KHELA SHESH: The BJP Has a Perception Problem
Regardless of the BJP's loss in the recent West Bengal elections being heralded as a victory of freedom and democracy, in Indian politics Left is Right and Right is Left, and always shall the twain meet. Here's how the BJP can overhaul its image to move past perceptions into actual political debate.
The history of independent India is that of being embarrassed at being Indian.
The Non-Aligned Movement dressed itself in noble finery but was utopian, only really fashioning a fence-sitting image for the country. The informal surrender of a U.N. Security Council seat to China still plagues India’s international aspirations today; the initial failure of the QUAD can be placed squarely at the feet of Chinese appeasement policies. That the hitching of a ride on an increasingly fiery Chinese dragon continued well after 1962’s great blunder underlines the lack of Indian political will to assert itself.
Even the war of 1971 that gave rise to modern Bangladesh was a reaction to provocation rather than proactivity against genocide. The Indian political apparatus’ failure to resolve the Kashmir issue in victory’s warm afterglow speaks to what was at best a misguided sense of fairness and peace -- peace exists in the security of certainty, not the hope of bettering human nature.
The BJP purports to fight against this. It is proud of ancient Indian heritage but, through its slogan Sab ka Saath, Sab ka Vikaas, asserts this is not mutually exclusive with an atmosphere of openness and inclusivity. It summarily routed the opposition parties in both 2014 and 2019’s general elections as a result.
What the party and ideology really stand for is a non-issue; in our media-obsessed world, substance is secondary. Perception is the peasant in princely clothes, in the noblest of finery.
The TMC’s recent victory in the West Bengal elections is being heralded as the triumph of democracy and liberalism. No matter the attack on BJP leaders’ motorcades, the burning of BJP offices and the exodus to nearby Assam of BJP workers. Even the Congress, busily proclaiming Mamata Bannerjee as India’s savior, has its own burning Bengal offices.
In other states ruled by opposition parties -- journalists in Odisha are attacked and jailed for anti-government articles; the criminal handling of the Sushant Singh Rajput case and various media gags against anti-Thackeray writing has exposed the current Maharashtra ruler as that fickle dictator who deploys drones every time a tomato is thrown; and the less said about the Congress’ past crimes and current ineptitude, the better.
The BJP cannot claim the sheen of a newborn baby’s innocence. But, for all its alleged transgressions against freedom of speech, it allowed and awarded Vishal Bhardwaj’s Azaad-Kashmir adaptation of Hamlet, the Shahid Kapoor-starrer Haider; the Left has a sketchy record at best when it comes to art that challenges. Both the BJP and the Congress at various points supported and opposed the infamous Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, which allowed for sweeping punishments for internet posts deemed anti-government or offensive by even a junior police officer.
The BJP is not an ultraconservative, diktat-based ruler; the Left is not an ultraliberal supporter of all rights. The country’s political compass has always been always skewed – in India, Left is Right and Right is Left, and always shall the twain meet.
But perceptions matter most. Regardless of its progressive initiatives in Bengal, the Narendra Modi and Amit Shah-fronted campaign focused mostly on pulling Mamata Bannerjee down. This presented her with a fierce barrage of perceptions aimed at pigeonholing the BJP -- Men vs. Woman, Outsiders vs. Bengali, Conservatives vs. Liberal, Hindu vs. Secular. Despite the massive increase in the party’s seat-share, the BJP did not win because, for the Bengalis as for many others, the devil you know is better than the saint you don’t. Hence, the en masse voting for the TMC in the Muslim-dominated districts of Maldaha, Murshidabad and South 24 Parganas, and in the traditionally left-swinging districts of Howrah, Hooghly and large swathes of Kolkata.
And this raises another problem -- in the Bengal elections, who was this supposed saint? The BJP played directly into the TMC’s claims of Bengal being for the Bengalis. Narendra Modi has a world to woo; Amit Shah has a country to outthink. The devil you know is better than, well, nobody really.
Even in the drastic escalation of coronavirus cases in the country, the BJP has failed to stem the criticism coming its way, some warranted, some engineered by the opposition, which is these days sadly nothing more than the slumbering kraken that awakens once a full moon to maim unwitting sailors.
The BJP must fight from within its own perception. Its Hindu majority tag will always be thrust front and center by the likes of NDTV and India Today, who conversely support religious politics as long as it opposes the BJP. So, the party must move away from identity politics of any kind, letting questions of identity and accusations of oppression wash of its back. It must instead bring the focus back to policies and programmes that institute change at the ground level -- what politics originally intended to do. Besides presenting itself with a golden opportunity to be seen to rise above petty politics in favour of reasoned debate, this will help the BJP avoid the negative campaigning that failed to expound on the party’s virtues in West Bengal.
Smriti Irani and Nupur Sharma could spearhead an overhall of the party’s image and spokespersons, with figures such as Jay Panda, Swapan Dasgupta, Bibek Debroy, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sanjeev Sanyal, Tejasvi Surya and Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, erudite and educated even by the left’s (rather colonial) standards, working to move the party past the Hindu vs. Other duality and command the narrative. Most of this talent is currently withering away on the sidelines of the national consciousness.
The party cannot depend on Prime Minister Modi’s appeal alone, especially in states like West Bengal where identity, language, culture and past Bengali accomplishment will infinitely constitute vociferous debate. It should instead take its cue from nearby Assam, where the BJP retained power, and opt for a local Chief Ministerial candidate who can negate the Outsider vs. Bengali debate and bring incontestable authenticity in discussing solutions to Bengali problems while still infusing the BJP’s Sab ka Saath, Sab ka Vikaas ideal. Limiting this approach to a few select states should negate any upticks in regionalism, which will always be the most potent threat to any form of Indian unity. Buttressing Narendra Modi’s nationwide appeal with local power in key states such as West Bengal, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu would serve to strengthen the party’s hold and give it adequate playing space to allow real-world progress to counter perception.
Said perception has come out to batter the party mercilessly during the second wave of the pandemic. India’s centre-state power divide puts health firmly in the states’ list of responsibilities. Is it the centre’s fault that states did not ready oxygen plants? Is it the centre’s fault that hospitals in some states are not mandated to have their own oxygen supply? Is it the centre’s fault that the opposition continuously called life-saving vaccinations the ‘BJP vaccine’ in an effort to polarise religions and gain political mileage?
Genuine questions need to be asked about India’s over-exporting of vaccines. Regardless of the fact that the staggering international aid pouring in at the time of writing is a direct result of this export, perhaps the country wouldn’t have required the aid at all had governmental oversight been more selfish, and so more prudent. Indeed, this is one of the only times the BJP can be criticised for being too willing to appease the wider world’s perception of India, potentially at great cost to the country.
But pre-pandemic, and even during the sleepy lull between the first and second waves, states pushed for more state autonomy, decrying the country’s unitary structure. Should the political system become completely centralised when the proverbial hits the fan, and revert back to statedoms once a crisis is as buried as Rahul Gandhi’s Prime Ministerial ambitions? One cannot embrace the good and shirk off the bad.
States are being told to follow the Maharashtra model of lockdown and testing but is this not the same Maharashtra that rid itself of all precautions right after the first wave, thereby precipitating the second? Maharashtra’s decreasing cases are a good sign but it must also be remembered that the second wave hit that state in full force much before anywhere else.
In Delhi, meanwhile, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party has been politically tactful if medically shocking, progressing from demanding vaccines to questioning their effectiveness, then complaining of vaccine shortages before decrying vaccine prices, and finally asking the Centre to take over before criticising the Centre for taking over and demanding increased autonomy – Mr. Kejriwal’s IIT-nous in full, fancy flight.
The BJP is attempting to assert a message of unity, and rightfully so, but must do more to highlight the inadequacies of its critics rather than shouldering all the blame for them. It has a perception problem. It must counteract it, lest perception becomes its only problem.