Why Modi bewilders the extreme right now

There is a saying in Hindi, Sau chhuhe khake billi haj ko chali (after devouring a hundred rats, the cat goes on a pilgrimage). The passage of time will determine whether Narendra Modi’s mea culpa falls in this category. If his contrition is genuine, his future conduct will testify to the fact. Otherwise, his past record will reassert itself.

Already, there are signs that his overtures to the Muslims are less than honest. His refusal, for instance, to wear the skull cap is a significant pointer. A genuinely secular friend of the minorities would have had no objection to wearing it for a while, especially when he was donning other fancy headgears.

Why was Modi so unwilling? Was it because it would have meant crossing a mental barrier he had set for himself about how far he would go in this endeavour to turn over a new leaf? Or was it because he realised that a picture of him in a skull cap would have marked the first step in effecting a serious breach with his core group of Hindutva supporters?

If the booing of Rahul Gandhi in a hospital is seen by the BJP as the defining moment of recent times, as Arun Jaitley said, Modi’s rejection of the skull cap can be said to be a similar moment where the BJP’s poster boy is concerned. However, irrespective of whether Modi’s change of heart is confirmed or not, what is of greater relevance is not how much he has advanced his chances of becoming prime minister, but the impact of his show of penance on saffron politics.

For a start, it is difficult to see the RSS being overjoyed by this unexpected turn of events, especially when it is the second shock that it has suffered in recent weeks. The earlier one was when Anna Hazare distanced himself from the RSS (and also withdrew his earlier praise of Modi) when he realised the political liability of being seen as a saffron stooge. When Anna and Baba Ramdev began their campaign, the RSS expected to cash in on it, as Sadhvi Rithambara’s presence at the yoga guru’s meeting showed. Now, while Ramdev has faded away, Anna’s rejection of the saffron connection has been compounded by Modi’s pro-Muslim tilt.

But, it is not only the RSS that will have to go in for brainstorming sessions to assess this new development. Its fraternal outfits like the VHP and the Bajrang Dal, and several writers including a few gora ones, will also have to reorient their thinking. A similar exercise will have to be carried out by the fiery netizens whose vituperative onslaughts on the Congress and extolling of Modi will have to be tempered by the latest turn of events.

In fact, the entire communal-minded Hindu middle class will have to go into a collective huddle and individual soul-searching to come to terms with the new reality. Arguably, there will not be a few who will interpret Modi’s overtures as a temporary ploy. But, even then, the jolt to their mindset cannot but be huge. Reared for years in the belief propagated by Savarkar that Muslims and Christians are “aliens” because their holy lands are in foreign countries, and also by Golwalkar’s description of the minorities as “internal threats”, it cannot be easy for communal Hindus to embrace a community which used to be accused of cheering Pakistan during India-Pakistan cricket encounters and breed furiously to reduce Hindus to a minority.

It has to be remembered that for the RSS, the anti-minority worldview is not something that can be switched on and off according to the BJP’s — and, in this case, Modi’s — political requirements. One cannot describe the proposed Ram temple as the “soul” of the party and then not only forget about it, but even be friendly towards those who were described as Babur ki aulad and held responsible for destroying temples in medieval times.
For the RSS, the BJP’s dumping of the pro-Hindu agenda in 1996 to woo secular parties was not only a betrayal, but also the reason for its subsequent electoral setbacks. Now, a similar retreat has been carried out by someone from whom it was totally unexpected. Hence, the bewilderment and disbelief over Modi’s pilgrimage.