CAPITAL LETTER. Brand New BJP

The BJP’s just-concluded conclave in Kozhikode reflects a significant shift in the ruling party’s political narrative as also the rebranding of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image from right-wing strongman to centrist pragmatist.

Over this weekend, an evolution was marketed in the political jargon emanating from the ruling dispensation. This exercise in repackaging Brand BJP as the purveyor of social justice and empowerment was riveting in its imitation of the assimilative character of the Congress of yesteryear as also in borrowing from the populist Left.

Modi’s invocation of the Pakistani awam (people) to fight poverty, hunger, malnutrition, unemployment, and maternal and infant mortality was strangely reminiscent of the student leader Kanhaiya Kumar’s call for azaadi from bhukhmari , bekari , garibi (hunger, unemployment, poverty).

By way of optics if not intent, the BJP has just proved what makes it the most powerful political force in India in the deft way it responded to the challenges that threaten its hard-won popular support. What was in question was the ruling party’s position vis-à-vis the terror attack in Uri as also the myriad popular protests that have erupted across the country against cow vigilantism and atrocities on dalits. Another key challenge before the BJP has been its projection as a “ suit-boot ki sarkar (pro-rich government)”.

In its response, fancy footwork was displayed by its politically-gifted leader who crafted a fresh narrative on fundamental positions related to Pakistan, Muslims, and dalits, as also the difficulty of being perceived as a pro-rich congregation of upper caste men. Modi’s performance at the gathering of the party faithful on Kozhikode beach launched the beginning of the exercise to shape and sell the official and political response to the terror attack on Uri which has thus far been popularly consumed as a declaration of war by Pakistan. The PM understood the need to find the right balance between nothing less than a “Bomb Pakistan” announcement that the BJP cadre expected, and a more reasoned stand that befits his stature as the head of the Government.

What followed was his finest hour so far as a public orator.

He promised counter-action without war-mongering of the kind his cadre expected. He warned and shamed Pakistan for “staining in blood” a continent which is on the cusp of making history. “Every country in Asia is doing its bit to make sure that the 21st century belongs to this continent. But there is one country that is bent on staining this continent in blood… Terrorism is the enemy of humanity. India will not bend. India will defeat terrorism. The leaders of Pakistan, I want you to pay attention — the martyrdom of our soldiers will not go unpunished,” he said.

He invoked the internal strife that threatens Pakistan — in Sindh, Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as Balochistan — creating a continuum with his Independence Day speech. But the most critical aspect of his speech was the distinction he made between Pakistani “ awam (people)” whom he urged to wage a war against common socio-economic ills — poverty, hunger, malnutrition, unemployment, infant and maternal mortality — that afflict both neighbours, and its “ huqmaran (leaders)”.

Also couched in this performance was the distinct attempt to de-escalate Uri from a triumphant offensive by Pakistan to which India is expected to respond in kind, to just a “temporary setback” in an ongoing war. While Modi decidedly disappointed the collected cadre that expected nothing less than an announcement of war, both Modi and, later, BJP president Amit Shah turned Uri into just another incident in a series of such strikes that India has been successfully repelling. The logic is that if Uri is part of an ongoing conflict, the Government’s response which has mostly been diplomatic so far, would be presumed to be adequate.

Although most delegates perceived the spiel on India and Pakistan together fighting common enemies as a dilution of the promise that strongman Modi once held, especially in his anti-Pakistan rhetoric, the restraint is appealing to even those who have been hostile to him.

Having dealt with Uri, Modi and Shah turned to the scheduled task before the weekend meetings of the party national council and executive — to refashion Brand BJP as a pro-poor party dedicated to social justice and empowerment with an outreach to Muslims to boot.

For the purpose, the “architect of Indian aspiration”, as BJP leader Vinay Sahastrabudhe described Modi, set out to frame a “new formulation in the political lexicon”. This eulogy was duly delivered with appropriate rounds of applause by the faithful essentially to re-launch “Garibi Hatao” with a new name. “Antyodaya (empowerment of the last man in the last row)” and “Garib Kalyan” were declared the replacements for Indira Gandhi’s potent “Garibi Hatao” slogan.

Like the renaming of the road that houses the Prime Minister from Race Course Road to the more demotic Lok Kalyan Marg last week, a move that presumably symbolises the country’s “return to Bharatiya roots”, “Garib Kalyan” is now the new mantra for policymaking under the BJP’s leadership.

Former Bharatiya Jana Sangh president, Deen Dayal Upadhyay’s memory was resurrected to provide the ideological moorings for the BJP’s rebranding as an assimilative, inclusive and pro-poor party, a title that has thus far been claimed by the Congress. Modi launched the birth centenary celebrations of Deen Dayal Upadhayay to invoke his philosophical formulations — antyodaya and integral humanism — as the basis for the Government’s pro-poor thrust.

Also, enough time has presumably passed since the anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat to have a public dialogue with regard to India’s largest minority. The repackaging of Brand BJP thus had a new formulation for Muslims as well. The Prime Minister reminded us that Muslims are not mere “vote-banks” nor are they to be “appeased or humiliated”. The Muslims are, he said, quoting Upadhyay, “our own”, they ought to be “empowered”. He sought to correct the “deliberate misunderstanding” that has been created about the BJP’s attitude and philosophy vis-à-vis Muslims.

The BJP has thus made a fresh attempt to present a more assimilative and inclusive face to counter its challenges as a ruling party. Perception being reality in politics, it hardly matters whether the change is more in optics than the reality.

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