Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'A defeat for Nehruvian policies' that was published in Newsband

A defeat for Nehruvian policies

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s victory in the 17th general election marks an important phase in Indian politics. The 16th general election in 2014 catapulted the BJP to top position and relegated the Congress to a distant second. With the 2019 result, Hindutva has pushed Nehruvian secularism to the margins of Indian politics.

The 2019 verdict has also dismantled social justice politics in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, two States that together send 120 members to the Lok Sabha. The rise of Hindutva since the 1980s had a parallel — a new wave of backward caste mobilisation in parts of northern and western India, which questioned the Nehruvian elite’s grip on power. The Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar and the Samjawadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal in U.P., usurped by their leaders as personal and family fiefdoms and sunk in corruption charges, collapsed. But outfits such as Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party in Bihar and the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, guilty of the same sins, have flourished in their alliance with the BJP. Southern States, barring Karnataka, remained unimpressed by Hindutva, but the BJP made impressive inroads in West Bengal and Odisha.

To urge the BJP to uphold secular ideals or to protect the integrity of existing institutions may amount to demanding an abandonment of its very core beliefs. Gaining the trust of all citizens will be a necessary prerequisite for Modi to drive India’s continuing journey to become a global leader. It is only reasonable that the government and the Prime Minister be asked to live up to the promise they continuously make — ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas (with all, development for all)’.

The people of India have reposed their faith Mr. Modi and it is hoped he will be able to come up to their expectations as enshrined in the Constitution of this country. In spite of many lapses on part of BJP, people voted Modi since he is corruption free and took bold steps in geo political affairs. There is no coordination among the opposition and Congress miserably failed to bring resonance with State parties and most of the state parties are family property with high corruption.

It is hoped that Modi makes correction on his previous lapses in the new polity. It is the idea of Hindu nationalism that won. Let us hope that the corrosive narrative that helped this idea to spread would subside and the new government would bring in "sab Kaa Saath, sab kaa vikaas" with sab Kaa vishwaas.