‘India's 2019 Elections: BJP's Hindutva Wave and Hindu Nationalism’ book released at IDC Chd
Politics is the only way to resolve the problem created by Politics, says Pro Paul Wallace, USA
Chandigarh ,January 15, 2020 :
Politics create problems and the only way to resolve these is politics; observed by Prof. Paul Wallace, Professor Emeritus at the University of Columbia-Missouri, USA in a book launch event titled as ‘India's 2019 Elections: BJP's Hindutva Wave and Hindu Nationalism’ organised by Institute for Development and Communication (IDC), Chandigarh in association with Chandigarh University (CU), Mohali.
Prof Prof. Paul Wallace addressing the gathering
The book is sixth in the series on India’s elections and first to critically analyse the 17th Lok Sabha Elections held in India in 2019. The book is an amalgamation of region-based case studies on electoral politics in India and critically explores underlying factors such as the absolute dominance of extreme nationalism based on majoritarian religious identity as well as the increased participation of women and the marginalized sections of Indian society.
Mr Gurbachan Jagat, former Governor of Manipur launched the book, along with Dr S. Y. Quraishi, former Chief Election Commissioner of India, and Prof. Pramod Kumar, Director, IDC, Chandigarh on the panel. Mr Gurbachan Jagat underlined that changes in politices and political behaviour do not happen in a Jiffy, it requires insights and tremendous efforts by the contesting political groups.
The legitimization of right wing politics has historically evolved and rooted in consensus amongst political parties on neo-liberal economic reforms, and political parties for electoral alliance did not subscribed to any ideology. But most of the alliances in post globalised economy was on the right side of the politics, said Prof. Pramod Kumar. He gave an example of the alliance between the Congress and the Shiva Sena in Maharashtra in 2019.
The central objective of the session as redefining the secular space was contested and discussed exhaustively, and concern was raised how liberal, rational, nationalist and secular thoughts are being targeted under the right-wing political arena. Most of the expertise emphasises the need to theorise substantive questions pertaining to the contemporary right-wing agenda and kind of political ideology. The concern was also raised about the rise of irrationality, illogical, and non-scientific temperament. It was highlighted that the space of nationalism redefined by BJP is being resisted by a formidable section of society. It was also mentioned that the unfinished business of partition, essence of injured pride and urge for revenge are posing a threat to liberal thinking. There is a need to revisit Gandhian prescription. It was also reiterated that with the introduction of the third interjection that is, constitution; minorities got the license to consolidate their identities in the secular space and appropriation by politics lead to polarisation.
These views expressed by Prof. Harish Puri (Retd., Department of Political Science, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar), Prof. Ujjwal Kumar Singh (Department of Political Science, University of Delhi, New Delhi), (Prof. Ronki Ram Department of Political Science, Panjab University, Chandigarh), Prof. Rajiv Lochan Department of History, Panjab University, Chandigarh), Prof. Lallan Baghel (Department of Philosophy, Panjab University, Chandigarh), Mr Ramesh Vinayak (Resident Editor, Hindustan Times, Chandigarh), and Swaraj Bir Singh (Editor, Punjabi Tribune).