From the falsehood of “Shining India” under Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee to “Acche Din” and “Viksit Bharat” under Mr Narendra Modi, Hindutva politics displays an absolute failure to deliver development to India and Indians. It also displays the falsehood of Hindutva narratives. There is mass discontent against the Hindutva government and its false propaganda, which has also failed to cover the brewing unemployment, poverty, hunger, homelessness, and the growth of different forms of marginalisation, exploitation, and inequality under the Hindutva regime. In the name of cultural unity, it has destroyed religious and social harmony; in the name of Gandhian socialism and nationalism, it not only killed Gandhi but also promoted unbridled crony capitalism in India. The country and its development are directionless, and people are struggling to survive in their everyday life under Hindutva politics and its government led by Mr Modi, who defines fraudulent politics in India.
There is nothing original in Hindutva governance other than false and fear-mongering propaganda. Falsehood is the foundation of Hindutva ideology and its politics. Hindutva leaders copy the bullying strategies of street criminals who failed primary school. There is no point in expecting anything other than failure from such visionless political forces, which work for their corporate funders and deepen their crony capitalist roots in the country.
People from all walks of life are on the streets across India. Instead of addressing the genuine demands of the people and their democratic expression in the streets in the form of protests, the BJP government under Modi, the Government of India under Mr Modi, and the Home Ministry under Home Minister Mr Amit Shah are taking all authoritarian measures to stop protests in Delhi and around the country. Trains are cancelled, 45 Metro stations are shut down in Delhi, people are detailed in their own homes, people are arrested while taking flights, and young students and youths are detained in different parts of the country to foil the democratic protests against a Hindutva government that has failed the country and its citizens. A confident government led by confident leadership celebrates confident and powerful citizens, but Hindutva pursues the cowardly politics of authoritarianism.
The Modi government and its Hindutva ideology lack historical knowledge and experience, as Hindutva promotes mythology as history to stake its claim, cover its ahistorical origin, and naturalise its ethnonationalist European exclusionary ideology of othering in India. Hindutva has not even learned from the anti-colonial struggles, as Hindutva was with the colonial rulers while the country was bleeding in the streets for Indian independence. The BJP has also not learned from the Congress Party under Indira Gandhi and her imposition of the Emergency, which was the political Waterloo of the Congress Party in Indian politics. Hindutva admires Indira Gandhi and her authoritarian politics. The Modi government is adopting colonial British government policies and post-colonial Congress strategies during emergency to curtail the civil, political, social, and economic liberties of the people of India.
The Modi government is not only displaying its authoritarianism but also its cowardice. These historical legacies of Hindutva cowardice are a dark chapter in Indian history of democratic revolutions during and after India’s independence. Hindutva’s bluffs and cowardice echo in its actions, origins and the saffron shadow of history is a reminder that the Modi government fears its own shadows of failure and falsehood. Therefore, it resorts to all authoritarian measures, legal threats, and threats of police violence to suppress a democratic revolution primarily led by the youth and students of India.
India’s history of struggles is a reminder to the Hindutva ruling class that no one can defeat the youth and students of India. British colonialism was defeated by the students and youth of India, and the Congress Party and its authoritarianism were put into the dustbin of history by the people of India. Hindutva politics under the BJP, guided by the fascist RSS, is waiting for the same fate. The loud rhetoric of the Modi government and its hollowness are exposed; its quiet compromises with Zionist and imperialist forces are out in the open; its failures to empower people mock Hindutva ideology; so, fear is crippling the Hindutva government over its imminent and unhappy ending.
The Modi government fears its own shadows, and any democratic noise disturbs the electoral arithmetic of the BJP. Even after deleting 13.39 crore citizens from the electoral register through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) with the help of the Election Commission of India, Hindutva politics fears not only electoral defeat but also the wiping out of its ideology, organisation, and false narratives by the democratic revolution in India. Hindutva has captured all constitutional institutions in the country but still fears the people of India and their ability to overthrow all forms of power that try to take away their citizenship rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India.
Hindutva politics and the Modi government bring shame to India and Indians for their cowardice both at home and abroad. The defeat of Hindutva fascism can only empower citizens and restore Indian constitutional democracy in India. There is absolutely nothing to fear but to defeat Hindutva and the Modi government to ensure the celebration of youth and student power, people’s democracy, and its revolutionary potential in India. Solidarity with all struggles that empowers people and weakens the power for the deepening of secular democracy and citizenship rights in India.
