Why BJP uses divisive ‘Ek Hain Toh Safe Hain’ instead of inclusive ‘Ek Hain Toh Mazboot Hain’

At election time, BJP rolls out its narratives of ‘Aurangzeb,’ ‘Pakistan,’ and ‘love jihad’ with machine-like precision. But like West Bengal, it won't work in Maharashtra.

PM Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, and JP Nadda at BJP HQ | Suraj Singh Bisht, ThePrint

Last week in Maharashtra, the ruling BJP launched a statewide campaign blitz with the slogan: “Ek Hain Toh Safe Hain”—If we are one, we are safe. It appeared in Marathi and English newspapers as well as on campaign posters across the state. The slogan is ambiguous yet also not-so-ambiguous. It’s yet another communal dog whistle or coded message from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

If the idea is to convey a message of national unity, why is the slogan not worded as ‘Ek Hain Toh Mazboot Hain’—If we are one, we are strong? Why use the word “safe”? Safe from whom? Who is threatening our safety? From where is the danger coming?

Make no mistake: this is the same old wearingly shopworn BJP-RSS playbook to somehow suggest that there is a force out there insidiously threatening our collective safety. Such messaging points a finger at mysterious, dangerous “outsiders” and by perverse progression creates a fear psychosis targeted at Muslims.

The slogan comes in the backdrop of brazen religious hate-speak. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who said in 2022 that elections are a contest of “80-20”—seemingly referring to a Hindu majority and Muslim minority—is now declaring “Batenge Toh Katenge”. In Maharashtra, former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has made divisive statements warning of “Vote Jihad,” and made derogatory references to Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. Both leaders have also declared that India will one day capture PoK and Pakistan. The cunningly crafted slogan “Ek Hain Toh Safe Hain” caps a welter of insultingly divisive poll speeches, all once again positioning Muslims as enemies of Bharat.

The BJP’s double-facedness—religious polarisation during elections and a ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’ rhetoric in governance—is hypocritical and shows a condescending approach toward voters. The BJP is convinced that Indian voters simply do not deserve to be informed on how the party intends to tackle price rise, create jobs, or improve crumbling infrastructure.

If the idea is to keep people ‘safe’, what about the safety of the little girls who were sexually assaulted at a school in Badlapur, Maharashtra? If safety is the goal, then what real steps has the BJP government taken to keep citizens safe from train accidents, natural disasters, or collapsing urban infrastructure?

The BJP’s populism is about exploiting a grievance, not solving the problem. The BJP likes to only incite anger, not work toward providing answers. Why has a party oh-so-worried about public safety not dealt with threats to safety until now, given that it is in power at the Centre and in the state? Why is a so-called “powerful” BJP trying to scare citizens and make them feel unsafe?

BJP’s dream of an illusionary ‘Hindu vote bank’

Unfailingly, at election time, the BJP rolls out its narratives of ‘Aurangzeb,’ ‘Pakistan,’ and ‘love jihad’ with machine-like precision. First, the foot soldiers come barreling out, openly calling for hatred. A little-known group, Sakal Hindu Samaj, has been campaigning against “Love Jihad” across Maharashtra. Over the past few years, small riot-like situations have been allowed to erupt in places like Kolhapur and Satara, often triggered by social media posts leading to violence. Once the street warriors have done their part, Modi steps into the divisive churn, unleashing catch-all slogans like “Ek Hain Toh Safe Hain.’ Clever wordplay and artful ambiguities allow Modi to pose as a “statesman” (and keep the law at bay) while lesser netas do the real dirty talking.

Is the BJP’s brand of religious polarisation working? Not entirely. In a country where 80 per cent of the population is Hindu, if Hindu religious sentiments were enough to sway voters, why did the BJP lose the general elections of 2024? Why did the BJP lose Banswara in Rajasthan, where Modi belted out his ‘they-will-steal-your-mangalsutra’ speech, or in Ayodhya, the site of the Ram Mandir? A purely Hindutva-driven agenda doesn’t actually win elections. Modi’s 2014 victory was in no small measure due to his smartly repackaged ‘Development Man’ image. The BJP’s 2019 victory was a result not so much of Hindutva, but of the 2019 Balakot airstrikes against Pakistan and a surge in anti-Pakistan uber-nationalism.

Historically, if the Hindu–Muslim question were truly so politically powerful, wouldn’t the Hindu Mahasabha have dominated electoral politics in the post-Partition years—Partition being the most incendiary ‘communal’ issue after Independence?

If there indeed was a ‘Hindu vote bank’ in the early decades of Independence, given the memories of Partition, wouldn’t a Hindu party like the Jana Sangh have reaped the benefits of polarisation instead of remaining a marginal force? The Jana Sangh was able to taste national power only after 1975, when it aligned with the anti-Emergency movement led by Gandhian socialist Jayaprakash Narayan.

The BJP talks about minority appeasement and the Congress’ so-called “Muslim vote bank,” yet, in election after election, it strains every nerve and deploys every possible tactic to achieve majority appeasement and create its own “Hindu vote bank.”

But the Sangh Parivar knows that a ‘Hindu vote bank’ is maya—an illusion that doesn’t really exist. That’s why, even after a decade in power, the BJP-RSS still has to labour so hard during every election to somehow forge this so-called Hindu vote. The Sangh Parivar is chasing a delusion. In their frustration, they resort to more and more extremist slogans and ever more vicious dog whistles to somehow create the vote bank of their dreams.

If there really was a Hindu vote bank, why was the BJP wiped out for a decade in Uttar Pradesh after the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid, returning to power only in 2017? Yes, Adityanath as a saffron clad “monk” with his communally charged “80-20” politics strikes a chord, but the BJP still lost badly in Uttar Pradesh in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. In West Bengal, the BJP has totally failed in its mission of communal polarisation, losing the assembly election in 2021 and securing a meagre 12 seats in 2024 Lok Sabha despite highly organised attempts to spur communal tensions and incite Hindu-Muslim divides.

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Like Bengal, Maharashtra rejects Hindu-Muslim 

The BJP’s attempt to paint Mamata Banerjee as “anti-Hindu” has flopped pathetically. Deeply embedded in the devotional cults of Kali and Durga and coming from a family of Kalighat temple priests, Banerjee practices a grassroots cultural religiosity as well as organic secular pluralism. Against Banerjee’s rooted authenticity and a Gandhian barefoot liberalism, the BJP’s screechy social media campaigns pose no contest. BJP-style Hindutva mobilisation works only in limited spaces and specific contexts.

Important factors contributing to the BJP’s victories include Modi’s well-packaged personality cult, promises of a “strong,” “nationalist” government, and the energetically publicised “stature” of Modi on the international stage. The BJP also owes its victories to its armies of election workers and its laser-focused micro-management of constituencies. In the recent Haryana assembly election, it was not so much a ‘Hindu vote bank’ but rather the Jat–non-Jat divide and the BJP’s local-level crafty election scheming that swung things in the BJP’s favour. The so-called ‘Hindu vote bank’ has not worked in Tamil Nadu, a state comprising highly pious and devotional Hindu communities. The ‘Hindu vote bank’ did not work in Karnataka in 2023. The ‘Hindu vote bank’ works only partially in Bihar, where the BJP won in 2024 largely due to its alliance with the locally-rooted Nitish Kumar-led JDU and Chirag Paswan’s LJP.

Thus, Hindu-Muslim hate speech and casting Muslims as the “enemy” is not a guaranteed election winner. Yet, this strategy remains the BJP’s default mode of electioneering. In Maharashtra, BJP leaders talk of the reformist and progressive legacies of Shahu Maharaja, Jyotiba Phule, and BR Ambedkar, harking to Shahu’s progressive policies, Phule’s anti-caste crusade, and Ambedkar’s modernist egalitarianism. Shahu-Phule-Ambedkar form Maharashtra’s progressive Trimurti, all three figures exemplifying a radical challenge to traditionalist rigidities. But, in the same breath as BJP leaders evoke Shahu-Phule- Ambedkar, they go hell for leather with slogans like ‘Love Jihad,’ ‘Vote Jihad,’ ‘Batenge Toh Katenge,’ ‘Aurangzeb,’ and ‘Ek Hain Toh Safe Hain.’ Perhaps the Sangh’s calculation is that religious hate speech will keep its core vote galvanised. After all, Modi’s politics at its core is about casting Muslims as the national enemy—a strategy that won windfalls for the BJP in polarised Gujarat.

But will casting Muslims as the enemy work in Maharashtra, where they make up only 11 per cent of the population and are hardly considered a threat? Maharashtra is not a state with open borders, and paranoias about Rohingyas or “infiltration” by “illegal foreigners” cannot be easily ratcheted up.

In this open season for hate speech, the elephant in the room is the Election Commission. The so-called election watchdog continues to turn a blind eye to the blatant flouting of constitutional norms by the BJP and the hate speeches by Narendra Modi. The Congress has lodged a formal complaint with the Election Commission regarding Modi’s speeches in both Maharashtra and Jharkhand. But so far, the EC has uttered not a word of censure. In 2022, the Election Commission wanted to debate ‘revdi’ culture and called for parties to disclose how much was being spent on sops. Yet, this time, as the BJP doles out freebies like Ladki Bahin Yojana, giving Rs 1,500 per month to women in Maharashtra, the EC remains as silent as a tomb.

A torrent of violent, polarising language targeting religious minorities is pouring unabated from the BJP in the Maharashtra Assembly election. Will Maharashtra remain “safe” from this Hindu-Muslim toxicity and uphold its Shahu-Phule-Ambedkar inheritance? Or will the state fall into the ‘Ek Hain Toh Safe Hain’ religious polarisation trap that West Bengal so spiritedly rejected?

Sagarika Ghose is a Rajya Sabha MP, All India Trinamool Congress. She tweets @sagarikaghose. Views are personal.

(Edited by Prashant)