After Modi came to power in 2014, armies of gerua goons started being prepared in every street, every village in the name of cow protection. Muslims were killed for branding any meat as beef. Mainstream TV started spreading provocative propaganda against Muslims and fake videos proving Muslims to be demons on social media. As a result, when riots took place, Muslims were killed and Muslims were also arrested because the police, which was earlier Hindutva, got a free hand after the arrival of the Modi government.
Once talking about conduct, character, and contemplation, the BJP now wants to gain power in every state by any means necessary. Why? Because it knows that the Bharatiya Janata Party will remain in power at both the center and the states, only then will the RSS and its associated organizations be able to continue their work of Hindu unification and demonization of Muslims diligently across the country.
By Nirendra Nagar
Below are the headlines of three news stories. Which of these headlines seems the most concerning to you?
First headline. The bill to amend the Waqf Act was recently passed by Parliament, and after receiving the President’s approval, the amended law came into effect on April 8.
Second headline. The head of Bageshwar Dham has announced that he will establish colonies, where only Hindus will be allowed to reside.
This is not a headline because it has not been highlighted in any media. It has only appeared on social media.
On the occasion of Eid, a Rajasthani youth, who applies henna refused to apply henna to the hands of a Muslim girl who came with a burqa, stating that he does not make any moon designs.
Which of these three pieces of news do you find the most terrifying one? The first, the second, or the third? In my opinion, the third one. The reason is that the BJP government, which is amending the Waqf Act, exists today; it may not be there tomorrow. Also, if anything illegal and unconstitutional happens in it, the Supreme Court can overturn that decision. The baba of Bageshwar Dham, too, will have a very limited impact with his work. No person engaged in a job or business is going to leave their area to live in those Hindu villages. Moreover, every society and area where Hindus are in the majority has already formed as Hindu societies and Hindu areas, especially in the cities.
But the third incident is more terrifying. The young man applying henna is not a wealthy businessman, nor does he have a stable job. Yet, he is refusing to make a moon because of his hatred towards Muslims. If he had applied henna on that girl’s hands, he would have earned some income. But the hatred he holds in his heart for Muslims is so intense that he is willing to jeopardize his livelihood. He isn’t even considering that the moon is neither Hindu nor Muslim. It is the same moon that adorns Lord Shiva, the God of gods. When that same moon is applied on the hands of a woman in a burqa, how does it become a Muslim moon?
The biggest threat is on the ground. The behavior of that young man indicates that although the Bharatiya Janata Party may have fewer seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, its support on the ground has not diminished. This incident also shows that the efforts made by the RSS and its affiliated organizations to divide the country and society into Hindus and non-Hindus since their inception are having a profound impact.
In 2014, when Narendra Modi’s government came to power and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s vote percentage increased from 19% in 2009 to 31% in 2014, many political analysts began to unravel the riddle of how many of these 31% voters supported the BJP due to Modi’s image as the ‘Hindu Hriday Samrat’ that emerged after the Gujarat riots, how many took the party’s hand because of Modi’s OBC identity, and how many pressed the lotus button due to Modi’s claims of Gujarat-style development.
This question was important and still is because the answer to this question hides another important question : will India be able to remain secular in the future under Modi’s leadership?
No one has an exact answer to this question, but it is certain that not all of the BJP’s voters are communal. And the BJP knows this as well, that the OBC voters who voted for the party because of Modi’s OBC status may also shift to a rival party’s OBC leader tomorrow. Similarly, after the promise of providing a roof over the head of every homeless person and doubling the income of farmers was broken by 2022, many farmers and homeless individuals might start following another dream merchant.
That is why the party’s effort is to make those voters, who were drawn to the party due to Modi’s OBC identity or promises of development, so accustomed to the intoxication of Hindutva that the issues of livelihood become trivial for them, and raising the flag of Hindutva and teaching a lesson to Muslims becomes the most important and primary task.
That is why, after Modi came to power in 2014, armies of gerua goons started being prepared in every street, every village in the name of cow protection. Muslims were killed for branding any meat as beef. Mainstream TV started spreading provocative propaganda against Muslims and fake videos proving Muslims to be demons on social media. As a result, when riots took place, Muslims were killed and Muslims were also arrested because the police, which was earlier Hindutva, got a free hand after the arrival of the Modi government. On the other hand, after Yogi came to power in UP, bulldozery justice started, which was later adopted by the BJP governments of other states. As a result of this justice, any Muslim who was accused of any crime was demolished by the government.
How much impact have the efforts made by the Modi government and organizations linked to the Sangh during its first term had on the ground? This was supposed to be investigated in 2019, but then Baramulla happened, and when the elections came, it became difficult to determine what was the reason for the BJP’s 6% increase (from 31% to 37%). Was it the anti-Muslim propaganda over five years? The successful outcome of the welfare schemes of the Modi government? Or the surge of patriotism arising from the surgical strikes on Pakistan?
Whatever the reason, after increasing their votes and seats in 2019, Modi and Shah became more authoritarian. They revoked Article 370 from Kashmir, enacted the CAA law, and appointed the Chief Justice who delivered a favorable verdict on Ayodhya as a Member of Parliament. They also made a solid plan to boost the prestige of the Ram Temple ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Along with this, a horrific anti-Muslim propaganda continued on the ground, the vile result of which was evident when, in July 2023, a soldier of the RPF, while chanting slogans in praise of Modi and Yogi, shot dead three Muslims in a train one by one.
After that, the elections of 2024 came. The Sangh and BJP hoped to go beyond 400 with the Ram Mandir and their other efforts, but they decreased to 240. Many felt that the Hindu nationalist agenda of the BJP and Sangh was losing its edge and that religious polarization had reached its limit and had come to a halt.
But this was a misleading perception because despite fewer seats, the BJP’s vote share was the same as it was in 2019, that is, 37%.
The logical point was that the 6% surge in the BJP’s vote share in 2019, if attributed to the effect of the surgical strike, should have declined in 2024, especially since the India bloc fought with full strength this time. In that case, BJP’s support should have at least come down to the 2014 level. But it didn’t. BJP’s vote share remained the same as in 2019, which is around 37%.
It was a matter of happiness for the Sangh family and the BJP that the number of its supporters has increased since 2024, not decreased.
But the worrying thing for them was that it was only happening at the center. Hindutva or Modi’s magic was not working in the states. The support for the BJP there was fluctuating. A segment of the voters who were voting for Modi and the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections were voting for opposition parties in the assembly elections, which meant that every voter who voted for the BJP in the Lok Sabha was not necessarily a hardliner. They were ready to hand over power to the opposition either for free electricity or free bus services, or out of dissatisfaction with the previous BJP government’s performance. This phenomenon was first seen in Delhi in 2015. It was seen again in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh in 2018, and in Karnataka in 2023.
This was a matter of concern for the organization and the party. The Hindutva mantra was not working in the state elections. But
What is the solution to this?
The BJP and the Sangh are very cunning and clever organizations. When it comes to their work, they even learn from their enemies. The same thing happened here. To win the state elections, they relied on the same tool that Mamata Banerjee’s government used in the 2021 assembly elections. The Mamata government of West Bengal also implemented a scheme called Lakshmi Bhandar under which women are given an amount ranging from ₹500 to ₹1000 every month. Despite facing numerous accusations of corruption related to this scheme, in 2021 the Trinamool Congress achieved a record victory with a 3% increase compared to its previous performance.
Currently, this amount is ₹1000 for women of the general category and ₹1200 for women belonging to Scheduled Castes and Tribes. It is possible that it will be doubled before the elections next year.
The BJP started the same experiment in Madhya Pradesh in the election year of 2023 under the name of the Ladli Behan scheme, which yielded successful results. Last year, the same experiment was carried out in Haryana and Maharashtra, where it also regained power.
In Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, the BJP formed its governments by breaking opposition governments. Therefore, it should have suffered losses in both states. However, in both states, there was an increase of about 7% in votes for the BJP or its coalition. In Delhi, the BJP came to power after 26 years by promising to give poor women two and a half thousand rupees every month. Its vote share also saw an increase of about 6% compared to the last election.
This formula of giving a certain amount to women every month not only benefited the BJP. Its magic was also seen in Jharkhand where the alliance led by Hemant Soren came to power again with an increase of about 8% in its vote share. There too, Soren had implemented a similar scheme under the name ‘Maiya Samman’.
When similar results are showing in different states – with a 6-7-8% increase in favor of the ruling party – it must be acknowledged that the scheme of providing monthly amounts to poor women is having a positive impact in every state. This also indicates that a certain section of the public does not care whether a government is formed honestly or dishonestly, whether it is doing good work or not. They just want you to arrange for cash payments, and they will blindly give you their vote, resulting in a 6-7-8% increase in your support.
Haryana, Maharashtra, and Delhi – the victories achieved in these three states using the same formula have given the BJP a miracle recipe with which it can form its government in all those states where the opposition currently has power. The work is very simple. First, the opposition legislators need to be broken, a government has to be formed, and then the government treasury has to be opened for women in the upcoming elections. After that, it’s just about winning the elections and returning.
Once talking about conduct, character, and contemplation, the BJP now wants to gain power in every state by any means necessary. Why? Because it knows that the Bharatiya Janata Party will remain in power at both the center and the states, only then will the RSS and its associated organizations be able to continue their work of Hindu unification and demonization of Muslims diligently across the country.
This work has started since 2014. To an extent, the work has progressed. The examples of the murdered RPF jawan and the Rajasthani youth who applied mehndi are in front of us. There must be millions of other young men and women who have the same hatred against Muslims. In the coming years, the same fire is to be ignited in the hearts of crores of Hindu young men and women. Only then will the BJP be able to rule the whole of India without crutches and fulfill the Sangh’s dream of making India a Hindu Rashtra.
