The exception may prove the rule but it must not shape the overcome their fears and

overcome their fears and occupy more rather than less public
law. Fast track courts are welcome, but certainly not the death spaces, the streets, the buses, whether during the day or at night.
penalty, which is not a just form of punishment in principle, and Striving for a different public culture is part of the larger battle
in practice will, legal scholars say, only lower the conviction rate against forms of power, both everyday and exceptional.
further below its dismal current level of 2%. Of course, responses But above all, we must continue the struggle to understand
to such violence must go beyond the legal. Women and men that which defies our understanding - however tentative,
must recognise the rarity of this particular crime. Women need to incomplete or frail our reasoning may seem.

Gujarat and Himachal Elections

While the results were on expected lines , the threat to a progressive politics has only been strengthened.

with corporate interests. Through the last three decades, the

was Narendra Modi's defeat on the horizon of possibilities. bjp has failed every time it has tried to use Hindutva to win in
The was Even GujaratEvenNarendra the Congress
the Congress only spokeelections
of reducingModi'Modi's only have defeat spoke played on of the reducing out horizon to the Modi's of script. possibilities. margin Never
s margin Himachal. It has succeeded only when it has highlighted the
of victory. With the unexpectedly large turnout of voters during acts of omission and commission of the Congress government
the first phase of polling which covered Saurashtra and south and given people of that state some hope that it will provide
Gujarat, some uncertainty crept into post-poll assessments. In an alternative. This time it tried the Modi formula of combin-

the event the higher turnout was a non-factor. Modi's win was ing Hindutva with a development plank which involved hand-
always assured. (It is important to speak in terms of Narendra ing over the state's natural resources to corporate profits.
Modi rather than the Bharatiya Janata Party for in Gujarat the Particularly galling for the people has been the corruption
party is only an appendage of Modi.) which this crony capitalism has engendered as well as the sell-
That the Gujarat elections were less about the state and more out of important sectors like education, where more than a
about Narendra Modi's preparation to foist himself on the b jp as dozen private universities were opened with the promise of
its prime ministerial candidate for 2014 has now almost turned quality education but were mostly real estate scams. The pro-
into a fact. It was assumed that Modi had already turned prietary peasantry of the state, which has managed to find a
himself into a "national" leader, as distinct from the other bjp footing for itself in the new economy through horticulture and
chief ministers and if only Modi could manage to maintain his summer vegetables, found little support from the bjp as it
party's strength in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly it would pursued its neo-liberal economic plan. The vote for the Congress,
give him a clear path to leadership of the bjp. Given that the which remains discredited in its policies and leadership, is
bjp has maintained its position - the loss of two seats being hardly a positive vote but rather a protest against the bjp. What
marginal - this part of the script too is being played out. The is unfortunate is that despite a seemingly united effort, the left
victory speech delivered by Modi after the results were announced forces have not been able to use this opportunity to make a
was focused less on the Gujarat electorate and was more of an breakthrough in Himachal.
"address to the nation". Thus the language too was Hindi! Gujarat too has remained impervious to attempts at breaking
However, as has always been recognised, Modi's ascent to the Modi's stranglehold. This is largely because his opponents have
national stage will only go to further polarise the political scene not been able to bring together a political alliance of social
and make it that much more difficult for the bjp to add allies to classes and communities which can defeat the two-decade-old
its National Democratic Alliance. social bloc of rich peasants and urban capital, both petit and
The aggressive Hindutva couched in a faux language of deve-
monopoly. No amount of appeals to people's good sense and ex-
lopment, which is Modi's unique selling point in Gujarat and
posing Modi's hollow claims and fascistic character - all true -
which has helped him weld the anti-KHAM (kshatriya, harijan
will work in the absence of such an alternative political alliance.
The large number of people who are malnourished, who are
[dalit], adivasi and Muslim) social alliance led by the rich peas-
losing land, who are marginalised from power and economic
ant Patel community, will not work outside the sociopolitical
opportunities and who are socially discriminated against belong
specificity of Gujarat. As L K Advani with his "hardline" Hindutva
of the Rath Yatra and A B Vajpayee with his "moderate"to classes, castes and communities. The Congress lacks the
vision or ability to weld these groups into a political bloc and
Hindutva of literary flourishes both found to their despair, there
is yet no nationwide identity-based political mobilisation which
the tragedy of Gujarat, as in Himachal and most of the country,
is that progressive forces are either too weak or clueless about
can sustain the bjp in power. What works in one or a few states
unravels in others and becomes a handicap. how to forge such alternative political alliances of social groups.
The country's heterogeneity has not allowed fascists and ty-
Thus, Modi's successful formula in Gujarat failed earlier this
rants to survive outside small enclaves, but it would be a dan-
year in mobilising any support for the bjp in Uttar Pradesh and
it has not rescued the party's government in Himachal Pradesh
gerous folly to assume that this benign reality will forever remain
from popular anger against its corruption and close alignment
impervious to the battering ram of Hindutva.

8 DECEMBER 29, 2012 vol XLVii no 52 Economic & Political weekly

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