#dnaEdit: BJP is testing out nationalism as a political tool

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s confidence that the BJP has the “nationalists” on its side and that the party is now primarily identified with nationalism throws light on the political strategy for the remainder of his tenure. By projecting the BJP as the torchbearer of patriotic sentiment, PM Modi is hoping to reap rich electoral rewards in coming elections and discomfit opposition parties, which have fumbled for an appropriate response to the hypernationalistic rhetoric employed by BJP leaders. It is also evident that PM Modi is leaving nothing to chance by exhorting the party’s 300 top leaders, who had assembled at New Delhi, to reach out to Dalits and Adivasis. Taken together, this emphasis on nationalism and wooing of backward communities, with top leaders in attendance, suggest a template laid down by Modi to keep the BJP fighting fit for the 2019 general elections.

The drumming up of nationalist sentiment by its top leaders has rubbed off on activists of the BJP and its affiliated outfits like the ABVP. They have filed sedition complaints against Leftist student leaders of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, and more recently, against Amnesty India and actor-turned-Congress politician Ramya. By pegging activists and rival politicians as anti-nationals, the BJP has projected the chimera of an enemy within, which only the ruling party is energetically countering. The debate on nationalism has also helped the BJP turn public focus away from the more pressing social and economic issues at a time when the global economic slowdown and the sharpening caste divide are proving more than a handful for the central government. Not surprisingly, party MPs took out tiranga yatras in their constituencies to celebrate Independence Day, another pet idea of the PM.

The BJP is apparently revelling in the confusion it has sown in the Congress ranks on countering sedition charges, the mishandling of the Kashmir protests and Modi’s statement on Balochistan. However, the BJP would do well to take note that the hyper-nationalist posturing could get conflated with other divisive Sangh Parivar agendas like the beef ban, further exacerbating communal and caste divides, and feed into the violent proclivities of outfits like the Bajrang Dal. The BJP was content to ignore the spate of attacks against Muslims across the county on suspicion of cow slaughter but when Dalits became the target of cow vigilante groups in Gujarat, the party realised the need to tone down the rhetoric on cattle protection. Similarly, the aggressive and hypernationalistic pitch adopted in television discussions has contributed to alienating the youth of the Kashmir Valley. The slapping of sedition charges is a direct threat to the fundamental right to free speech.

But the BJP is banking on the enthusiasm displayed by its grass-roots workers and significant sections of the middle class to the party’s appropriation of the nationalist platform. The failure of opposition politicians adopting liberal positions to imbue nationalism with an inclusive tone and tenor and take these views to the masses has also been correctly identified by PM Modi. He noted that most BJP leaders hail from humble backgrounds and can connect with ordinary people better. Clearly, the BJP’s political messaging and communication has been superior to the Congress. The BJP has upped the ante on nationalism since February this year, and in the absence of elections since then, is yet to test its potency as a political tool. While state elections are fought on local issues, there is no doubt that the BJP’s constant harping on nationalism is aimed with the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in mind. The challenge for both national and regional parties in the opposition is cut out, but going by their present form, their ability to surpass the BJP’s unique mix of political, cultural and religious nationalism is in doubt.