Filed under: Indian Subcontinent | Tags: Bajrang Dal, Communalism, Congress Party, Gandhi, Gujrati Urban Middle Class, Gujurat Elections, M A Jinnah, Narendra Modi, Propaganda, Rajiv Gandhi, Sangh Parivar, Secularism, Sikh Militancy, V D Savarkar, Vishwa Hindu Parishad
BJP Chief Minister of the Indian state of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, at a rally in Bangalore on 6 May 2008
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( Dated Article – 14 January, 2008 )
Times Of India
Now that the dust has settled over the Gujarat elections, we can afford to defy the pundits and admit that, even if Narendra Modi had lost the last elections, it would not have made much difference to the culture of Gujarat politics. Modi had already done his job. Most of the state’s urban middle class would have remained mired in its inane versions of communalism and parochialism and the VHP and the Bajrang Dal would have continued to set the tone of state politics. Forty years of dedicated propaganda does pay dividends, electorally and socially.
The Hindus and the Muslims of the state — once bonded so conspicuously by language, culture and commerce — have met the demands of both V D Savarkar and M A Jinnah. They now face each other as two hostile (more…)
