For a while now, we were being told that Bharat needs the INDIA bloc. And that it provides an important antidote to the alleged miasma of Moditva. A lead intellectual from the INDIA bloc ranks, Shashi Tharoor, once described Moditva as “cultural nationalism anchored in the RSS doctrine of Hindutva, but extending beyond it. On top of the foundation of Hindutva—a reactionary and regressive doctrine, with its roots in the ‘racial pride’ ethos that spawned fascism in the 1920s—it builds the idea of a strong leader, powerful and decisive, who embodies the nation and will lead it to triumph.” The “strong leader” needed to be stopped as his ten-year reign as prime minister has thrived on “cruelty, fear, division and violence.”
We were grandiloquently told last year that the only counter to Modi, before he wrung the life force out of our nation, was INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance). Tellingly, one ‘I’ in the acronym stands for inclusive. The emphasis being deliberate. The use of the word was intended to send a clear message to voters that the INDIA grouping alone can “safeguard the idea of India as enshrined in the constitution that exalts unity in diversity.”
As was to be expected, with self-proclaimed grandees of secularism like Nitish, Mamata, Lalu, Kejriwal, Pawar and Rahul in the tent, the INDIA bloc almost daily proclaimed Modi had murdered secularism. And when Modi wasn’t inflicting that particular brand of violence, the INDIA bloc would claim he was busy eviscerating autonomous institutions that dared to dissent.
Nitish was often the most visibly vocal in his criticism of Modi. In 2019, he said that unlike Modi, he would never compromise on “3Cs” – corruption, crime and communalism. Yet today, Nitish has dumped the INDIA bloc to embrace Modi and by extension, the alleged odium of Moditva. Hypocrisy, a characteristic that is by no means alien to Indian politics, is a particular trait of Nitish Kumar.
The chief minister of Bihar’s flexible conscience has made him an expert practitioner of opportunism. But it is also true that in this regard, he has competition from other worthies in the INDIA bloc. The Congress decoupled from Nehruvian secularism to embrace the hardline Hindutva of Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena. And for the sake of power, the Thackerays were only too happy to reciprocate despite the Congress sparing no opportunity to belittle Sena’s Hindutva icon Veer Savarkar. The prospect of a victory and the chance of becoming prime minister even enthused Mamata Banerjee to share the INDIA stage with the Communists whom she has vowed to fight to the finish.
Principles, schpinciples!
With such supple spines holding up the INDIA tent, what is the guarantee that the bloc won’t fold upon itself in the face of the right incentive? Could it be that, as with Nitish, some others in the INDIA bloc are only symbolically committed to secularism and speciously opposed to Modi? The Nitish-sized breach in the INDIA bloc will undoubtedly benefit the BJP, but more than this, it severely dents democracy.
India needs Opposition leaders who might change their alliances but not their principles. Unfortunately, the INDIA bloc has leaders who change their principles and alliances, for power.
Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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