ASIM ALI: What makes Modi’s BJP invincible? The cynicism that India is dead
The anti-CAA movement
didn’t pose any political challenge to the BJP. It’s the hope it generated that was
dangerous - the idea that ordinary people could believe in a better India... One of the less talked about pillars of the BJP’s dominance is the cynicism it
engenders in its opponents. When opponents are turned into cynics, they start
agreeing with the BJP: on the nature of the Indian nation, the outlook of the
ordinary Indian, and most importantly the overwhelming and unshakeable power of
the BJP.
Especially over the last few years, much intellectual space among the
BJP’s opponents has been colonised by this overweening cynicism, which
curiously insists on making the BJP even more mainstream and themselves even
more fringe. The Ram Mandir bhoomi pujan at Ayodhya is the source of the latest
round of cynicism. Hegemonic parties sustain their power by convincing people of their invincibility. This invincibility is always a myth, but it becomes a self-perpetuating myth when it spreads outside the core of its supporters.
When even opponents start to
believe this myth of invincibility, they either collude with the ruling regime
or are reduced to paralysing cynicism. There are three
specific beliefs that are propagated by both the BJP and its so-called most
vociferous opponents, which create this myth of invincibility. One, that the
majority of Hindus in India subscribe to the notion of Hindutva. This majority
also has an inherent and overpowering hatred of Muslims, which for some reason
was dormant in 2004 and 2009.
Two, that a consolidated Hindu identity has
decisively triumphed over caste and regional identities in the political
imagination of ordinary people. These political identities, shaped over many
decades of popular struggle, have now suddenly lost relevance, as did the
social justice and democratic ideas that animated them. And three, the BJP is
structurally too formidable to be defeated
electorally, and will therefore rule
India for the foreseeable future. …
https://theprint.in/opinion/what-makes-modis-bjp-invincible-the-cynicism-that-india-is-dead/492037/‘Muslims have 150 countries to go to, Hindus have only India’: Gujarat CM // Insects Out & Squirming Means Medicine Works: BJP Secy on Protests
