The depletion of the ‘others’ and the consolidation of the Right wing in Indian politics

The elections to the state assemblies in the five states of India in 2023

This disarray of the left has helped the consolidation of the right wing now headed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) which has tactfully shifted its stand from opposing globalisation to championing neoliberalist economic policies to pursue its agenda of forging a consolidated neo-conservatist political and cultural hegemony. An important new support base of the RSS has been the assiduously cultivated non-resident Indian techies who are said to be disproportionately upper caste in composition who used the highly publicly subsidised Indian technical and science education to propel themselves into corporate bureaucracies abroad. They have helped the RSS in two main ways, firstly in systematically utilising the ‘social’ media to propagate its ideologies fine tuning them to even small segments of the population. Secondly it has flooded the RSS and its front organisations with ample funds. Flush with funds from its non-resident upper caste professional Hindu supporters and now with state funds the RSS has the most flourishing grass root organisation across the country and is actively promoting civil strife between communities and seeking to polarise and unite the conservative forces under its own leadership. This ground level organisational consolidation of the RSS has eroded the base of organisations espousing liberal and democratic ideas, and the various political parties have ended up catering to the conservative mood created by the RSS. State power is now being used in an unabashed manner by the RSS to throttle institutions and intellectuals and artists and activists who either promote liberal or left wing thinking and promoting a new culture of Hindu right wing political thought. This neo Hindu ideology which seeks to convert Hinduism hitherto without any centralised institution into a religion with a Church like control system. The RSS which only some decades ago stood for a kind of religious economic nationalism now actively promotes the multinational corporate flooding of the country and uses the rhetoric of ‘decolonising’ Indian culture, by which it means rejection of ideas of democracy, equality, personal liberty, fraternity, social justice, civil rights and scientific thinking, all of which stand discredited as colonial impositions. Its stated aim is to institute an aggressive Hindu religious nationalist state in India in the place of the liberal democratic constitution. This would not only make religious minorities second class citizens but also consolidate the upper caste male control over Hindu society. Besides, the RSS is deeply uncomfortable with the idea of federalism and decentralisation and keeps harping on the slogan of ‘One Nation, One leader, one law, one tax regime, one language, one curriculum….’

Understandably this ‘one’ is to be defined as upper caste Hindu neo liberal ideology, which necessarily negates the multicultural and multi religious character of the Indian population and egging the majority Hindus against minorities especially Muslims in the plains and the Christians in the tribal areas. To this effect it has used cultural symbols like renaming place names, carrying out campaigns against places of worship of Muslims, Christians and other minorities, and most importantly the amendment to Citizenship Act and the drive to build a common register of all citizens and placing the onus of proving citizenship on the citizens themselves especially those from minority communities. This was stalled by stiff protest by all the minorities especially the Muslim women who staged a historic sit in agitation in the heart of the Capital, New Delhi, prior to and during the pandemic.

The emerging dominance of the RSS in Indian politics should not obfuscate the importance of the active support provided by imperialist powers and Indian corporate houses. If the ‘opening’ up China propelled global capitalist economy in the preceding decades, it ran out of steam during the last few years marked by the Covid crises and slowing down. This has only been partially overcome by the final resort of capital in crises, Wars – the Afghan, War between the NATO and Russia in Ukraine, the Israeli war to exterminate Palestine, all of them fought for control over the oil resources. World capital looks to opening of India with its immense population and natural resources which began somewhat half-heartedly by the Congress government in the 1990s, for fuelling the world capitalist economy. The Congress which could remain in power only by patching up an alliance with diverse regional political interests could not push through the neo-liberal agenda with enough force. It had to compromise the neo-liberal agenda with a ‘rights based ‘ approach which sought to simultaneously ensure ‘right to food’, ‘right to information’, ‘employment guarantee’ , ‘right to education’ as well as laws recognising the right of peasants over land or the right of indigenous tribes to forests.  While some modest public funds were allocated to these programmes, in actual fact the enactments themselves did not have much teeth and remained an eyewash. Such riding on two horses drawing in opposite directions did not go down well either with the corporate interests or with the masses at large. Corporate capitalist interests both at the international and national level put their weight behind the BJP, which promised to use its Hindu communal mobilisation backed by the social media campaigns masterminded and funded by the information technology sector, to gain mass popularity and at the same time pursue an aggressive full throttle neo-liberal policy, which meant large scale dispossession of the peasants and tribal people, besides dismantling of the old labour laws, and replacing the ‘rights based’ social policy with a market linked ‘insurance’ policy and direct cash transfers through the expansion of the banking system, and bringing the vast labouring population into the orbit of commercial banking. This was to offset the social unrest that was inevitable due to the ‘zero’ employment growth and dispossession and also to use the funds allocated for amelioration to fuel capitalist circulation and accumulation. Such a combination was too attractive to corporate capital and it chose to turn a blind eye to the highly regressive communal programme. Corporate capital also stood to gain immensely by the deep wounds inflicted by the BJP government upon the informal sector, especially of the self employed workers through its ‘demonetisation’ ‘lockdown due to the pandemic’ and the steps taken to centralise the indirect tax regime (the institution of a single Goods and Services Tax in place of locally levied ‘sales tax’ etc). The BJP’s much publicised attempt to promote manufacturing in India as an alternative destination for investment (as China went under the pandemic) did not really take off and this and other policies actually decelerated economic growth in the immediately post-pandemic years. As a response the state has initiated a vast construction programme publicly funded but routed through private corporate houses, mainly in building roads by acquiring forest and agricultural lands on an unprecedented scale. This is expected to fuel growth and also ensure access to interior markets and natural resources.

The above discussion should be able to explain the support extended to the BJP leadership by the imperialist powers and leaders of the NATO and Russian blocs and also the Middle eastern oil rich states.

The BJP government sought to use the cover of the pandemic to dismantle the earlier structure of shoring up the rich and middle peasantry in different parts of the country which went through the ‘green revolution’ and also to dismantle the earlier regime of labour laws which regulated working hours, minimum wages, safety in worksites and also the use of women’s and children’s labour. While it got away with the dismantling of the labour laws (which anyway only protected a small segment of the working class) due to the immense explosion of unemployment among the working youth. However it faced stiff resistance to the new farm laws from the prosperous and not so prosperous farmers who staged a historic sit-in agitation surrounding the capital city of Delhi and had to beat a retreat. If nothing else it demonstrated the possibility of a section of the privileged social classes (kulaks in this case) being alienated and resisting successfully the policies of this government, which otherwise has been riding roughshod over all popular interests. Incidentally this also resulted in the electoral defeat of both the BJP and the Congress in the state of Punjab which was most affected by the farmers’ movement.

Ever since it came to power the BJP has pursued a policy of eliminating and undermining any opposition, both electoral and ideological. The systematic attack on academic freedom in universities and media which appeared to promote ideas contrary to that of the Hindu right wing is a case in the point. It has also used the fact that participation in Indian electoral politics is not possible without resorting to graft and corruption, to both undermine the legitimacy of the institution of parliamentary democracy and also to gain control over the members of the opposition. The enormously expanded economic surveillance initially fuelled by the aftermath of 9/11 attack on the US, but subsequently aided by the corporate IT sector in India, has been used to compromise the position of political opponents across the country and either contain them or buy them off outright. This enabled the BJP to gain power even in states in which it had faced electoral defeat in 2018 (Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra) and decimate the opposition in many other states like Uttar Pradesh.

Even so the ‘victorious march’ of the BJP got stalled in the non-Hindi speaking belt, especially in the south where the upper caste Hindu right wing faces stiff challenge from the leftist, anti-caste, regional and other ideologies. The larger project of undermining federalism and putting in its place a highly centralised political system thus faces a stiff challenge from these southern states. The politics in the North eastern states is more complicated due to the absence of a significant upper caste Hindu population in most of the states. The BJP has used the usual tactics of shoring up corrupt tribal leadership and playing up the leadership of one tribe against the other, promoting fratricidal warfare. To what extent this policy will be to its advantage remains to be seen.

The results of the recent state assembly elections and the prospective national general elections next year needs to be seen against this background. The fact that the Corporate and multinational capital favours the BJP, the fact that the BJP is supported by the upper caste Hindu male orthodoxy and the equally powerful fact that the growing inequality and deprivation and unemployment is turning the BJP dream sour and a significant section of regional powers are getting more and more uncomfortable with the overall BJP-RSS agendas.

Of the four states in which elections were held in 2023, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, are key Hindi speaking states in which the BJP had seen defeat in the 2018 elections. However, BJP managed to break a faction led by the erstwhile royal family of Gwalior and form the government. These states are also the bastions of conservative Hinduism, dominated by land owning Brahmins, Rajput royalty and Banias despite the population being mainly the Backward Castes, Dalits and tribal Adivasis. This would also form the bulk of the Hindi speaking population. It was therefore vital for the long term strategy of the BJP to gain control over the government of these states and it invested much resources for this purpose. The BJP’s efforts were amply complemented by the efforts of the Congress, whose infighting and dependence upon a grass root organisation deeply enmeshed with the BJP. Thus despite pre-poll predictions that the Congress will win in both Madhya Pradesh where the BJP was getting more and more unpopular and in Chhattisgarh, the BJP managed to score an impressive victory.

It was largely the ability of the BJP to control the social media, aggressive Hindu propaganda and the promise of direct cash transfers of paltry sums which helped to turn the voters in its favour. We shall presently discuss more of this.

Telangana is a southern state largely consisting of the territories of the erstwhile Hyderabad Nizamate, rich in mineral and forest resources and a substantial tribal population like Chhattisgarh. The government there was in the hands of the Telangana Rajya Samiti which had spearheaded the movement for the formation of separate state of Telangana. It was its second term and had emerged as one of the most corrupt and family cantered parties in the country. With little developmental work and excessive graft, it had lost popular support which had buoyed it to power. Telangana it should be remembered had gone through an intense phase of communist struggles right from the 1940s and all the way till the 1980s when they were violently suppressed. It also has a substantial Muslim and low caste population but relatively little brahmanisation. Little wonder that the BJP has not yet made major inroads despite very active political work in the state. It was the Congress which gained from the voter disenchantment and managed to sweep the polls.

Elections in Mizoram were held under the shadows of the civil strife and ethnic cleansing in the neighbouring state of Manipur. This strife between the minority Christian Kuki tribals of the hill regions and the majority Hindu Meiteis of the plains, actively encouraged and abetted by the BJP and the state was a stiff warning to the neighbouring states with a large tribal and also a Christian population. This enabled the alliance of more secularly oriented tribal groups under the Zoram People’s Movement to win the elections on the slogan of respecting the rights of all religions in the country. The previous government led by the Mizo National Front was seen as being closer to the BJP.

A quick look at the data relating to the election results clearly indicates a gain for the BJP in the key Hindi belt states. Above all it gives it control over the government apparatus in these states in the run up to the General Elections to the Parliament next year. It has also gained an important foothold in Telangana with 8 seats and 14% vote share.

Interestingly the BJP’s gain in vote share was not really at the cost of the Congress, its main rival party. The Congress has a stable vote share of about 40% in all the states except Mizoram. The BJP’s gain has been at the cost of the ‘others’ those not aligned to either party. These could be small local parties, not recognised as ‘national parties’, could simply be local potentates capable of holding on their own (independents), candidates put up by social movements and even ‘rebels’ from the recognised parties. During the last decade, these ‘others’ did manage to get elected in large numbers and when the two main parties were evenly poised, they had a crucial role to play and fetched a good price. It is these ‘others’ whose votes shifted to the BJP. During this election we see a dramatic decline of the ‘others’, both in terms of vote share and seat share. This effectively means a greater polarisation between the Congress and the BJP, also indicating the inability of the non-corporate funded political outfits to compete in elections. It should be remembered that despite much rhetoric and sabre rattling, the two parties remain wedded to neo liberal economic policies and ‘attracting capital investments’, and both of them at the ground level subsist upon the support of conservative feudal and cattiest landed interests. The difference remains at the level of national leadership where the Congress ostensibly still swears by the constitutional values and liberal democracy and secular politics and a commitment to rights of various sections of the population. Significant though these stances are, it should be remembered that the Congress was also forced to stand by them due to its dependence upon the smaller players in politics, whether the Communists or the socialists or the regional anti-BJP parties. Their weakening will push the Congress closer to the BJP in terms of its overall policies and practices. As things stand the Congress is the so called ‘B Team’ of corporate and imperialist and conservative interests.

The need then is to build grass roots movements which are not ‘apolitical’ the way the so called ‘social movements’ have functioned so far, but actively political even in the electoral sense. These movements need to be sustained by grass roots and regional organisations with clear ideological orientation, which need not necessarily be revolutionary, but simply a defence of the present constitutional values and the immediate interests of the mass of the toiling people. This also needs to militantly face the ground level bullying by the right-wing forces. Anything short of this will only push the Congress as a whole or its constituents closer to the BJP and the RSS.

The State Assembly Election Results 2018, 2023: A Comparative View

Madhya Pradesh

Voting % – 78%

Rajasthan

Voting % – 78.4%

Chhattisgarh

Voting % – 72%

Telangana

Voting % – 71%

Mizoram

Voting % – 78%

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