Hindutva as development

In the UP election campaign, all the things usually used to signal ‘vikas’ — welfare schemes, laptops, housing, jobs — were directly connected with Hindutva

every election, there were local factors.

But the BJP knows the real winning card. In choosing three non-mlas for the top three posts in UP, and especially the controversial mahant from Gorakhpur, the PM has moved away from the anonymous buttonpushers picked for Cm-ship so far. This reveals Modi’s choice of the person who most mirrors himself, as the vote was clearly sought in his name in all the stages of the campaign.

In India’s largest state, with two years left for the 2019 polls, this choice by Modi effectively answers the question raised about the BJP leadership being equivocal about those members of the cabinet speaking of “Ramzade vs haramzade”, urging people to “Go to Pakistan” or its MPS asking for selective contraception, “ghar wapasi”, and pointing to inter-community marriages as campaigns to convert Hindus.

There are strategic reasons why this would further other causes of the BJP in the state. With a record number of upper castes entering the assembly, this would be the best way to appease that base, and yet hope that Adityanath and his Hindu Yuva Vahini credentials “de-caste” him. Also, whatever may be the state of “development” in the region, with a sure guarantee of other things being on the front-burner, this decision clarifies that the Centre is one for keeping its C R Sasikumar

flock together, and keeping the message “straight”. Also, UP’S proximity to Bihar and Nepal keeps this area in sync with other aspects in the heartland that have been niggling at the BJP.

Elections should be seen a vote for a spectrum of issues. But in the choice of chief ministers and priorities, parties clarify their vision and aims. In that context, this is a moment when the BJP has offered clarity, which one must be grateful for. A statistical assessment of the results adding the seatwise votes of the SP, BSP and the Congress, in case of a Bihar-like Mahagathbandhan, indicates that the BJP would have got 90 seats and the mythical MGB 313. This is also a response to that possibility. It is an insurance against — after all the noise— not being able to offer laptops, schemes, or even shamshans and kabristans to all.

Speaking of the dead, post-2002, thethen Gujarat CM made a serious attempt at his reinvention as a “development” man. At the time, Adityanath’s organisation, the Hindu Yuva Vahini, made it clear that “UP would be the new Gujarat, and the start would be from Gorakhpur”. The need to not even reinvent is what is central to this choice for UP’S top job. That interpretation of the mandate, needs to worry us all.

seema.chishti@expressindia.com