Why has Sangha failed Bhartiya Janta Party more than the BJP failing the Sangha Parivar?

Why has Sangha failed Bhartiya Janta Party more than the BJP failing the Sangha Parivar?

By: Amit Bhushan Date: 26th January 2013

Elections are round the corner for several states including some prominent BJP ruled ones and once again all parties are busy identifying voter segments who could be counted upon for vote hunting. In India predicting it is much more difficult unlike in West because, here the parameters of voters for choosing whom they would vote for, is very different and in part also depends upon how principal opposition party’s candidates are, their background and their promises for each specific constituency. The ruling parties have to not only figure out their loyalty quotient amongst the constituents’ basis the work done, but also need to keep in mind that some local socio-cultural or caste leader may stake claim for the votes of the same voters and sway away a large chunk of votes. This happens because the government seems to be delivering little value to people compared to their needs. The large middle class hindi-speaking upper caste grouping that organizes ‘Shakha’ or a chapter of Sangh has failed to appreciate the problems of lower-castes semi-literate or illiterate low economy strata people’s problems and failed to make any sincere attempts to solve them. The people are chastised regularly by government officials of failing to appreciate government official’s concerns and procedures are they are made to feel humiliated and responsible for their fate. The truth is that these people never had resources to organize themselves as educated middle class in order to protect their rights/benefits. Frequently, the delivery process not being streamlined, leads to a lot of hassle and these socio-cultural caste leaders play a role in exposing corruption or to get the delivery of government services for their people. Thus even where government/political party in power has performed, it may not be able to receive full credit and has ability to lose a chunk of votes to the community leaders who seem to be relatively more visible and prominent workers to the local eyes. The party which have some form of government will also carefully need to figure out which cross-section of voters they can rely on, for votes as old constituents of supporters may be disgruntled de some action or inaction, while the new constituents may not be exactly enamored for wholehearted support extension to the specific contestant because of his not being actively coordinating service delivery of government services towards them.

The politicians on the top know this fact and are loathe of the fact that their good work hardly gets them the kind of reward expected, as much depend upon the last mile delivery at the hands junior bureaucrats and local factors which they find too cumbersome for them to keep a tab on. They try to manage this coordination work through ‘social workers’ (frequently commission agents) who are loyal to them and are willing to maintain contact with ‘important voter groups’ (the unorganized voter groups need not be focused as they vote on emotional issues basis ‘media image’ and information from informal networks). Often this job is seen as something which is below their dignity level to get involved with and for which the constituents should themselves be responsible for, however for voters the last mile delivery is of utmost importance and the cumbersome procedures of the government seem to be a politico-bureaucratic nexus to siphon off funds meant for the voter’s benefit. While the Sangha volunteers coordinate with ‘Aam admi’ and political worker or the politician for such service delivery and managing grapewine information sources, they have been not very effective in raising issues of unorganized, semi-literate or illiterate people who struggle to comply with complex government requirements and procedures. Frequently, the politicians value the requirement of businesses more than that of ordinary people as the ordinary people have consumption or work related problem while it the businesses who try to evolve local capabilities for their profit, some of which can be scraped off by politicians for offer of ‘goodwill gestures’ in nurturing of such capabilities. This can often be at the cost of local environment or public resources and negligible tax generation, leaving the population disgruntled and having to bear the brunt of supporting ‘private profits’. The politicians see it differently as according to them the businesses will help in managing the media as well as grapewine while also contribute towards much required ‘poll expenses’ supporting to ‘buy’ votes required to win elections.

The principal party in power has managed the above conundrum in politics by involving a large cross-section of bureaucrats amongst its rank and file. Its top leaders have maintained relations with bureaucrats at all levels often by employing retired officers in Social and Non-Government Organizations run by them as well as in various Private projects. This could frequently be in return of a quid pro quo of bureaucrat using their position to the benefit of the politician or safe guarding political interest of the politician while in power and getting favours subsequently for them and their kins. While politicians in the opposition parties including BJP are not innocent to the game, however their level of engagement as well as trustworthiness amongst bureaucratic class is much less due to their being constantly is disarray and frequently being out of power. The various leaders of the Principal opposition party find themselves viewing the problem with different prisms and unable to reconcile their issues within. This is cause of a drift in their ranks and part workers unable to find a single anchor, able to lead them to acceptable solution. As the leaders reveal some cads and hold the rest to their chest, trying to pose as real ‘spin doctors’ who can manage to get money as well as votes, there prevails an atmosphere for shadowy deals going around. This is further accentuated due to fact that any such leader who triumphs will have limited votes/seats for their supporters and will also be dependent on support of other parties. Thus all leaders are busy trying to work out a deal with ‘government’ (politicians and bureaucrats) to seek benefits for their constituents as well as for their supporters, so that they can position themselves face their voters in best possible manner. The politicians in government are playing along as they feel they are equipped with the best information and are trying to gain maximum mileage for themselves in this slog over period. As discussed earlier a large proportion of voters are in the unorganized and thus floating in nature which are targeted through image building rather than any substantive delivery measures. It is this equation of image stimulus and vote response that seem to be impacted for the elections as the rise of social media create varied information sources for such voters and educates them with of differing views.

Besides, there are sweeping changes taking place in the country with its youth largely free of the baggage of the past and evolving new equations. The traditional barrier of caste dominating mindsets and thought processes is giving way to new thinking especially among the youth. Globalization bug is fast engulfing the Youth with aspirations amongst the lower rung being no different from the youth in higher socio-economic strata. Their means of realizing these aspirations and/or what they want to do with the power so achieved may be a bit different depending upon the background of each of them. The youth is fed by the electronic media; be it mass media or social networking sites (chances of lower rung youth being impacted by mass media is much more while the youth in better economic strata having access and activity in social networking sites is much more). The overall result is that this has brought down the caste barriers among youths and also exposed politicians to a much greater degree of scrutiny from a youth that’s not given to humble submission easily as the boys & girls of yesteryears. Especially so in politics where youth are showing active interest now, in taking up upon the malaise of the system, which they find callous about their plight. This is now a harbinger of many interesting developments where in political leadership in trying to evolve an improved delivery models for government services. However barely surface has been scratched and a lot of work still needs to be done to improve capabilities of the institutional production and delivery systems for a lot of products and services delivered by government. However, most of the evolving models have a common deficiency of very low ‘exception handling’ capabilities (i.e. evolved procedures) as politicians and bureaucrats leave this area unattended since this requires manual decision making to make proper assessment at the local level. This area is exploited by politicians who bank upon the lower caste unorganized workers (illiterate and semi-literate) vote bank, a large majority of which may belong to scheduled and lower castes. This area is often exploited by businesses to push their interest in conjunction with politicians and bureaucrats.

While the political parties and leaders are trying to grasp this change; their political vehicles as well as close associates are still not comfortable about this new reality. The associated bodies of such political parties have been slow to identify and respond to the changes taking place in the society. This is even as ‘active’ cadres of such pseudo-political entities including RSS has depleted despite the organizations making several attempts to revive the ‘old magic’. Quite a bit of the waning of interest amongst cadres is because of the organization’s failure to appreciate the impact of ‘technology change’ on the social behavior of people and therefore new stimulus-response model emerging in the society. Now a days, youth expect a more equal treatment for themselves unlike in past when people from lower caste or lower economic strata could have been relegated to lower rank of importance and meek submission could have been expected. This is a result of better information amongst youth who are aware of their rights are will to put up a fight for it. The youth now expect greater empowerment be delivered to them so that they are able to achieve their aspirations and also prove themselves to be of more value to the community. This is departure from earlier era when the youth were frequently looking ‘askance’ towards elders almost constantly in fear of being chastised for mistakes and/or get branded as ‘a failure’. The ‘Sangha’ seem utterly unable to come to grasp with this reality as it has been unable to develop any significant support base amongst the unorganized and illiterate people having failed to appreciate their concerns and champion their issues. It seems to be strongly sticking to ‘old’ issues of Gau Sewa and Temple which only worked for a brief spell of 10 years of Indian political history out of last 65+ years and has little to contribute towards ideas that hooks youth looking towards ‘new issues’.

The Sangha has also failed to penetrate to segmented clusters such as prostitutes or enunches etc. who have been excluded from normal societal settings but tend to vote enblock towards for local candidate. This could also include caste clusters in villages (both urban and rural) where people invariably have same issues and tend to vote enblock. It has shown undue kowtowing towards government bureaucrats whom it sees as an important delivery support mechanism and who in its view constitute the progressive Indian class instrumental in taking India to growth and prosperity. It generally tends to ignore their corruption in eagerness to cultivate such groupings who are necessary to support local business community initiatives and another important constituent of Sangha’s supporters. Thus some of the politically important deprived sections have generally remained unenamoured with Sangha and thus the BJP and their appeal to such groups is negligible and hasn’t grown at all in years that have passed by.

While Politicians of all hues and colours are trying to motivate their cadres to embrace the change and cope up with the aspirations of today’s youth, however the principal opposition party has a structure wherein it is guided by its parent social organization unlike other parties where politicians guide the associated social organizations. This seems to have resulted in a chasm where the parent organization is still caught in a time warp and is still not able to appreciate the change. The political leaders of the principal opposition party have not been very effective in seeking the involvement of the youths as the youth seem not to be able to able to identify themselves with their agenda. This is even as at least some of the leaders have been quite active in raising the concerns of youth with respect corruption, security, education/skill development, freedom of expression, social justice etc. The youth from metro seem to feel that the principal opposition and there social network organization is not pushing its issues enough like corruption, security and freedom of expression in right manner and politically effective way. The youth from small towns are adrift as their issues pertaining to skill development/joblessness, security and delivery of government services are not reflected adequately in the way opposition party and its social organizations have conducted itself. The Rural youth, who is still trapped in the quagmire of caste has a host of issues primarily social justice, skilling/joblessness issues, security, freedom of expression with voices not being heard ever and endemic corruption over petty things among a host of others. With respect to the rural youth, the Sangha seem to be totally out of sync as its brand ideals have never been able to attract the youth from lower caste who are unable to appreciate the ideals of the organization. Even if the rural youth seem to have fallen out of the Congress machinations, but have remained hooked to Congress-like political avatars with different brands of social justice such as upliftment of specific caste combinations or minorities doing the trick for the political parties. With occasional demand for reservations, targeted waiver for loans, some occasional gifts out of government largesse and some morcha against opposition parties and centre have kept the youths engaged.

The Sangha has not been able to take advantage of its strength in Education sector, where a large number of educationists seem to sympathize with Sangha’s issues. However, the set of educationist with Sangha do not seem to have a lower caste back ground or command a leadership to attract these classes in large numbers. Sangha also seem to have its sympathizers in media especially mass media but again the story is same that the media where Sangha has some influence does not seem to attract followership amongst lower caste probably because the media do not seem to be voicing the concerns of this cross-section. Further , Sangha has not been able to leverage its advantages in Hindi speaking regions besides some states in the West who played an active role in creation of the Sangha. The intellectuals at the Pariwar have not been able to attract or engage with non-hindi speaking people or with leaders of the oppressed community. For any substantial change in stakes for Sangha in the Political battlefields, it must reform itself to attract and engage with people in lower caste as well as non-hindi speaking intellectuals by allowing them a greater say over the management of the country and bringing them onboard by incorporating their views as its own mainline view. The Sangha needs to share its might to pool its workers and resources to engage the communities to give their leaders a voice with the mainstream opposition rather than with retro Congress-like parties. It would be nice for the BJP and Sangha to do some introspection and evolve responses to engage a wider spectrum of people.

 

[Swaswati Borpuzari]

The relationship between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Sangh Parivar, a family of right-wing Hindu nationalist organizations, is complex and often fraught with tension. While both entities share a common ideological foundation, the question of whether the Sangha has failed the BJP more than the BJP has failed the Sangha Parivar is a nuanced one. The Sangh, with its extensive network of organizations and grassroots presence, plays a pivotal role in shaping the BJP's political agenda and mobilizing support. However, the Sangha's rigid adherence to its ideological tenets and sometimes its overzealous approach to promoting its agenda have often put it at odds with the BJP's more pragmatic and electoral considerations. This has led to instances where the Sangha's actions have alienated potential voters, particularly those from minority communities or secular individuals, thereby hindering the BJP's broader electoral success. Additionally, the Sangha's inability to effectively address internal dissent and its tendency to prioritize its own organizational interests over the political imperatives of the BJP have sometimes resulted in a lack of coherence and cohesion within the broader Hindutva movement. In contrast, the BJP, while often accused of pandering to the Sangha's more extreme elements for electoral gains, has generally been more successful in balancing its ideological commitments with the practical demands of governance and politics. The BJP's ability to adapt and engage with a diverse electorate, including moderates and minorities, has allowed it to achieve significant electoral victories and maintain its position as a major political force in India. Thus, while the BJP has faced criticism for not fully aligning with the Sangha's rigid ideological framework, it is the Sangha's inflexibility and sometimes counterproductive actions that have arguably been more detrimental to the overall success of the Hindutva movement.

 

[Dhruv Bindhani]

Why has Sangha failed Bhartiya Janta Party more than the BJP failing the Sangha Parivar?

By: Amit Bhushan Date: 26th January 2013

Elections are round the corner for several states including some prominent BJP ruled ones and once again all parties are busy identifying voter segments who could be counted upon for vote hunting. In India predicting it is much more difficult unlike in West because, here the parameters of voters for choosing whom they would vote for, is very different and in part also depends upon how principal opposition party’s candidates are, their background and their promises for each specific constituency. The ruling parties have to not only figure out their loyalty quotient amongst the constituents’ basis the work done, but also need to keep in mind that some local socio-cultural or caste leader may stake claim for the votes of the same voters and sway away a large chunk of votes. This happens because the government seems to be delivering little value to people compared to their needs. The large middle class hindi-speaking upper caste grouping that organizes ‘Shakha’ or a chapter of Sangh has failed to appreciate the problems of lower-castes semi-literate or illiterate low economy strata people’s problems and failed to make any sincere attempts to solve them. The people are chastised regularly by government officials of failing to appreciate government official’s concerns and procedures are they are made to feel humiliated and responsible for their fate. The truth is that these people never had resources to organize themselves as educated middle class in order to protect their rights/benefits. Frequently, the delivery process not being streamlined, leads to a lot of hassle and these socio-cultural caste leaders play a role in exposing corruption or to get the delivery of government services for their people. Thus even where government/political party in power has performed, it may not be able to receive full credit and has ability to lose a chunk of votes to the community leaders who seem to be relatively more visible and prominent workers to the local eyes. The party which have some form of government will also carefully need to figure out which cross-section of voters they can rely on, for votes as old constituents of supporters may be disgruntled de some action or inaction, while the new constituents may not be exactly enamored for wholehearted support extension to the specific contestant because of his not being actively coordinating service delivery of government services towards them.

The politicians on the top know this fact and are loathe of the fact that their good work hardly gets them the kind of reward expected, as much depend upon the last mile delivery at the hands junior bureaucrats and local factors which they find too cumbersome for them to keep a tab on. They try to manage this coordination work through ‘social workers’ (frequently commission agents) who are loyal to them and are willing to maintain contact with ‘important voter groups’ (the unorganized voter groups need not be focused as they vote on emotional issues basis ‘media image’ and information from informal networks). Often this job is seen as something which is below their dignity level to get involved with and for which the constituents should themselves be responsible for, however for voters the last mile delivery is of utmost importance and the cumbersome procedures of the government seem to be a politico-bureaucratic nexus to siphon off funds meant for the voter’s benefit. While the Sangha volunteers coordinate with ‘Aam admi’ and political worker or the politician for such service delivery and managing grapewine information sources, they have been not very effective in raising issues of unorganized, semi-literate or illiterate people who struggle to comply with complex government requirements and procedures. Frequently, the politicians value the requirement of businesses more than that of ordinary people as the ordinary people have consumption or work related problem while it the businesses who try to evolve local capabilities for their profit, some of which can be scraped off by politicians for offer of ‘goodwill gestures’ in nurturing of such capabilities. This can often be at the cost of local environment or public resources and negligible tax generation, leaving the population disgruntled and having to bear the brunt of supporting ‘private profits’. The politicians see it differently as according to them the businesses will help in managing the media as well as grapewine while also contribute towards much required ‘poll expenses’ supporting to ‘buy’ votes required to win elections.

The principal party in power has managed the above conundrum in politics by involving a large cross-section of bureaucrats amongst its rank and file. Its top leaders have maintained relations with bureaucrats at all levels often by employing retired officers in Social and Non-Government Organizations run by them as well as in various Private projects. This could frequently be in return of a quid pro quo of bureaucrat using their position to the benefit of the politician or safe guarding political interest of the politician while in power and getting favours subsequently for them and their kins. While politicians in the opposition parties including BJP are not innocent to the game, however their level of engagement as well as trustworthiness amongst bureaucratic class is much less due to their being constantly is disarray and frequently being out of power. The various leaders of the Principal opposition party find themselves viewing the problem with different prisms and unable to reconcile their issues within. This is cause of a drift in their ranks and part workers unable to find a single anchor, able to lead them to acceptable solution. As the leaders reveal some cads and hold the rest to their chest, trying to pose as real ‘spin doctors’ who can manage to get money as well as votes, there prevails an atmosphere for shadowy deals going around. This is further accentuated due to fact that any such leader who triumphs will have limited votes/seats for their supporters and will also be dependent on support of other parties. Thus all leaders are busy trying to work out a deal with ‘government’ (politicians and bureaucrats) to seek benefits for their constituents as well as for their supporters, so that they can position themselves face their voters in best possible manner. The politicians in government are playing along as they feel they are equipped with the best information and are trying to gain maximum mileage for themselves in this slog over period. As discussed earlier a large proportion of voters are in the unorganized and thus floating in nature which are targeted through image building rather than any substantive delivery measures. It is this equation of image stimulus and vote response that seem to be impacted for the elections as the rise of social media create varied information sources for such voters and educates them with of differing views.

Besides, there are sweeping changes taking place in the country with its youth largely free of the baggage of the past and evolving new equations. The traditional barrier of caste dominating mindsets and thought processes is giving way to new thinking especially among the youth. Globalization bug is fast engulfing the Youth with aspirations amongst the lower rung being no different from the youth in higher socio-economic strata. Their means of realizing these aspirations and/or what they want to do with the power so achieved may be a bit different depending upon the background of each of them. The youth is fed by the electronic media; be it mass media or social networking sites (chances of lower rung youth being impacted by mass media is much more while the youth in better economic strata having access and activity in social networking sites is much more). The overall result is that this has brought down the caste barriers among youths and also exposed politicians to a much greater degree of scrutiny from a youth that’s not given to humble submission easily as the boys & girls of yesteryears. Especially so in politics where youth are showing active interest now, in taking up upon the malaise of the system, which they find callous about their plight. This is now a harbinger of many interesting developments where in political leadership in trying to evolve an improved delivery models for government services. However barely surface has been scratched and a lot of work still needs to be done to improve capabilities of the institutional production and delivery systems for a lot of products and services delivered by government. However, most of the evolving models have a common deficiency of very low ‘exception handling’ capabilities (i.e. evolved procedures) as politicians and bureaucrats leave this area unattended since this requires manual decision making to make proper assessment at the local level. This area is exploited by politicians who bank upon the lower caste unorganized workers (illiterate and semi-literate) vote bank, a large majority of which may belong to scheduled and lower castes. This area is often exploited by businesses to push their interest in conjunction with politicians and bureaucrats.

While the political parties and leaders are trying to grasp this change; their political vehicles as well as close associates are still not comfortable about this new reality. The associated bodies of such political parties have been slow to identify and respond to the changes taking place in the society. This is even as ‘active’ cadres of such pseudo-political entities including RSS has depleted despite the organizations making several attempts to revive the ‘old magic’. Quite a bit of the waning of interest amongst cadres is because of the organization’s failure to appreciate the impact of ‘technology change’ on the social behavior of people and therefore new stimulus-response model emerging in the society. Now a days, youth expect a more equal treatment for themselves unlike in past when people from lower caste or lower economic strata could have been relegated to lower rank of importance and meek submission could have been expected. This is a result of better information amongst youth who are aware of their rights are will to put up a fight for it. The youth now expect greater empowerment be delivered to them so that they are able to achieve their aspirations and also prove themselves to be of more value to the community. This is departure from earlier era when the youth were frequently looking ‘askance’ towards elders almost constantly in fear of being chastised for mistakes and/or get branded as ‘a failure’. The ‘Sangha’ seem utterly unable to come to grasp with this reality as it has been unable to develop any significant support base amongst the unorganized and illiterate people having failed to appreciate their concerns and champion their issues. It seems to be strongly sticking to ‘old’ issues of Gau Sewa and Temple which only worked for a brief spell of 10 years of Indian political history out of last 65+ years and has little to contribute towards ideas that hooks youth looking towards ‘new issues’.

The Sangha has also failed to penetrate to segmented clusters such as prostitutes or enunches etc. who have been excluded from normal societal settings but tend to vote enblock towards for local candidate. This could also include caste clusters in villages (both urban and rural) where people invariably have same issues and tend to vote enblock. It has shown undue kowtowing towards government bureaucrats whom it sees as an important delivery support mechanism and who in its view constitute the progressive Indian class instrumental in taking India to growth and prosperity. It generally tends to ignore their corruption in eagerness to cultivate such groupings who are necessary to support local business community initiatives and another important constituent of Sangha’s supporters. Thus some of the politically important deprived sections have generally remained unenamoured with Sangha and thus the BJP and their appeal to such groups is negligible and hasn’t grown at all in years that have passed by.

While Politicians of all hues and colours are trying to motivate their cadres to embrace the change and cope up with the aspirations of today’s youth, however the principal opposition party has a structure wherein it is guided by its parent social organization unlike other parties where politicians guide the associated social organizations. This seems to have resulted in a chasm where the parent organization is still caught in a time warp and is still not able to appreciate the change. The political leaders of the principal opposition party have not been very effective in seeking the involvement of the youths as the youth seem not to be able to able to identify themselves with their agenda. This is even as at least some of the leaders have been quite active in raising the concerns of youth with respect corruption, security, education/skill development, freedom of expression, social justice etc. The youth from metro seem to feel that the principal opposition and there social network organization is not pushing its issues enough like corruption, security and freedom of expression in right manner and politically effective way. The youth from small towns are adrift as their issues pertaining to skill development/joblessness, security and delivery of government services are not reflected adequately in the way opposition party and its social organizations have conducted itself. The Rural youth, who is still trapped in the quagmire of caste has a host of issues primarily social justice, skilling/joblessness issues, security, freedom of expression with voices not being heard ever and endemic corruption over petty things among a host of others. With respect to the rural youth, the Sangha seem to be totally out of sync as its brand ideals have never been able to attract the youth from lower caste who are unable to appreciate the ideals of the organization. Even if the rural youth seem to have fallen out of the Congress machinations, but have remained hooked to Congress-like political avatars with different brands of social justice such as upliftment of specific caste combinations or minorities doing the trick for the political parties. With occasional demand for reservations, targeted waiver for loans, some occasional gifts out of government largesse and some morcha against opposition parties and centre have kept the youths engaged.

The Sangha has not been able to take advantage of its strength in Education sector, where a large number of educationists seem to sympathize with Sangha’s issues. However, the set of educationist with Sangha do not seem to have a lower caste back ground or command a leadership to attract these classes in large numbers. Sangha also seem to have its sympathizers in media especially mass media but again the story is same that the media where Sangha has some influence does not seem to attract followership amongst lower caste probably because the media do not seem to be voicing the concerns of this cross-section. Further , Sangha has not been able to leverage its advantages in Hindi speaking regions besides some states in the West who played an active role in creation of the Sangha. The intellectuals at the Pariwar have not been able to attract or engage with non-hindi speaking people or with leaders of the oppressed community. For any substantial change in stakes for Sangha in the Political battlefields, it must reform itself to attract and engage with people in lower caste as well as non-hindi speaking intellectuals by allowing them a greater say over the management of the country and bringing them onboard by incorporating their views as its own mainline view. The Sangha needs to share its might to pool its workers and resources to engage the communities to give their leaders a voice with the mainstream opposition rather than with retro Congress-like parties. It would be nice for the BJP and Sangha to do some introspection and evolve responses to engage a wider spectrum of people.

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