Staying with ‘nationalism’

Prime Minister Modi draws a lot of attention within and outside the country not just for what he says on issues and non-issues but the entertaining way he puts it across, evoking admiring smiles as well as sniggers. Now given their number, the Dalits, backwards and other poor people are electorally useful and the BJP needs them as much as any other political party, more so in Uttar Pradesh where elections are due next year and the result may impact the 2019 Lok Sabha outcome. Addressing the BJP’s core group of powerful leaders from various states and Union Territories on Tuesday, Modi wanted them to reach out to the poor and the downtrodden. 

This is how he put it: Rashtravadi toh hamare saath hain, humein Dalit aur pichchde ko saath lana hai (The nationalists are with us, we need to take along Dalits and backwards). His political opponents immediately pounced on the unintended message: “Are Dalits and backwards not nationalists?” Nationalism has now come to mean what BJP, RSS and ABVP leaders say it is. The other day Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das tried to explain nationalism to those who still don’t get it right: “Those who consider India as their country will treat cow as their mother.” Carrying beef or a dead cow is as much an anti-national act as shouting azadi slogans outside Kashmir. Such acts would invite appropriate punishment as has been adequately demonstrated at Dadri, Una and Bengaluru in recent times. Baba Ram Dev recently threatened to behead all those refusing to chant the “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” slogan and that only his respect for the law and the Constitution held him back.  

To make their countrymen more patriotic and more enthusiastic about nationalism, BJP leaders, undeterred by a harsh sticky weather, led “Tiranga Yatra” countrywide. Modi makes them work really hard. Half way through his term, he feels the BJP must strengthen its nationalist character in the run-up to the 2019 elections and stick at the national level also to the Gujarat majoritarian model which kept Muslims in their place and ensured consecutive BJP victories in elections.