BJP Hindutva vs AAP Hindutva is advantage RSS

What AAP is doing has been given a try by Mamata Banerjee in recent years, particularly after the 2019 LS elections, by exhibiting the Hinduness of TMC

Subramanian Swamy, the maverick of Indian politics, forwarded a novel suggestion back in 2020 that he said could appreciate the value of the rupee: To have Lakshmi and Ganesha images printed on Indian currency notes. Swamy pointed to the example of the Indonesian currency note of Rupiah 20,000, which carries Lord Ganesha's image.

During this Diwali season, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has unexpectedly echoed, surprising as the man looked somewhat free from such superstitions.

It, however, can be interpreted as a definite sign of the emergence of a different Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). After some initial meandering, it has finally metamorphosed into a Hindutvawadi entity, but not one which is anti-Muslim or anti-Christian, thereby assuming an identity different from the BJP.

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This latest stunt about the currency notes perfectly fits with the grand plan, for the argument runs that if a Muslim country can have it, why not India? This is an addition to what the AAP said in its Gujarat election campaign recently, where it promised a free pilgrimage to Ayodhya. More interestingly, after being attacked as a Muslim appeaser, the AAP chief vowed that being born on Krishna Janmashtami, he was sent by God to save the people of Gujarat from the ''children of Kansa''.

This is turning into a fight of ''thy Hindutva versus my Hindutva'' between AAP and the BJP. Ironically, it only benefits the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which of late is toying with the idea of assuming a liberal face, as an option, without giving up its core ambitions.

The AAP has toed the RSS line recently on another issue too. Two days after a purported video clip surfaced showing Delhi's then social welfare minister Rajendra Pal Gautam attending a religious conversion event, the AAP minister was made to resign. The BJP was using this clip to portray AAP as anti-Hindu, and AAP took the easy way out.

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Instead, the AAP leaders could have contested that Buddhism is also a dharmic religion, and it does not matter if some Hindus become Buddhists or some Buddhists take up Hinduism. The RSS has failed to expand the maxim from Hindu to dharmic religions, and Kejriwal, too, failed on that count.

However, and this is important, the winds of change are blowing in while Hindutva is slowly becoming a cliché in electoral terms, forcing the RSS to look for new allies and avenues. But Buddhists do not figure as much here as Muslims.

In recent years, the Narendra Modi government has gone ahead to forge proximity with Islamic countries. The BJP even expelled one of its spokespersons from the party for denigrating the Prophet. More interestingly, the Sangh Parivar has decided to approach the Pasmanda (the ''left out'' in Persian) Muslims, categorised as OBCs in most places. The Uttar Pradesh BJP organised a first-of-its-kind meeting of Pasmanda Muslims in Lucknow a week before Diwali.

Whether the BJP will fit in with this RSS' plan to expand the base is uncertain, for the BJP's Hindutva still has the strong stain of being anti-Muslim (2002 being a permanent blemish) and anti-Christian. But, AAP's Hindutva is secular Hindutva (Hindu first, but nothing against the minorities). So, in the long run, AAP can become a second, perhaps secret, political arm of the RSS.

After all, AAP was born out of the Anna Hazare movement that enjoyed RSS patronage. Later it drifted away towards the secular-liberal forces led by the Congress but undertook a course correction and finally emerged bigger by defeating the Congress in Punjab.

What AAP is doing has been given a try by Mamata Banerjee in recent years, particularly after the 2019 LS elections, by exhibiting the Hinduness of the Trinamool Congress. However, the Bengal CM still struggles against allegations by the BJP that she appeases the Muslim community. But it will be easier for AAP to do so, as the party will be new to the rest of India except for Delhi and Punjab.

If AAP succeeds in expanding in different states with its moderate Hindutva strategy, it may, in the long run, divide the polity into three: staunch Hindutvawadis, liberal Hindutvawadis, and secular-liberal. It will be interesting to watch whether things shape up like that in the years to come and how.

(Diptendra Raychaudhuri is a journalist and author based in Kolkata)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.