Dr Vinod K Jose
Executive Editor
The Caravan
As a Malayalee I’m pleased with my state, Kerala, which has kept up the record of not letting the political ideology of hatred “open an account,” as they say, in this election as well. BJP – 0. Take a bow Malayalees! May the force be with you.
As an Indian, I’m of course sad how India has for a second consecutive term fallen for Modi. But in a way pleased also for the confirmation that the fight is a protracted one to keep the kindle of the idea of India alive. The system is broken at many levels and it needs fixing at all levels. Many of my South Indian friends ask why didn’t the Congress party win against the ideology of hatred. But for the Congress to regain power in north India in a national election is a mammoth task. Why has the Congress once again failed so miserably in north India.
Some tweets I put out early in the day are pasted here. But yes, in fixing a broken India, figuring out if Congress at all has a chance is just one of the many things.
Point 1.
If the size of the beast is not understood, how does one wrestle the enemy? Cong leaders have been wrestling with the shadow of the beast (BJP), not the beast (RSS) itself. Most of the leaders powerful enough to direct the course of the party are from upper caste families, and as a percentage of population these higher castes would come to less than fifteen percentage of India. When it comes to the RSS, these leaders in the Congress are often very reverential. They also forget history. RSS believes in majoritarian nationalism, and Nehruvian Congress believed in contractual nationalism. But most of the top leaders, except a Rahul Gandhi, are very careful about considering RSS as a force to fight with. And Rahul as a leader has failed to rally his party behind him on this mandate. As a result, the party ends up fighting the shadow, allowing the beast to grow in size freely. If two very distinct ideas of India are not sharpened & sold as such—majoritarian nationalism of the RSS and contractual nationalism of Nehruvian Congress—how would the choice be clear for voters? This debate is at the core of every polarising issue in India—from language to religion to food to skin colour to caste.
Point 2:
If one chooses to fight the RSS one must also understand what arms of the RSS are they fighting. RSS has two aspects to its being, to both, Cong has no answers/counters.
First) RSS is a thinktank. It does the thinking, agenda building & works as a grassroots agency that percolate those ideas to the people. Cong not only has no counter to it but it also doesn’t have intellectuals/philosophers who can sharpen the ideology for them. Congress has shown a culture of anti-intellectualism since the end of PN Haksar. Only “intellectuals” it likes are economists! Unfortunately economists are of limited value to build a mass movement against a semi fascist organisation like the RSS.
Two) RSS is an HR project. It consistently worked over a few generations, and created enough talent who could easily slip in and take over as editors, judges, bureaucrats, … whether they have the requisite talent or not, they are there, and today, they are everywhere. RSS has taken over Indian institutions from inside. And have converted them as public agencies which follow RSS’s world views. So you got judgments against reservations, and you got prime time anchors changing names of human rights activists to urban naxals with great ease. Rights and positions gained after sustained fights of decades are thus undone by one or two men very easily.
Unless Congress develop a counter to both these aspects of the RSS, it can’t be any effective in the next ten years.
Point 3:
Take a look at the states that Cong still has done well in this election. The states where Cong/UPA has done well (Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Punjab) have strong social fabric of anti-RSSism/ Aryanism/ Brahminsm/ Manusmritism, and Cong only reaped the benefit of it. If Cong wants to be an alternative, it should not shy away from being the party of the Dalits, Adivasis, BC, Muslims, Sikhs & Christians.(that’s a constituency which can be called ABCDMS..). RG’s sacred thread flaunting was trying to please the top 12-15 percent which anyway would choose a Modi/RSS over a Cong in 21st century. But has it struck him and his colleagues the very act must be upsetting for ABCDMS, read over 80%, because such symbolisms have different meanings for them?
If Cong fails to reinvent as the party of ABCDMS (RSS and caste leaders in Cong wouldn’t want that) it will fail to challenge Modi. Arithmetically, this is over 80% India. But Cong’s thinking is conditioned by moderate upper castes who can’t feel for the issues of ABCDMS for the privileges they were born into.
If it wants a share of the votes of ABCDMS—over 80% India—it can’t shy away to dream and deliver for them. It can’t then shy away from slogans like Hindu-Muslim unity (of 1920s), it will have to apologise for 1984, will have to fight and get justice for Kandhamal and Muzzafarnagar. It will have to unequivocally fight for affirmative action for A&D in pvt sector. Remember the longest speech against Mandal in a BC’s mind is still Rajiv Gandhi in Parliament in 1990. If a BC still voted for Cong for a very long time that is in spite of such conducts of Cong. But today when the RSS begins to recruit the BC by giving him Hindutva, selling him Hindu nationalism etc., Congress has nothing to offer. So every community in the ABCDMS has a landmark moment of the Cong doing injustice at them. But if Cong is willing to revisit and make a closure with those moments, a vast majority of them will come back to it.
If it fails to reinvent itself to keep the idea of India as contractual nationalism, then it is giving a walkover to majoritarian nationalism. That’s why the challenge of Cong today is not same as that of Indira’s/Rajiv’s, but of Nehru-Gandhi’s during 1920s, of checking Rai and Malaviya. In the 1920s Gandhi-Nehru duo forced Rai and Malaviya out of Congress; remember both were among the founders of Hindu Mahasabha. That was the first victory against majoritarian nationalism. And I can’t think of anyone in today’s Congress realising how much of a challenge they have lying ahead of them to play the role as a political alternative. If they fail, that’s then a political vacuum which someone can/will grow into filling. But if Gandhi-Nehru-Ambedkar et al could speak and win against the dangers of majoritarian nationalism for India (of Italy and German variety) and help consolidate the idea of India around contractual nationalism (of England and France variety), it is time to remind people in the 21st century that once again. The country as diverse as India needs leaders who can do that. Will India throw up leaders (political, social and intellectual) with clarity, and courage for the fight lying ahead?