RSS watchword Swadeshi could be the BJP's next big thing

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pitch for self-reliance, articulated as 'AatmaNirbhar Bharat ', is no accident: It is a choreographed nod to the Bharatiya Janata Party's ideological roots and sets the BJP's stall out for the rest of its term in power.

Look carefully, and you will see the signals of a resurgence in Swadeshi in the saffron parivar's rhetoric over the past weeks. In the months and years ahead, it's clear that it will act as a strong complement to Article 370 and the building of the Ram Mandir running into the national slugfest in 2024.

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Swadeshi has always been close to the heart of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the BJP's ideological patron. It gained prominence during the government of the only other BJP prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, but had faded into the background in the first five years of the Modi regime.

Now, the COVID-19 pandemic has given an opening to its votaries, and Modi has grabbed the opportunity to reassert his RSS roots while making economic sense as globalisation takes a blow from the virus.

In his address to the nation on Tuesday Modi observed that the crisis has taught us the importance of local manufacturing, the local market and local supply chains. “The state of the world today teaches us that an (AtmaNirbhar Bharat) "Self-reliant India" is the only path," he said, though he also sought to assure that it is not a self-centred approach and India's gains will benefit the world.

RSS ideologue and economic thinker S Gurumurthy said, “Modi’s announcement is the official launch of the self-reliance agenda even as the WTO is in ICU.”

Modi's performance on the economic front through his first term was decidedly mixed, a surprising outcome for a chief minister-turned-PM who was seen in his state, Gujarat, as a dynamic and pro-business reformer. Unemployment burgeoned, growth was tepid and the twin disasters of demonetisation and a poorly implemented Goods and Services Tax (GST) hobbled the economy even before COVID-19 struck.

Now, with global supply chains in tatters, it is a golden opportunity to drive the self-reliance agenda. It will find a lot of resonance within Modi's party and the wider parivar, and a possible fillip to employment could be a major vote-winner.

Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy -- one of the BJP's key economic thinkers -- had earlier this month called for the Swadeshi goal to be brought back as a "Make in India" slogan. "Swadeshi today means self-sufficiency in three areas: Food, Medicines, and Military Technology. This hurts US & China exports,” he tweeted.

The RSS's joint general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale earlier noted that the limitations of both global capitalism and global communism had 'exposed themselves in dealing with the pandemic', and called for a new model based on self-reliance. And RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat only last month said: “We will have to create a swa-adharit tantra (a self-dependent mechanism). The society will have to turn to Swadeshi,” he said.

With the economy likely to enter a major funk, the party will hope that this card works wonders while attempting to get foreign companies to make in India rather than in China.