The NDA has returned to power with lower-than-expected seats in the Lok Sabha elections, the results of which were announced yesterday. Unlike the last two terms of the Modi govt, BJP is short of majority mark, and the NDA total is also less than 300, triggering a heated debate on ‘what went wrong’, even though the alliance will remain in power. The alliance performance was mostly impacted by unexpected results in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, and analysts have started analysing the reason for the same. Senior Supreme Court Advocate and author J Sai Deepak also analysed the poll results, sharing some interesting insights and suggestions for the Bhartiya Janata Party.
Taking to X on Wednesday, J Sai Deepak said, “I don’t have the resources or the first-hand knowledge to distill the reasons for the outcome. With this caveat, I will air a few general expectations which, in my view, are legitimate and reasonable. Whether they led to the outcome or not is for stakeholders to decide.”
4. First – macro Hindu symbolism aside,it would help to pay close attention to the core Hindutva vote base on critical issues which impact its lives,dignity & future. The current numbers were perhaps made possible by this Hindutva core which votes out of loyalty to Dharma.
— Sai Deepak J (@jsaideepak) June 4, 2024
Delving into his “expectations”, he said that the BJP should focus on the issues of its core “Hindutva voters” including the tax-paying and law-abiding middle class and advised to maintain a distance from neo-Hindutvawadis pushing leftist stereotypes in the name of Veer Savarkar. “Macro Hindu symbolism aside, it would help to pay close attention to the core Hindutva vote base on critical issues which impact its lives, dignity & future. The current numbers were perhaps made possible by this Hindutva core which votes out of loyalty to Dharma,” Deepak said.
“This core Hindutva base is mostly comprised of the middle class, tax-paying, law-abiding Hindu who slogs personally, & bats for Hindutva despite the constant stacking of “social justice initiatives” in all forms & shapes against him/her. Clearly, it helps to keep them on your side. In the interest of making their law-abiding lives liveable in an increasingly hostile environment, it would help to keep at a distance the newly-minted alleged Hindutvawadi social justice warriors who push Leftist anti-Dharmic stereotypes under the garb of Hindutva using Savarkar,” the Supreme Court lawyer continued.
Further, he suggested that attacks on traditional institutions significant to Hindutva should stop. “It is possible to deliver social equity without pushing received stereotypes or constantly attacking traditional institutions that the Hindutva core holds dear. Surely there are ways of lifting people up without trashing tradition. Unless the goal of some is to destroy it,” he said.
Sai Deepak also said that the Hindu temples should be freed from the State’s control. “Bridge the First & Second points by freeing Temples from State Control. Preserve tradition & recover the assets of Temples to educate & uplift those struggling for resources *regardless* of caste. Empower the Hindu society instead of rendering it subservient to the State. For those who disagree with tradition (“orthodoxy”), the freedom of conscience guaranteed under the Constitution enables setting up of new institutions where they are free to subscribe to or deviate from tradition in accordance with the dictates of their conscience.,” he said.
Moreover, the Supreme Court lawyer suggested that Hindu religious sites (Kshetra) should not be seen as infrastructure projects and their natural setting should be respected. “Respect Kshetras, their sanctity & their natural setting. They can certainly do with better cleanliness & organisation, but they are *not* infrastructure projects & must be approached with some respect for the Kshetra, its prakriti and the prakriti it is located in,” he said.
“Respect prakriti even in this important quest for development, especially in sensitive regions such as Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Unrestrained tourism & development which is not sensitive to the ecology of a place have consequences for the local *and* others,” he added.
J Sai Deepak also emphasised the importance of investing in humanities and steps to be taken in the field of education and culture which are crucial for decolonisation. “Please understand the need to invest in humanities, especially in history. Decolonisation is an empty rhetoric if it is not followed up with concrete steps in the realms of education & culture because they are battlegrounds of the present to engineer a future. The political and civilisational consequences of fabricated weaponised history have played itself out on the streets and elsewhere over the last decade to the detriment of the Hindu society and Bharat. Therefore, decolonising humanities is equally a political imperative,” he said.
The “India That Is Bharat” author also stressed the need to effectively tackle illegal migration. “Tackle illegal migration with an iron hand. Parts of Bharat are being taken over and the lives of Bharatiyas being made miserable, including on the economic front through loss of employment at every level to illegal migrants. Law and order is the first casualty. The Delimitation game has its limits in containing & dealing with illegal migration. After a point, even that can’t hold fort because of demographic inversion. Viewed from every perspective, illegal migration poses perhaps the biggest threat to Bharat’s integrity,” he emphasised.
Sai Deepak stressed the need to bring a National Register of Citizens (NRC) and a fresh census to get a clear picture of where India’s demography stands. “Bharat badly needs an NRC and a new census to understand where we stand demographically. Without this data, we are practically flying blind under the mistaken assumption that pure economic growth is the silver bullet to all our problems. It is necessary but *not* sufficient,” he said.
Lastly, J Sai Deepak said “We typically understand the value of a parliamentary majority and what could have been achieved with it *after* letting go of it. Let’s hope we are ready with a clearer vision for 2029 or earlier. Jai Shri Ram.”