Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar addressing a press conference at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru. , Photo credit: Sudhakara Jain
Teabefore the real challenge Newly formed Siddaramaiah government Karnataka is to be transformed from a laboratory of Hindutva to a laboratory of secular governance under a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. This cannot be accomplished by regular governance. On 24 May, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told top officials of the state police force that “police should not look at crimes through the prism of this or that religion.” It is a good start and needs to be taken forward in full spirit. The BJP’s electoral defeat in the assembly elections does not mean the ideological collapse of the Hindu right, especially when the party has retained its vote share. Therefore, the claim that the Hindu Right has been wiped out from the South is exaggerated. The defeat has demoralized the Hindu right, but it may bounce back at the next opportunity. Patience and the ability to maneuver are some of the qualities of the Hindu Right of India.
In 2022, the Government of India banned the Popular Front of India (PFI). The Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), founded in 2009 by the PFI, fielded 16 candidates in Karnataka but failed to open its account. This tells a lot about the voting behavior of Muslims. Most importantly, it sends a clear message that the SDPI’s political agenda is out of sync with the Muslim electorate. Similarly, AIMIM led by Asaduddin Owaisi got only 0.02% votes. Of the 15 candidates fielded by the Congress, nine Muslim MLAs won, while the JD(S), which fielded 23 candidates, did not get a single seat. This is because Muslim voters consider the Congress and not the JD(S) a viable alternative to the BJP. The Karnataka results should further reassure those who expressed concern about the modest success of the AIMIM in the Bihar and Maharashtra assembly elections. These results confirmed the secular voting behavior of Muslim voters. Another interesting result is the defeat of Shri Ram Sena chief Pramod Muthalik, who led the attack on women in a Bangalore bar in 2009, from the Karakal constituency. These results should not only be seen as a vote against Hindutva or corrupt governance, but also against religious extremism.
During its campaign, the Congress had the courage to declare in its manifesto that it would ban the Bajrang Dal. But the Bajrang Dal is a small player in a larger ideological campaign of Hindu rights organizations that has shaken the foundations of India’s secular politics. The Hindu right-wing organization that has given India two prime ministers – Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi – is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, not the Bajrang Dal. At this juncture, it would be appropriate to recall a speech delivered by Sardar Patel in Lucknow on January 6, 1948. He warned his comrades in the Congress that his “power and authority” would not be able to crush the RSS. Today the RSS is far more organised, larger in size and more resourceful. Most importantly, it is a global organization as compared to 1948. This is a real challenge – and one that the government needs to think deeply about.
Another fact is that RSS does not have any magical power which can make BJP win every election. As an electoral force, it has its limits.
Karnataka has also seen violent killings of activists of Hindu right-wing and secular parties in recent years. In view of this, the outgoing chief minister Basavaraj Bommai had threatened to introduce the “Yogi model” in Karnataka. One of his ministers even said that the state would go five steps ahead of Uttar Pradesh. These are indicative of the violent side of the ideological power struggle between secular and Hindutva organisations. Priyank Kharge, a minister in the Siddaramaiah government, suggested rolling back the regressive policies of the Bommai government. This is encouraging. But while rolling back the policies may provide short-term relief, it will not rule out the possibility of such policies coming back under future BJP governments. The dynamics of ideological power struggle in an electoral democracy are such that what is rolled down today can be rolled back tomorrow. But the 2023 results present some opportunities for secular forces to plan for the resurgence of India’s secular politics. Karnataka society needs treatment. This cannot be accomplished by regular governance or Twitter activism.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman teaches at Jamia Millia Central University, New Delhi