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Aug ust 2, 2014 vol xl ix no 31 EPW Economic & PoliticalWeekly10

Anand Teltumbde (tanandraj@gmail.com) is a

writer and civil rights activist with theCommittee 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.

Narendra Damodardas Modi sym-

bolised the finesse 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 office 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 flaunted 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 evenchildren 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,

specific places could be duly lubricated

with blood, as in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar

Pradesh and Kokrajhar in Assam. There

may hardly be any parallel 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 first-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 abovethe 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 BJPin the Lok Sabha,

except for the Left, the Congress having

been really a poor copy of the BJPas faras economic policy matters are concerned.

Thus, BJPis 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 confirmation as the

party s 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 thestates of all neighbouring countries and

paid his first 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.

Thephekuof yesterday has gone totally

silent, engaging himself with utmost seri-

ousness in the business of governance,

opening his mouth only at the end of a

month in office 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 thewelfare of the people. Indeed, many

things could be said in his favour that

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have impressed people to believe that he

could act independently of the RSSor the

BJPand 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 benefit of big

business, which invested heavily in him.While the reforms have always been sold in

the name of the people and justified 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 services, handing over of natural

resources to the private sector, reliance

on the market mechanism for pricing, fis-

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

inflation on an already troubled people.

Whether it is signalling dilution of the

civil Nuclear Liability Act in line with USdemands, 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 silence

on Hindutva, this in order to sharpen his

projection on development. But as an

ardent RSSactivist, as certified 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 movementor the post-Godhra massacre of Muslims

are the rabid ways to polarise people for

direct electoral gains, there could be a

softer approach to surreptitiously trans-

form institutions in line with Hindutva.

Hard Hindutva disrupts normal life and

the business of profit-making. Moreover,

with such a massive mandate, it is really

not needed. Modi therefore would not

favour communal strife vitiating theinvestment 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 difficult 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 Kakatiya 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 theMahabharata.

Contrary to the commonplace notion,

neo-liberalism is not incompatible with

ideological Hindutva; their proclivities

with regard to individualism and thesocial Darwinist attitude fairly coincide.

The affinity between Hindutva and fas-

cism likewise is too well known to be

elaborated upon. At its core, fascism stands

for state authoritarianism, intimidation by

conservative-minded extralegal groups,

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,

clinical case of a fascist. Whether it is

asking the governors of Kerala, Gujarat,

West Bengal, Rajasthan, Maharashtra,

Tripura, and Uttar Pradesh to quit inblatant 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 appoint Nripendra Misra as his

principal secretary, the fascist streak in

Modi cannot be missed. He has removedall 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 facilitation 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

BJPwould 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 RSSman or not, was com-

missioned to engage in a track-2 dialogue

with Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed

camouflaging it with what he blurted on

Kashmir. Saffron neo-liberalism will

entail a revamp of labour laws, simplifi-

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 unified command of one

supreme leader, Narendra Modi.Should this plan falter, it would mean

switching to militant Hindutva.