“Jugalbandi: The BJP before Modi” is a fantastic read for anyone interested in a thoroughly argued analysis of the BJP’s trajectory until a little after 2004. Vinay Sitapati, the author, writes in a lively, storytelling fashion which makes the book an easy read. He places LK Advani and AB Vajpayee at the centre of his narration, terming them a jugalbandi. He justifies the title of the book by bringing to the fore the fact that both of them served under each other, being both partners and rivals at the same time. He delves into the personal lives of either person, balancing anecdotes with a dose of analysis. In short, this book has little to no gossip. He plots their course across the political landscape, charting their rise and fall, taking the reader through a myriad of political events and eras. In popular Indian memory, the Nehru Era, the Indira Gandhi period, Rajiv Gandhi’s time in power, and Narasimha Rao’s Machiavellian manoeuvres are most vividly remembered. These events and periods are punctuated by extraordinary circumstances such as the Emergency, assassinations, wars, and economic reforms. Vinay Sitapati pulls the blinds aside to explore how the BJP was navigating its way through these extraordinary times.
The author does not waste words on gossip, but instead makes good use of news reports, interviews, and other available information to sketch the RSS, its relations with the Sangh Parivar and makes interesting points about its role in politics such as its support to Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi when they felt the Congress was acting in favour of the Hindus. What makes these points interesting is that the RSS, when it speaks of itself, claims to have nothing to do with politics. He provides credible evidence, in purely academic terms, to support his view that the RSS had a role to play; however, in contrast to the popular conception that the BJP is an organ of the RSS, he paints the two as individual organizations belonging to the same ideological fraternity of Hindu Nationalism.
The discussion about Hindu Nationalism brings us to the academic content of the book. The author, while seeming to narrate a story, makes academic arguments regarding the concept of Hindu nationalism. He lists the prerequisites for the formation of a nationalist ideology – a notion of territory, a people to populate the territory, and most importantly a theory of politics. The Hindu Nationalist notion of politics, he argues, is the product of democracy – of elections. His argument finds its basis in the fact that the Indian sub-continent, housing Hindus – who form 80% of its total population, proved to be fertile ground for the germination of the RSS’ ideology of Hindu nationhood. He argues that Hindu anxiety of being victimized coupled with a one-person-one-vote format of elections, set in that context of a Hindu majority, gave rise to the Hindu strain of nationalism. To bolster the validity of his arguments, he opposes the view that the BJP is a fascist organization by pointing to the BJP’s behaviour when faced with electoral defeat – a quiet acceptance of the results. He also counters the view that the BJP’s electoral performance hinges on its performance in matters of the economy by providing evidence of the BJP bringing more continuity and not change to the economic order. The author ends his narration, and therefore the book, by stating in his final chapter that the RSS-BJP’s obsession with staying united, and that alone, made it a credible alternative to the Congress while other parties broke down on account of infighting; to quote the author himself: “The secret sauce of the BJP, as well as the RSS, was their unbending focus on unity.”
The Thinking Plebeian 