Modi 3.0

There is no doubt that Narendra Modi’s second era as prime minister openly supported the Hindutva agenda of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a paramilitary, right-wing volunteer Hindu organisation founded in 1925 to protect Hindu values and culture in India. In 1970, Narendra Modi became a full-time member and campaigner of the RSS, and in 1976, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a newly formed political wing of the RSS.

Having a two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha, Narendra Modi’s second era, referred to as Modi 2.0, utilised the entire state machinery to advance the Hindutva agenda, which badly hurt the interests of Indian minorities, especially Muslims. Thus, there was a serious concern among secular-minded Indians and minorities as to whether Modi would again get a strong mandate in the 2024 elections to advance his Hindutva ambitions at full pelt.

Abhaya Srivastava, an Indian writer, says although Prime Minister Modi’s third-term win in the 2024 elections is not a landslide victory, the NDA’s 293 seats won out of 543 elected seats (including BJP’s 240 seats) still provides the mandate to power his Hindu nationalist agenda forward.

Shivasunder, an Indian columnist, says with the NDA’s 293 seats, Modi has comfortably formed his government with the full support of the TDP and the JD (U), getting maximum ministries and the important ones, like foreign affairs, defence, internal, finance, and parliamentary affairs. So, it is clear that the Modi 3.0 government will work with the same arrogance to advance its Hindutva agenda.

The fact that the Naidu-led TDP and the Nitish-led JD (U) are ideologically or politically not against Modi’s BJP’s neoliberal Hindutva policies also indicates that Modi 3.0 is in a firm position to continue with its authoritarian rule and pro-Hindutva agenda unchallenged.

The post-poll survey of the CSDS, an Indian research institute for social sciences and humanities, also reveals that the votes of some lower-class Hindus went to the opposition due to the rising inflation and unemployment and not because of Modi’s pro-Hindutva policies, the Hindutva hegemony over their perception is intact.

Also, Modi’s supporters and critics equally agree that despite the BJP’s electoral loss in 2024, Modi has successfully managed to stay in power by making Hindu nationalism acceptable and desirable, hence ensuring the BJP’s enduring place in Indian politics.

Modi retains strong electoral support in India because of his successful economic and foreign policies. He also gave the Indians the aspiration to make Hindu India a major world economy, a major power, and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

Given the above, Modi 3.0 will vigorously pursue the RSS’s Hindutva agenda, as nobody has done more. “Modi is 100% an ideological product of the RSS,” says Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, who wrote a biography of Narendra Modi. “He has delivered their goals,” according to Mukhopadhyay.

In the last ten years, Modi, as the PM, emerged as an aggressive champion of the country’s majority faith, and he quietly supported the RSS pro-Hindu and anti-minorities agenda, especially against Muslims and Christians.

In 2019, the Modi government revoked the special status of the UNSC-recognized Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. It divided the state into two federally controlled union territories that violated UNSC resolutions. To crush the Kashmiris’ freedom struggle and opposition to this law, the Indian security forces have committed countless atrocities on the Kashmiri Muslims.