The 2019 Lok Sabha election results have been marked by the poor performance of parties that are perceived to be family-run enterprises. Narendra Modi pilloried the Gandhis for not having worked their way up in politics. By doing so, he tapped into the growing disenchantment with the politics of entitlement — in particular, with political families of ‘social justice’ parties, such as Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal in the north and Janata Dal (Secular) in the south. Today, the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal are staring at a bleak future, having won five, 10 and zero seats this time. Their performance was no less dismal five years ago. On both occasions, they were swept aside by the Modi wave. Their style of politics has also been rejected. Having set out to challenge feudal tendencies in society, they are paying the price for internalising them. While Akhilesh Yadav won from Azamgarh, his wife Dimple Yadav and cousins Dharmendra and Akshay lost. Tejaswi Yadav failed to strike a chord by centering the campaign around his father, Lalu Yadav. In the south, Janata Dal (Secular) won only one seat, as the Gowdas sought to promote themselves over party workers. Chandrababu Naidu’s son lost, as did KC Chandrashekhara Rao’s daughter. In Maharashtra, Ajit Pawar’s son Parth, Shankarrao Chavan’s son Ashok Chavan and Murli Deora’s son Milind Deora lost. It is notable that the DMK has bucked the trend here. What also seems to have worked against these forces is the lack of a vision, whether regional or national, as a counterpoint to Modi’s campaign. This is a pity, because India needs diverse political forces to do justice to its federal, complex polity.

With Amit Shah and Modi at the helm, the BJP has managed to project itself as the mascot for determined, self-made individuals who break out of their socio-economic constraints. They have termed this the New India — impatient with categories of not just caste, but more disconcertingly, ‘secularism’. It is a sizeable force, which identifies with the rugged confidence of the present BJP top leadership; it is, of course, true that local BJP leaders have fielded their kith and kin who have won, riding the Modi wave.

While this is a new subalternism, it does not mean that ‘caste’ as a political category is on the wane. The BJP has, in fact, consolidated its hold on the lower castes whose aspirations were not addressed by traditional social justice parties — this is even as Modi said in his victory address that there were only two castes, ‘the poor and those who serve the poor’. Issues of caste need to be seen through the prism of a young, upwardly mobile society which disregards the politics of entitlement.

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