LEADER ARTICLE
Passions Now & Then: When Hindutva Reigned Supreme

Public memory is short and fickle. Which explains why emotions rise and ebb so easily, why conclusions are so quickly drawn. And why Gujarat-2002 is being projected as that crucial turning point from where India can go only one way — towards a saffron-tinged future.
Yes, the BJP win is stupendous. And yes, Hindutva appealed to a huge section in Gujarat.But no, Gujarat-2002 is not unique in anyway. Not in terms of its size. Not by way of circumstances: The media and the opposition ranged against one man. Even the ‘riots + politics of polarisation = government’ formula is not specific to Gujarat. We have seen all this before. More importantly, we have seen passions hold sway, only to dissipate. We have seen issues assume larger than life dimensions only to die out.
First, the size: A mere four years ago, the BJP was mauled in three major states — Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. The BJP’s fate in Rajasthan and Delhi was worse than the Congress’s in Gujarat today. Of Rajasthan’s 200 seats, Congress got 153 and BJP 33. Of Delhi’s 70 seats, Congress got 52 and BJP 15. In MP, the BJP’s defeat wasn’t quite so enormous (BJP 119, Congress 175), but then this was Digvijay Singh’s second consecutive victory — a victory made all the more striking by the absence of communal violence or emotive campaign techniques.
The rout made for staggering impact. Said Narendra Modi (Yes, Chhote Sardar), then general secretary in charge of MP: “Definitely, it is bad news for us. We have to introspect.� The pundits rushed to write off the BJP and predict a Sonia challenge to Atalji. Opinion polls placed the Congress ahead of the BJP in a national contest.
Today, post Gujarat, the same pundits have sounded the death knell for the Congress and resurrected the BJP in all its previous glory.
Second, the circumstances. Remember Laloo Prasad Yadav? He — and wife Rabri — had done two terms in Bihar when the NDA-led opposition and the ‘English’ media decided he mustn’t get a third. Laloo was scorned as evil, and his administration reviled as jungle raj. The BJP and its NDA allies carpet-bombed Bihar while the media incessantly lampooned the Yadavs. Opinion and exit polls predicted doom for them. Yet the couple, defying all odds, made a spectacular comeback. Of course, Laloo being Laloo, no one pronounced the arrival of Laloo Raj. No brickbats for the ‘English’ media either.
Third, communalised campaign: The most quoted example of this is the 1984 Lok Sabha elections. Held in the backdrop of Indira Gandhi’s murder and the anti-Sikh riots, this election saw the Congress cynically exploit Hindu sentiments. That the RSS supported the Congress — which left the BJP with two seats — is telling enough. But even this must pale before the electoral campaigns of the early ’90s. Remember the venom-spewing Sadhvi Rithambara?
Elections-1991 would match Gujarat-2002 mood for aggressive mood, speech for incendiary speech and flag for saffron flag. This was the aftermath of the Ram rath yatra. With Ram as his mascot, Lal Krishna Advani had made Hindutva simple, easy to digest and voter-friendly. Frenzied mobs followed the rath even as the combination of impassioned speeches and aroused audiences led to the inevitable: A trail of communal disturbances.
The BJP’s official weekly, BJP Today, thus described the rath yatra: “The awesome tidal wave of nationalism unleashed by the yatra unnerved the pseudo-secularists. Jai Sri Ram became more than a traditional greeting. It became a roaring endorsement of the BJP’s view (on secularism).� Further, “It’s (the yatra’s) aim was to raise three fundamental questions nobody had dared ask, fearful of retribution from the pseudo secularists: 1. What is secularism, what is communalism? 2. Can national integration be achieved by constantly pandering to minority communalism? 3. And cannot government reject the cult of minorityism?�
Familiar in the Gujarat context? Yet, all this happened more than a decade ago. Indeed, the Hindutva wave of 1991 stunned political parties and observers alike. Saffron flags swamped Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, the two states where the campaign made the most impact. Jai Sri Ram echoed through the remotest villages. Caste groups with proven secular credentials began to crumble before the saffron storm, first the Jats and then other OBC groups. Wherever Mr Advani went, Ashok Singhal and Sadhvi Rithambara followed. Rithambara was to UP then what Pravin Togadia is to Gujarat today. Later, chief minister Kalyan Singh was to achieve a near-Narendra Modi-like status.
Most significantly, as in Gujarat today, the elite became strong votaries of saffron. In UP, men and women wore badges that said: “Aap ka vote, Ram ke naam.� The equivalent of terrorism was Babri Masjid. The equivalent of Godhra, the firing on kar sevaks by Mulayam Singh Yadav. The latter was used to great effect by the BJP — especially to mobilise women voters.
The result was an unprecedented BJP sweep in UP (51 out of 85 in Parliament and clear majority in the assembly) and Gujarat. Swamis and sanyasins made a vociferous bunch in Parliament, which rang with shouts of Jai Sri Ram. Pundits declared the end of Congress and the arrival of saffron age. Post-1993 bomb blasts, the Shiv Sena-BJP combine rode to victory on similar sentiments in Maharashtra.
Today, the Congress of 1984 is an unrecognisable shadow of itself, the BJP is a poor third in UP and the Sena has lost Maharashtra. Gujarat has bucked the trend, but who knows which way it would have headed without Godhra.