BJP led by Modi won in 2014 majority in the parliament with 282 seats out of 543. It returned in 2019 with 303 seats, and confidently announced with a subservient mass media projecting its propaganda that it will return with over 370 seats in 2024. It was based on the claim of fast economic growth and the building of a Ram Temple in 2024 where once stood an old Babri Masjid, in Ayodhya, one of Hinduism’s most sacred places in India; thus fulfilling one of BJP’s Hindutva promises. But instead, it lost 63 seats, so BJP is forced to form a coalition government with its two regional major allies: TDP of Andhra Pradesh in South India and JDU of Bihar in North India, both of which reject Hindutva ideology. It was humbled in the largest state UP, losing 29 seats to the Socialist Party and the oldest political party that led India’s anticolonial struggle, Indian National Congress (“INC”). Modi led BJP’s Hindutva appeal, his use of state agencies to harass the political opponents and his brazen Muslim baiting in the campaign were rejected by the voters. INC, which had shrunk in the last parliament, has doubled its seats. The besieged Muslims and Democracy itself has found a breathing room so constrained in the last 10 years in Modi’s increasingly autocratic rule pushing Monopoly Capital’s interests.
Raj Sahai is an immigrant from India since 1966, who frequently travels to India, is a member of the ICSS Program Committee, and has been active in social justice and the anti-imperialist movement since 1968. He will try and provide a materialist analysis of a surprising unexpected turn in politics.
