BJP’s self-defeating act in Mumbai
14 April 2015 10:14 PM GMT
Tthe performances of chief ministers like Omar Abdullah in J&K and Madhu Koda in Jharkhand does not encourage the belief that entry of young people into politics is the answer to India’s problems. Now, Maharashtra’s 44-year-old chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has joined the ranks of those who have disappointed their backers.
Some suggest that it would have been better for Maharashtra and for India’s financial capital, Mumbai, if Nitin Gadkari did not consider the acceptance of the chief minister’s post in his home state, as a demotion from his present position as the Union Transport Minister.
At a time in the saffron camp when the BJP has edged ahead of the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra for the first time after Bal Thackeray’s demise, and when the Navnirman Sena is yet to find its feet, the state was in need of an experienced hand. Gadkari was the only alternative after Gopinath Munde’s death in a road accident in New Delhi.
In view of Gadkari’s reluctance to take charge, the BJP played an adult version of the blind man’s bluff in choosing Fadnavis over other aspirants like Eknath Khadse and Pankaja Munde. But the need to strengthen his position vis-à-vis the challengers from within the party seems to have persuaded Fadnavis to play the sectarian cards of banning the consumption of beef and making it compulsory for the multiplexes to screen Marathi films.
The fallout, however, has been the opposite of what he may have expected. Fadnavis, though, soon realized that he made a mistake by trying to impose his writ on multiplexes. This was evident from the state government’s decision to relax norms, as per which Marathi films can now be screened between 12 noon and 9 pm, instead of the prime time slot.
At a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is talking of easing the process of doing business, it is odd that the country’s financial capital should be dictating terms to the multiplexes on the running of their businesses, even if the government’s choice of films runs to empty halls.
The chief minister, however, is evidently less concerned about how the foreign investors see his initiatives, which are redolent of a controlled economy, than about wooing the Marathis away from their loyalties to the two Senas run by the estranged cousins, Uddhav and Raj Thackeray.
While engaging in competitive politics, Fadnavis has shown that the BJP is really no different from parochial regional outfits. Although the BJP, as a national party, has generally tried to pretend that it has little in common with the two insular and perpetually combative Senas except that their pro-Hindu outlook makes them the BJP’s natural allies at the time of elections.
However, in obliterating the differences between the BJP and the two Senas, the former may have alienated sizeable sections of the middle class belonging to different communities and religions, which have turned to the BJP because Modi’s development agenda claims not to differentiate between one group of citizens and another – sabka saath, sabka vikas. Now, the middle class may feel let down by the BJP’s espousal of a sectarian cause.
The beef ban may have the same effect. It may have come as something of a surprise to the Hindutva lobby that the ban has led to defiant gestures like the holding of beef “festivals” in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Nothing shows more starkly than these acts of chutzpah, how the middle class has changed in the age of consumerism.
Not only that, even a section of the BJP has shied away from emulating Fadnavis. As Goa Chief Minister Laxmkant Parsekar has said, it has taken years for his party to win over minorities and he is not going to throw it all away by banning beef, which is consumed by 40 per cent of the state’s population, who are Christians and Muslims. As is known, the ban in Maharashtra is currently under judicial scrutiny because a Hindu couple has appealed to the Bombay High Court to revoke the order, since beef is a part of their diet.
Arguably, this is the kind of “modernism”, which will exasperate the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and politicians like Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who favours a nationwide ban on beef. Incidentally, he also thinks that the English language has damaged “our culture”.
It may be slowly dawning on the RSS and the Hindu fundamentalists how different the aggressive Modi is from the malleable Atal Bihari Vajpayee. While the latter’s focus was on maintaining the unity of his 24-member alliance by keeping the saffron militants at bay, Modi’s push for smart cities, bullet trains and nuclear power plants also means that the medievalism of the RSS will have to take a back seat.
In the brave new world of smart phones, which connects a person to the world, individual aspirations cannot be negated by restricting what someone may eat or wear or see. Unless the BJP sheds its insular, provincial, patriarchal, ultra-orthodox, Hindu communal mindset, which is seemingly favoured by large sections in the party, it will continue to undermine Modi’s economic agenda. IPA
Some suggest that it would have been better for Maharashtra and for India’s financial capital, Mumbai, if Nitin Gadkari did not consider the acceptance of the chief minister’s post in his home state, as a demotion from his present position as the Union Transport Minister.
At a time in the saffron camp when the BJP has edged ahead of the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra for the first time after Bal Thackeray’s demise, and when the Navnirman Sena is yet to find its feet, the state was in need of an experienced hand. Gadkari was the only alternative after Gopinath Munde’s death in a road accident in New Delhi.
In view of Gadkari’s reluctance to take charge, the BJP played an adult version of the blind man’s bluff in choosing Fadnavis over other aspirants like Eknath Khadse and Pankaja Munde. But the need to strengthen his position vis-à-vis the challengers from within the party seems to have persuaded Fadnavis to play the sectarian cards of banning the consumption of beef and making it compulsory for the multiplexes to screen Marathi films.
The fallout, however, has been the opposite of what he may have expected. Fadnavis, though, soon realized that he made a mistake by trying to impose his writ on multiplexes. This was evident from the state government’s decision to relax norms, as per which Marathi films can now be screened between 12 noon and 9 pm, instead of the prime time slot.
At a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is talking of easing the process of doing business, it is odd that the country’s financial capital should be dictating terms to the multiplexes on the running of their businesses, even if the government’s choice of films runs to empty halls.
The chief minister, however, is evidently less concerned about how the foreign investors see his initiatives, which are redolent of a controlled economy, than about wooing the Marathis away from their loyalties to the two Senas run by the estranged cousins, Uddhav and Raj Thackeray.
While engaging in competitive politics, Fadnavis has shown that the BJP is really no different from parochial regional outfits. Although the BJP, as a national party, has generally tried to pretend that it has little in common with the two insular and perpetually combative Senas except that their pro-Hindu outlook makes them the BJP’s natural allies at the time of elections.
However, in obliterating the differences between the BJP and the two Senas, the former may have alienated sizeable sections of the middle class belonging to different communities and religions, which have turned to the BJP because Modi’s development agenda claims not to differentiate between one group of citizens and another – sabka saath, sabka vikas. Now, the middle class may feel let down by the BJP’s espousal of a sectarian cause.
The beef ban may have the same effect. It may have come as something of a surprise to the Hindutva lobby that the ban has led to defiant gestures like the holding of beef “festivals” in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Nothing shows more starkly than these acts of chutzpah, how the middle class has changed in the age of consumerism.
Not only that, even a section of the BJP has shied away from emulating Fadnavis. As Goa Chief Minister Laxmkant Parsekar has said, it has taken years for his party to win over minorities and he is not going to throw it all away by banning beef, which is consumed by 40 per cent of the state’s population, who are Christians and Muslims. As is known, the ban in Maharashtra is currently under judicial scrutiny because a Hindu couple has appealed to the Bombay High Court to revoke the order, since beef is a part of their diet.
Arguably, this is the kind of “modernism”, which will exasperate the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and politicians like Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who favours a nationwide ban on beef. Incidentally, he also thinks that the English language has damaged “our culture”.
It may be slowly dawning on the RSS and the Hindu fundamentalists how different the aggressive Modi is from the malleable Atal Bihari Vajpayee. While the latter’s focus was on maintaining the unity of his 24-member alliance by keeping the saffron militants at bay, Modi’s push for smart cities, bullet trains and nuclear power plants also means that the medievalism of the RSS will have to take a back seat.
In the brave new world of smart phones, which connects a person to the world, individual aspirations cannot be negated by restricting what someone may eat or wear or see. Unless the BJP sheds its insular, provincial, patriarchal, ultra-orthodox, Hindu communal mindset, which is seemingly favoured by large sections in the party, it will continue to undermine Modi’s economic agenda. IPA
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