Five years ago, the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party promised itself 300 plus seats. It got 303. This year, Modi’s party is vying for 400 seats, going to town with the ‘Ab Ki Baar 400 Paar’ slogan. This can be read as the chutzpah of a party that sets impossible tasks for itself, and, going by records, often achieves them. Or the grand delusion that often comes with enjoying 10 years of uninterrupted power at the Centre–like the Congress’ aspiration for a third term in 2014. Or, perhaps, it’s one of those psyops techniques political parties use to disarm rivals before polls.
The answer may be none of the above, but a pledge the Hindu Right took almost 73 years ago to trounce Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s idea of India and promote the idea of Bharat instead.
Whether it is ‘Ab Ki Baar 400 Paar’ or the supplementary slogan of ‘Congress-Mukt Bharat’ that preceded it, the BJP under Prime Minister Modi may simply be fulfilling an old challenge that Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee threw at Nehru: “I will crush this crushing mentality”.
Old scars, new balms
Leafing through the dog-eared pages of history books often helps contextualise today’s political happenings. Take the example of the abrogation of Article 370. According to the Hindu Right, Mookerjee sacrificed his life for the Sangh’s One India vision as he rejected the idea of ‘Do Nishan, Do Vidhan, Do Pradhan’ (two flags, two legislations and two heads)’ for Jammu and Kashmir.
In 1952, Mookerjee, who was then the president of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and an elected MP, declared at a gathering in Jammu: “I will get you the Indian Constitution or lay down my life for it.” He travelled to Jammu and Kashmir without a permit in May 1953, got arrested by the Sheikh Abdullah government, and was declared dead a few days after his detainment on 23 June 1953. The Jana Sangh then and the BJP now never forgot that sacrifice.
“From Bharatiya Jana Sangh to Bharatiya Janata Party, June 23 has been celebrated not just as a death anniversary of Dr. Mukherjee, but as well a day of resolution to abrogate Article 370 from the Constitution. In every manifesto, the declaration of Dr. Mukherjee of abrogating the Constitution’s temporary Article 370 was affirmed,” wrote Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) mouthpiece Organiser Weekly on 23 June 2020, Mookerjee’s 67th death anniversary.
It took 66 years and the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, who had, on the occasion of Republic Day in 1992, hoisted the tricolour at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk with Murali Manohar Joshi, for the abrogation of Article 370 from the Constitution. “We can proudly tell the people of our country as well as the world that we did it for what the great nationalist Dr Mukherjee sacrificed his life for,” Organiser Weekly wrote in its 2020 article.
A senior RSS idealogue – who does not wish to be named – told me that many political observers incorrectly assume the BJP’s decisions are dictated heavily by the whims and fancies of PM Modi. “The RSS has a vast repository of historical memory and the patience to wait for decades to see old ideas bear fruition. Many big political moves that you see today, thanks to our bench strength in Parliament and Modi’s iron resolve, are decisions taken decades ago,” he said. Thus, the slogan for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections may well have been influenced by a past fight many forgot.
Also read: ‘Abki baar, 400 paar’ is no mere slogan. It’s crucial to Modi’s agenda if he gets third term
‘Crush the crushing mentality’
India held its first national election between 25 October 1951 and 21 February 1952. Out of a total of 489 seats, the Indian National Congress, under the leadership of Nehru, won 364 Lok Sabha seats, while the Bharatiya Jana Sangh got only three seats.
Syama Prasad Mookerjee was one of the three, having won from the South Calcutta constituency. As the elected leader of the National Democratic Party in Parliament, Mookerjee made it a habit to take on Nehru. Things came to pass when on 12 May 1951, Nehru introduced the First Amendment to the Constitution of India in Parliament.
Nehru pointed to Mookerjee and said: “Jana Sangh is a communal party. I will crush Jana Sangh.” To this, Mookerjee replied, “My friend Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru says that he will crush Jana Sangh, I say I will crush this crushing mentality.”
Prafulla Ketkar, editor of Organiser Weekly, told me that the amendment restricted certain fundamental rights including the freedom of speech. “Nehru, who is faultily regarded as a great liberal, was challenged by Dr Mookerjee, and the prime minister’s illiberal attitude towards a different political belief system was out in the open. The same illiberal attitude has dogged Indian politics for decades,” he said.
The Bharatiya Jana Sangh and its later avatar, the BJP, never forgot Mookerjee’s challenge to Nehru. Ketkar, though, says it was more than just a challenge; it was a clash of fundamentals. “His ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech told us Nehru wanted a new nation. Mookerjee and the Hindu Right have always held the belief that there can be a new state but never a new nation. India that is Bharat has a civilisational continuity from 5,000 years ago,” Ketkar said.
Many big decisions that Modi took in the last 10 years, from the abrogation of Article 370 to the Citizenship Amendment Act, the abolition of triple talaq to the Ayodhya Pran Pratishtha, cater to the idea of an India that refuses to snap its umbilical cord with Bharat.
‘Ab Ki Baar 400 Paar’ therefore, may well be a battle cry from 73 years ago to replace the idea of Nehru’s India with the idea of Bharat. And avenge Mookerjee.
Deep Halder is an author and journalist. He tweets @deepscribble. Views are personal.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)
Very informative. Never knew this story. Keep it up, Deep!