Banking on Hindutva Again

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat's ceremonial Vijayadashami speech this year featured an impassioned plea for Hindu unification, coming with a stark warning: weakness is a sin that even the gods disdain.

- Anilesh S. Mahajan

The spectre of violence against Bangladeshi Hindus earlier this year served as his grim exemplar, a cautionary tale of what befalls a weakened community. Just a week earlier, as if in sync, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking at a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rally in poll-bound Maharashtra, launched a scathing attack on the Congress, accusing the Opposition party of playing divisive politics. "Congress knows that the more Hindus get divided, the more it will benefit," he declared.

This duet, performed by the two titans of the Sangh Parivar, perhaps appends a coda to a symphony of whispers that had picked up lately. A rumoured rift between the two had been the season's flavour, especially after reports of RSS swayamsevaks largely keeping away from the BJP's campaign during the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year. Their harmonised message now reveals a shared playbook. And as India finds itself in the throes of poll fever yet again, with the Election Commission announcing dates for Maharashtra and Jharkhand as well as a smattering of byelections next month, the BJP is betting big on this revitalised narrative.