The BJP use Hindutva to hide India's poor economic performance

The argument

The argument turns on a gap between promise and delivery. Modi's economic miracle has failed to materialize and India's economy has lost its lustre, with large-scale youth unemployment occurring amidst the collapse of individual political rights. The BJP's economic record is mixed, and Modi's soaring ambitions for the country sit in stark relief to his government's underwhelming performance. Hopes of the BJP revitalizing the economy have faded and India has lost its top slot as the world's fastest-growing economy, a loss that matters politically as well as economically, because that status had been offered as proof the strategy was working. The specifics are presented as measurement rather than impression. Unemployment rates hit a 46-year high of 6.6% in 2018, despite the government's emphasis on economic growth and employment, which is the awkward part for the government: the failure came in the area it had chosen to be judged on. Most of India remains rural and the rural sector is particularly suffering, so the shortfall is concentrated where most people live. Projects that have absorbed large quantities of government money, such as cleaning up the Ganges, have seen few results, suggesting the problem lies in delivery rather than only in circumstance. The electoral consequence establishes the motive the argument imputes. The major losses in five state elections in previous BJP strongholds were attributed to the rising cost of living and unemployment, so the party has direct evidence that its economic record is costing it support. Proponents of this position argue that the response has not been to repair the record but to change the subject: the BJP have returned to their old, divisive identity politics to distract from this failure to deliver on the faster economic growth, jobs and opportunities that were promised in the 2014 election campaign. Using Hindutva as cover for that failure is, on this view, what makes the party dangerous.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Defenders of the BJP reply that its electoral success rests on more than distraction — welfare delivery, infrastructure programmes and formidable organisation — and that treating Hindutva purely as a smokescreen underestimates its sincere ideological base and broad popular support. They dispute the causal claim, noting the party won a large national re-election in 2019 amid the same economic figures, so identity politics cannot simply be a cover for failure at the polls. Critics of the argument add that unemployment and growth statistics are contested and cyclical, and that attributing voters' choices to manipulation denies agency to the millions who back the party.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P2] The BJP won a large national re-election in 2019 amid the same economic figures, so its identity politics cannot be explained simply as a cover for electoral failure. [Rejecting P3] Treating Hindutva as mere distraction underestimates its sincere ideological base and the party's welfare and infrastructure record, and denies agency to the voters who support it.