Too many people suddenly feeling nostalgic about Bajrang Dal and VHP. They are lamenting that they are no longer a patch on what they used to be. Well, they were cut down to size by the bigshots as soon as they started smelling power in the 90s. The thing is the bigshots were uncomfortable with their existence because the so-called goons were no longer politically useful to them and only embarrassed them in the media, 5-star conferences, and lit fests. So, the big names started distancing themselves from these outfits. But the real blow came after their 2004 defeat in national elections. The state leadership of Gujarat, led by leader ji, started reopening all the closed cases against VHP and Bajrang Dal. The govt got so vicious that they forced a firebrand VHP leader, Prahlad Shastri, to commit suicide in 2005.(5)
The party had two options back then - easy path and difficult path. Obviously, they chose the easy path of throwing the BD/VHP cadre under the bus. The bus was headed to a destination called ‘Vikas’. What they ignored was that it would run out of diesel one day. The difficult option was to provide intellectual cover to the people on whose muscle power, the big names had come to power. Much like the Marxist academics give cover to their less sophisticated comrades on the street.(5)
There is no room for pretending to take the moral high ground when it comes to the realities of electoral politics. But since the Sangh leadership had by then already embraced a culture of profound anti-intellectualism, it was too late in the day to change course. More so, because they were already the principal opposition and power was just a whiff away. There was no need to invest in intellectual capital, they felt, as they do even now. That choice was fatal, not so much for the party but its crores of supporters.
It is a sad fact of life that modern academic research in the humanities is not some sophisticated enquiry into higher truths as it was in ancient India. Rather, it is the basic ammunition in this information age, where the internet and media intrude into the privacy of living rooms. Even today, nothing of significance can be achieved “on the ground” if there is no investment in intellectual capital by the party. And since that investment is never going to happen, the party will drift more and more towards the left, eventually becoming indistinguishable from them. In fact, it has already made that transition and anyone not blinded by the love of the party or its leaders will see the writing on the wall. Ambedkar worship, SC/ST & minority appeasement, the sudden introduction of leftist vocabulary like subaltern into their cheap rhetoric, etc. are sure signs.
Left to fend for themselves, Hindus with this basic understanding of reality must remember they are on their own. They must invest in long-term institution-building and play the infinite game well or prepare to perish. No two ways about it.