Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s latest ‘partner switch’, from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), has prompted speculation of a new ‘social justice’ front against Hindutva ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election. ‘Social justice’ stood for politics that sought better representation and empowerment for lower caste communities. The mobilisation of weaker communities challenged and defeated the Congress first, and slowed down the totalising drive of Hindutva later, in the heartland States of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Success in reaching out
The success of Narendra Modi has been in the remaking of Hindutva, blunting its upper caste image and reaching out to a wider spectrum of Hindu communities. The BJP today is a subaltern party that mixes cultural rhetoric, welfare and empowerment. Still, there is euphoria in the anti-BJP camp following the formation of the new coalition in Bihar because the same coalition had defeated the BJP in the 2015 Bihar Assembly election, on a social justice platform. The question, therefore, is whether a revival of social justice politics is possible, yet again, as a counter to Hindutva.
