Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP National President JP Nadda hoists the party's flag.
Credit: PTI Photo
Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent claim that "almost all" pending ideological tasks, including the abrogation of Article 370, have been completed by the government led by Narendra Modi is not entirely incorrect.
However, given that universally, the objectives for any individual, institution, organisation, or political party keep widening — even should — with every success, because otherwise it would stagnate, Shah’s assertion carries the risk of complacency overtaking the minds of its leaders. Furthermore, no ideologically-driven party can ever convert itself into a non-ideological one.
This will create a huge disconnect between the party and its supporters whose ideological ‘appetite’ have been whetted by the two objectives that have been achieved, and the fact that the realisation of the third goal has started.
It requires a quick recapitulation that through the 1980s and 1990s, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged from the margins of the Indian political theatre to the centre-stage, it listed three contentious targets — constructing the Ram temple, abrogating Article 370 of the Constitution, and promulgation of a Uniform Civil Code (UCC), as its primary goals.
Currently, while the first two ‘projects’ have been successfully ‘executed’, the third one remains a work in process as the law has only recently come into effect in Uttarakhand.
While state-specific laws are likely to be enacted without great difficulty in BJP-ruled states, in those where the Opposition is in power, the passage of the law is highly unlikely.
Purely from this standpoint, Shah’s declaration smacks of pomposity and arrogance, especially in wake of the BJP’s none too inspiring performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The air of overconfidence that made a return after the party’s sweep in the Assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra has not left some affiliates within the Hindu majoritarian ecosystem untouched.
Elated sections of the Sangh parivar, even organisations which have operated in the margins for over four-and-a-half decades of aggressive majoritarian campaign, have begun declaring their next intentions.
Take, for instance, the declaration by a hitherto largely unknown organisation, the Hindu Rashtra Samvidhan Nirmal Samiti, which has prematurely declared that it is ready with an extensive ‘Constitution’ of the proposed ‘Akhand Hindu Rashtra’.
Among other clauses included in this 501-page compilation, is the one that specifies that harsher punishment will be meted out for activities that the State considers ‘anti-national’, especially if the offenders belong to faiths other than Hinduism.
This law book of ‘Akhand Hindu Rashtra’ also makes military training mandatory for every citizen besides specifying that the Rashtradhyaksh, the chief of the country, would be chosen by three-fourths of the elected members of the legislature.
All this would be worrying for the opponents of the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), it would also not be very pleasant for those who have taken Shah’s words as the gospel. That is because this ‘Ideological Constitution’ seeks to disenfranchise religious minorities in India; and such a proposal will not just face massive opposition, but will also greatly disrupt the social order.
The 25-member committee of scholars claim that they have drawn inspiration from the Ramayana, the rules and teachings of Krishna, Manusmriti, and Chanakya’s Arthashastra. They specified that only adherents of Sanatan Dharma could contest elections. Furthermore, only followers of the Indic religions — Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, and Buddhism — would have voting rights.
Importantly, during the fiery agitation waged since the mid-1980s, the Hindutva brigade faced opposition from the established Hindu clergy, mainly the Shankaracharyas. They also criticised the Pran Prathistha ceremony performed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Ayodhya last year.
The conflict has roots in Modi consistently playing the roles of the Indian premier as well as the chief priest of Hinduism. Modi would not be able to continue performing this dual role if the BJP stops being an ideological-driven party, which is what it would be reduced to if Shah’s proposition is accepted, and the party changes its course.
The Maha Kumbh is in ways more than one an inclusive gathering and provides space and resources even for sections of the Hindu religious leaders who do not either see eye-to-eye with the BJP leadership or are propped up by factions at loggerheads with the party brass.
For instance, three Shankaracharyas from major Hindu sects issued a joint religious directive for the protection of 'Sanatan Dharma'. Importantly, their call, for declaring the cow as 'mother of the nation' as part of a Dharmadesh — or religious directive — was formally publicised by the Uttar Pradesh government.
This is a highly objectionable and uncalled for decision of the state government for further blurring lines of separation with religion. It also should be assessed in the backdrop of the undisguised rancour between the ‘Modified’ national leadership and the UP state leadership led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
It is not as if that the ‘Constitution’ of the Hindu Rashtra, the establishment of which is set for 2035, and the religious directives listed by the Shankaracharyas and their supporting members of the Hindu clergy, are the only new ideological objectives or goals set within days of Shah’s statement. Even the BJP has listed out new ideological objectives.
High on this list is the tacit backing to the pursuit of ‘reclaiming’ Hindu temples, allegedly destroyed in the medieval era to construct mosques. This certainly cannot be considered a non-ideological campaign.
Likewise, taxation officials questionably declared that journalism does not serve any public purpose. Hollowing out the educational sector and the media is an ideological objective of ensuring compliant citizens. This process is underway.
In the context of these parallel developments, it is evident that there shall not be many takers for Shah’s claim of the BJP exhausting its ideological pursuits and, perhaps, hereon function as a governance-focused party.
Even otherwise, Shah’s assertion failed to acknowledge that the BJP’s pursuits, be its campaigns against individuals and organisations labelled ‘anti-national’, or its pursuit of the Waqf Bill, or even the proposed legislation on One Nation, One Election, among other programmes, are driven by the party’s ideology.
Shah’s claim will possibly not be formally recalled, but it is more likely that the matter will hereafter rest, and not be reiterated — at least in the near future.
(Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a Delhi-based journalist, is author of 'The Demolition, The Verdict and The Temple: The Definitive Book on the Ram Mandir Project'. X: @NilanjanUdwin.)
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.