to deliver on key promises. Now the fear is that this may not happen and 2019 would be lost before the war is fought.
This fear may yet be premature. PM's initiatives have begun to show up in GDP projections. Most importantly a global meltdown in commodities will serve as a tremendous boost to India's manufacturing sector.
But the twin variables of time and a rapidly uniting opposition could hurt the PM in a big way.
So how can the PM remedy this situation.
Delivering on the Hindutva agenda:
A Putin or a Trump can give the world a finger but even these leaders of very powerful nations cannot go completely off the reservation and speak the language of an Yogi Adityanath or a Balasaheb Thackeray.
India is still heavily dependent on foreign nations for a vast variety of key inputs from nuclear fuel to modern weapons.
PM Modi can ill afford to anger Western nations with a hard edged Hindutva agenda. Most importantly an electorally significant number of non-Hindus voted for him and he must occupy the centrist space to prevent a anti-BJP Christlamist consolidation.
Given these constraints how can the PM deliver on his Hindutva agenda.
Enter Dr. Swamy.
Clearly these two Hindu warriors have agreed to a Good-Cop-Bad-Cop division of labor. PM Modi plays the Good cop and delivers on his development agenda while the Bad Cop Dr. Swamy goes after all the core (albeit controversial) elements of BJP's agenda.
While this is working well it may not be enough. A much larger, broad based effort needs to be instituted.
As suggested in this post - http://inflextionpoint.blogspot.com/2016/01/how-to-take-back-kashmir.html
BJP needs to develop a non-Sangh Parivar Hindutva outfit which can carry out the Hindutva agenda through legal and constitutional means.
For instance, such an organization could lead an effort to reclaim temples destroyed and desecrated in Kashmir over the past 30 odd years.
Such an initiative galvanizes all the Hindutva forces. It focuses on a positive agenda and reemphasizes the rising tide of Islamic extremism spreading across the world.
It simultaneously neutralizes pseudo secular forces as any opposition to such an initiative will quickly unmask them and force them to take sides making them combatants in a politico-cultural war.
By keeping this project within a constitutional and legal framework, BJP can prove to its core supporters that it is striving to achieve a concrete objective i.e. the eventual return of Kashmiri Hindus to their homes.
Most importantly by taking a proactive approach, it pushes BJP out of the reactive mode in which it currently finds itself.
Hope the PM and his party are listening.
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