March 23, 1998

Why the young and the educated prefered the BJP

Swapan Dasgupta

Forget everything that the foreign television networks have said about the "Hindu nationalist" BJP. Forget too the tirades of the defeated and dejected against the deceit of the pollsters. As Atal Bihari Vajpayee assumes charge of a fragile coalition government, it is instructive to see what the exit polls reveal about those who brought the BJP alliance within a whisker of outright victory.

Going by the India Today-CSDS post-poll survey, "one out of two graduates ... voted for the BJP combine". Equally, some 38 per cent of those under 30 years -- the youth of India -- voted for the BJP alliance. The corresponding figures for the Congress and the United Front are 28 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively. And, rudely rebuffing the political correctness of Star News, the survey also noted that "the richer you get, the more likely you are to vote for the BJP". In short, the 1998 election has provided a short, sharp, shock message: that the most youthful, dynamic and economically vibrant sections of India perceive their future to be safe in the hands of the dreaded "Hindu nationalists". Even if Bharat has reserved judgement, modern India has given its thumbs up to the saffron parivar.

The realisation that the support base of India's governing party is not made up of trishul-flaunting loonies and disgusting, paan-chewing and wind-breaking shopkeepers may come as a surprise to many. Particularly those who were blinded into believing that Manmohan Singh, P. Chidambaram and, by extension, Sonia Gandhi epitomised the new face of Indian modernity. It is not important to identify the motivations of those who championed the great globalising agenda. What matters is that "modern India" sees no apparent contradiction in rooting for a party that stresses Indian identity and swadeshi.

Actually there is no mismatch of vision. Middle India -- the social and spatial reach of the BJP -- may have been exasperated by the Nehru-Gandhi family's corrupt licence-permit-quota raj. It yearned for the freedom and the opportunity to grow. Unfortunately, when the dismantling of the socialist edifice began in 1991, the new order went to the other extreme. The rhetoric of India was compromised to suit the elusive foreign investor. From the ridiculous position that everything foreign was unnecessary, the governing elite swung to the position that everything foreign was innately superior. As a mindset, the shift was demeaning; as a strategy it was catastrophic. When the new finance minister assumes office, he may wish to inform Parliament how effortlessly Indian interests were signed away without even a hint of reciprocity. The post-mortem is necessary not as an act of retribution, but merely to emphasise that globalisation has hitherto implied a one-sided give-away.

The problem is that many in the BJP just don't know where to stop. Three years ago at a seminar, a prominent BJP leader spoke about why it was not possible to be an Indian and like pizza. Another was horror-struck by Michael Jackson's gyrations. They are the type who will seek to transform the pro-Indian tilt of the government into a xenophobic agenda. The problem is partly generational, but it is essentially political. They have failed to grasp that the bulk of those who partied away furiously on election eve -- mainly to Hindi music -- woke up next morning and dutifully voted BJP. Theirs was an informed choice. Today's Indianness is not predicated on exclusion. It is centred on a nebulous faith in India. It is for the BJP to channel this self-confidence into governance.

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