MARGIN SPEAK

August 2, 2014 vol xlix no 31 EPW Economic & Political Weekly

10
Anand Teltumbde (tanandraj@gmail.com) is a
writer and civil rights activist with the
Committee for the Protection of Democratic
Rights, Mumbai.
Saffron Neo-liberalism
Anand Teltumbde
An aggressive drive towards
neo-liberal economic reforms
alongside consolidation of the
Bharatiya Janata Partys political
constituency with the spread of
hegemonic Hindutva through
sociocultural channels is
on the cards.
N
arendra Damodardas Modi sym-
bolised the nesse of Indian
democracy on 26 May 2014,
the day he was sworn in as Indias 15th
prime minister, inasmuch as he showed
how a person coming from a humble
background could occupy the highest
executive ofce of the Indian state. Not-
withstanding the fact that the process of
catapulting him to this high pedestal has
been one of the costliest in the world
(estimated at Rs 10,000 crore), Modis
rise could well be aunted by his backers
as a feat of Indian democracy. The elec-
toral process involved Modi addressing
rallies at 5,800 locations, travelling a
blistering 3,00,000 km, which included
1,350 locations covered by rallies using
3D holographic projection technology
through which more than 100 places
could be addressed simultaneously. The
advertisement blitzkrieg through all
possible media was so complete that even
children sang abki baar, Modi sarkar
and achchhe din aane wale hai, and, of
course, backed by an army of lakhs of
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)
cadres, who ensured that, if required,
specic places could be duly lubricated
with blood, as in Muzaffar nagar in Uttar
Pradesh and Kokrajhar in Assam. There
may hardly be any para llel to this intri-
cate process of wooing voters, even in the
developed democracies.
As such, there is nothing new in this
except for the scale and that precisely
makes all the difference. Indeed, the last
elections have been different in many
ways. Leave aside the process, the outcome
has been stunning. Thanks to our wonder-
ful rst-past-the-post election system
that, even in theory, makes a mockery of
peoples representation. The Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) scored 282, which
came to 53% the total number of seats,
with 31% of the votes cast, well above
the majority mark, and broke the spell
of the coalition era which many people
thought had come to stay. Adding the
seats won by its allies, the tally rises to 334.
As a matter of fact, there is hardly any
opposition left to the BJP in the Lok Sabha,
except for the Left, the Congress having
been really a poor copy of the BJP as far
as economic policy matters are concerned.
Thus, BJP is in a situation where it can
do what it wants. The apprehension of
the spectre of fascism felt by many has
turned into a veritable possibility. Will
India turn into a fascist state? Will it
become a Hindu state? Will it be a prison
house for the religious minorities?
Logic of Capital
Modi ran his campaign in a presidential
style, bragging and boasting about him-
self, but after election, he displayed a
changed persona. While entering Parlia-
ment House for his conrmation as the
partys parliamentary leader, he literally
prostrated himself at its steps calling it a
temple of democracy, and while speaking
inside, swore by the Constitution as a
sacred document and declared that his
government would be dedicated to the
poor, youth and women. He scored fur-
ther points by inviting the heads of the
states of all neighbouring countries and
paid his rst visit abroad to Bhutan, in
symbolic expression that he particularly
values friendly relations with neighbouring
countries. The sixth Brazil, Russia, India,
China and South Africa (BRICS) summit
at Fortaleza in Brazil led to the creation of
a development bank which could catalyse
trade and development within the BRICS
member countries. Internally, he has
taken several steps to discipline the
bureaucracy; he has even told the bure-
aucrats to resist political interference by
ministers and Members of Parliament.
The pheku of yesterday has gone tot ally
silent, engaging himself with utmost seri-
ousness in the business of governa nce,
opening his mouth only at the end of a
month in ofce to claim that 67 years of
previous governments is nothing com-
pared to one month, but I do want to say
that in the last month, our entire team
has devoted every single moment for the
welfare of the people. Indeed, many
things could be said in his favour that
MARGIN SPEAK
Economic & Political Weekly EPW August 2, 2014 vol xlix no 31
11
have impressed people to beli eve that he
could act independently of the RSS or the
BJP and may thereby land up doing good
things for the people.
Actually, Modi has been setting the
ground for the creation of opportunities for
trade and investment for the benet of big
business, which invested heavily in him.
While the reforms have always been sold in
the name of the people and justied with
the dubious trickle-down theory, they are
actually meant to promote the interests of
capital through the laissez-faire economy
and are therefore anti-labour. Privatisation
of public sector units, commercialisation
of public servi ces, handing over of natural
resources to the private sector, reliance
on the market mechanism for pricing, s-
cal measures to incapacitate the state to
undertake any economic activity and
thereby promote private interests, are the
typical contents of neo-liberal policies.
The people were jolted out of their
achchhe din reverie by the railway
budget that came within days, hiking the
passenger railway fares and freight rates
steeply by 14.2% and 6.5%, respectively,
which would impose a further burden of
ination on an already troubled people.
Whether it is signalling dilution of the
civil Nuclear Liability Act in line with US
demands, deferment of the food security
scheme by three months, permitting
100% foreign direct investment in high-
speed train systems, suburban corridors
and dedicated freight line projects, or
policy overhaul in the petroleum sector
to woo foreign investment, all these
policy changes conform to textbook neo-
liberalism. Although these policies were
introduced and implemented by the
Congress, they will now witness an acce-
lerated pace of implementation.
Whither Hindutva?
Modi had maintained a calculated sile nce
on Hindutva, this in order to sharpen his
projection on development. But as an
ardent RSS activist, as certied by the RSS
Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat, he can
never forget the Hindutva agenda of trans-
forming India into a Hindu nation. This
agenda could be advanced in many ways.
While the Ram Janmabhoomi move ment
or the post-Godhra massacre of Muslims
are the rabid ways to polarise people for
direct electoral gains, there could be a
softer approach to surreptitio usly trans-
form institutions in line with Hindutva.
Hard Hindutva disrupts normal life and
the business of prot-making. Moreover,
with such a massive mandate, it is really
not needed. Modi therefore would not
favour communal strife vitiating the
investment climate. However, the hydra-
headed Sangh Parivar, already intoxicated
by his win, will create such problems at
the ground level, as in the case of the
murder of a Muslim youth Mohsin Shaikh
in Pune, which may be difcult to control.
Modi will certainly take a soft approach
towards Hindutva by systematically saf-
fronising institutions, as he did in
Gujarat. A clear case is the appointment
of Y Sudershan Rao, a little-known retired
professor of history and tourism man-
agement from Kaka tiya University, as
the new chairman of the Indian Council
of Historical Research. This worthy had
the foolhardiness to discover goodness
in the Indian Caste System and pro-
claim a research agenda to determine
dates of the events in the Mahabharata.
Contrary to the commonplace notion,
neo-liberalism is not incompatible with
ideological Hindutva; their proclivities
with regard to individualism and the
social Darwinist attitude fairly coincide.
The afnity between Hindutva and fas-
ci sm likewise is too well known to be
elaborated upon. At its core, fascism stands
for state authoritarianism, intimidation by
conservative-minded extralegal gro ups,
national chauvinism, submission of indi-
viduals and groups to a larger-than-life
leader, and a Darwinian view of social
life, which almost characterises the pro-
tagonists of Hindutva. You have to just
think of M S Golwalkar, the venerable
ideologue of Hindutva, to realise it. At
their core, Hindutva, neo-liberalism and
fascism are complementary. And this
complementariness is exemplarily mani-
fested in Narendra Modi. Ashis Nandy,
the noted sociologist had found in him,
when Modi was a nobody, a classic,
clini cal case of a fascist. Whether it is
asking the governors of Kerala, Gujarat,
West Bengal, Rajasthan, Maharashtra,
Tri pura, and Uttar Pradesh to quit in
blatant contravention of a Supreme Court
ruling, or insinuating abrogation of the
Article 370 relating to the special status
to Jammu and Kashmir, or adoption of the
uniform civil code, or the promulgation of
an ordinance for changing the Telecom
Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997,
merely to app oint Nripendra Misra as his
principal secretary, the fascist streak in
Modi cannot be missed. He has removed
all potential opposition within the party
by installing his man, Amit Shah, as the
party chief and is cultivating direct rap-
port with the bureaucracy to drive past
the political class.
On the Cards
Saffron neo-liberalism is an aggressive
drive towards neo-liberal economic
refo rms with a simultaneous push towards
consolidating the Sangh Parivars political
constituency with the spread of hegemonic
Hindutva through sociocultural channels.
It includes privatisation, liberalisation,
deregulation and complete faci li tation of
capital, which would entail a closer rela-
tionship with the neighbouring countries
to create a better business climate and
expand international trade avenues. The
nationalistic jingoism associated with the
BJP would be calibrated by these consider-
ations. The controversial Vaidik episode
should be seen within this strategic per-
spective. Ved Pratap Vaidik, whether he is
technically an RSS man or not, was com-
missioned to engage in a track-2 dialogue
with Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Haz Saeed
camouaging it with what he blurted on
Kashmir. Saffron neo-liberalism will
entail a revamp of labour laws, simpli-
cation of other laws, and amendments to
the Constitution in order to make India
more business friendly. It would mean
easing land acquisition and freeing the
natural resources of the country to be
plundered by capital. It would mean pro-
gressively positioning Hindutva supporters
at all important nodes in the bureauc-
racy and saffronising educational and
other research institutions. In order to
stem any dissent in the bud, it would
mean strengthening of the internal
security apparatus and zero tolerance
of any resistance. All this is to happen
under the unied command of one
supreme leader, Narendra Modi.
Should this plan falter, it would mean
switching to militant Hindutva.