God is mathematics—a couple of prime equations in the form of commandments and their endless permutations and combinations. Politics is a marketplace of numbers. Apply the equations using different calculations, and the results vary. But the end product is the same—Power. And what good is a merchant who cannot sell his wares? In Palampur in 1989, the BJP adopted Hindutva as its official ideology of “cultural nationalism” and the spirit of “Indian nationhood”. At that time, the reigning Vajpayee-Advani team was averse to giving the ideology theocratic colours. Mohan Bhagwat was content to call it “India’s identity.” The current political Veda is extolling the BJP’s cleverness in forcing other parties to follow political Hindutva. The Opposition is indeed in search of a new identity. Imitation, the best-known form of flattery, could flatten the flatterer too. When an idea whose time has come becomes a wildly successful item, counterfeits flood the market. Since all major parties have entered the field to harvest Hindutva, Over the next decade, expect the entire Indian political spectrum to have acquired various tints of saffron, in differing intensity.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is gearing up to spread its wings beyond New Delhi. In a bid to appeal to Hindu voters, the party, which is running the Punjab and Delhi state government, is indulging in explicit Hindu rhetoric and promising free pilgrimages to Hindu temples even as its leaders are on a temple-hopping spree. Its “soft Hindutva” rhetoric is aimed at drawing Hindu votes. In the run-up to the Delhi state assembly election in 2020 AAP’s founder-chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal told a TV News channel that he was a “kattar Hanuman bhakt” (hard-core devotee of the Hindu deity, Hanuman), following which he recited the Hanuman Chalisa (a Hindu prayer to Hanuman). Kejriwal’s articulation of Hindu rhetoric and his “Jai Hanuman” (Victory to Hanuman) slogans are aimed at not only matching the BJP’s long-standing “Jai Shri Ram” war cry but also, making Kejriwal and AAP more attractive to Hindu voters. Kejriwal is using the tried, time-tested and successful Hindutva strategy to win elections. AAP is following a “soft Hindutva” electoral strategy and is also drawing on another resource that the BJP has successfully exploited: patriotism. Punjab, AAP activists and supporters participated in Tiranga Yatra,a procession where participants from across the state, carried Indian national flag and raised nationalist slogans such as “Vande Mataram,” another sign of its growing ideological proximity with the BJP’s idea of patriotism. Kejriwal is drawing on BJP’s ideas and ideologies of Hindu supremacy and a skewered idea of patriotism.
The AAP’s bid to become a national power has seen it converge with the ruling BJP in embracing Hindu voters – to the exclusion of other groups. It was recently reported that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its political leadership in Delhi had blamed the Rohingya refugees for the communal violence in the national capital Delhi and advocated that they b shunted out from India. this new development has not come as a surprise. The AAP, a political party that had its genesis in a civil society campaign has shifted gears – and quite steadily. The AAP, a regional party with national ambitions, is now borrowing from the blueprint created by the BJP. It claims to be “nationalist” party that does not alienate minorities, but the AAP’s inclusive politics are now excluding the minorities. The AAP is keen to win power in Gujarat, a state where the party has limited presence. It is not leaving any stone unturned to change its political fortunes in the state. Its “Parivartan Yatra” in Gujarat are aimed at consolidating the traditional “Hindu vote” in BJP’s traditional bastion – where the AAP is demanding “ek moko” (a chance) to facilitate tangible political change. However, this change is in sync with BJP’s ideological framework, albeit with a focus on education and healthcare that provides the AAP with a socialist veneer.
The AAP is interestingly creating an umbrella coalition of Hindu leaders within its party fold across states as it expands its political wings across India. For instance, in 2017 the AAP had received the support of the Punjab Brahmin Mahasabha, bringing the Brahmin vote bank into its fold. The 2022 elections saw AAP acquiring influence over all sections of Hindu voters. This support, along with the support of the Sikh voters, catapulted the party to power in Punjab. This change in the AAP’s political outlook has come at a time when several BJP leaders from different castes have joined the AAP in the poll-bound state of Himachal Pradesh. The AAP’s ideological Hindutva bent does not augur well for Indian politics. On the contrary, it demonstrates the weakening of democracy in India. The AAP’s “development agenda,” much like the BJP’s, is now convoluted for it reflects Hindutva leanings. Economic development for a select few comes at the cost of the minorities and other historically ostracized social groups and communities. In fact, their political performativity also reflects elements of open religiosity. AAP leaders regularly visit temples and seek the blessings of Hindu deities to guide them in their political endeavors. This metamorphosis in the AAP’s ideology also demonstrates the nature of the imminent threat faced by the secular state in India, where the “principled distance between the church and the state” is fast diminishing religiosity is on the rise across India, these developments are pointing toward shrinking political space for diversity of views within the public domain in India. In fact, ideological acceptance for a unidimensional world view is now becoming the unwritten norm and political parties and politicians with varied world views are now succumbing to the enduring lure of the Hindutva narrative.
