How 'Welfarism' is ideologically congruent to BJP's intellectual tradition

The reduction in allocation for NREGA in the Union Budget has come under criticism from commentators. This has led many to claim that the government has stymied social sector spending and is dismantling welfare provisioning. However, the commentary ignores that the cut comes on the back of increased allocations during the last three years accommodating an extraordinary situation created due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying increase in provisioning for various programmes such as Jal Jeevan Mission and PM Awas Yojana.   Rather than pushing welfarism to the margin, the budget reflects policy continuity. There is little doubt that welfarism remains a central pillar of the Modi government’s development policy. The repeated apprehensions about welfarism under the Modi government essentially stem from a narrow conceptualisation of the Indian Right’s outlook towards welfare provisioning and development.   Welfarism is Ideologically congruent to BJP  Though welfarism under the Modi government represents ideological coherence and continuity, it continues to be considered by observers as “puzzling”. This belies the BJP and its predecessor Bharatiya Jana Sangh’s (BJS) consistent emphasis on the need for state-led welfare provisioning. Here are a few instances over the last seven decades.   In 1965, the Jana Sangh declared its official philosophy at the twelfth Plenary Session in Vijaywada. The document clearly states that “social welfare programmes must be undertaken which could provide certain basic services free to every citizen.”   More than three decades later, the BJP’s Chennai Declaration in 1999 reiterated its commitment to welfare of people at the bottom of the pyramid. The Jana Sangh’s first manifesto in 1951 declared that it was “not wedded to any isms” and was willing to “take any action” to ensure food, clothing, and shelter for all.   Nearly seven decades later in 2019, the BJP re-emphasised its commitment to work for the “welfare of the poorest”. The BJP’s consistent commitment to welfare provisioning is also captured in a recent analysis of party manifestos since 1952 by the Delhi based Centre for Policy Research.   In their book on ideological divide in Indian politics, Pradeep Chhibber and Rahul Verma highlight that parties due to the overwhelming demographic composition of low income households in India, there is a “widespread agreement that the state should act on behalf of the poor and create a policy framework that encourages state aid to the poor”.   It is surprising that the BJP’s objections to the UPA’s rights based approach has been misconstrued as a rejection of welfare provisioning. In reality, there is not only a consensus on the objective i.e. eliminating poverty and creating a just and fair society but also on the fact that fulfilling this objective is primarily the state’s responsibility.   The MGNREGA or any other government programmes are mere ‘vehicles’ for achieving this overarching economic objectives. Similarly, one could argue whether the insurance based Ayushman Bharat scheme of the Modi government that relies on both private and public infrastructure is the most effective approach for healthcare provisioning. However, disagreement over the most effective strategy should not be misinterpreted as a rejection of the ultimate objective itself.  BJP’s Welfarism is not a borrowed concept In fact, it would be incorrect to claim that the BJP or its predecessor merely borrowed the concept of welfarism from the Left or Socialist philosophy. Rather, the Indian Right has held an independent perspective on welfare provisioning and state support for the poorest. For instance, the BJP founder and ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya laid out the concept of Antyodaya i.e. no one should be left behind, a foundational principle adopted by the BJP as well. In his lectures on Integral Humanism in 1965, Deendayal Upadhyaya mentioned certain objectives that should shape the country’s economy. The list began with an assurance of minimum standard of living for all. Many limit the BJP’s welfarism to electoral mobilisation and criticised the party for considering citizens as passive recipients i.e. Laabharthis (beneficiaries) of publicly provided private goods rather than according rights over state led welfare. This myopic view ignores that welfarism has been embedded as an objective and as a policy instrument in the role of the state since ancient times in India. In Mahabharata’s Shanti Parva, Bheeshma enjoins upon the king that  the arrangements for the security and maintenance of the poor, the helpless, the old and the widowed women should always be made (Mah. 12.86.24). Kautilya in his Arthashastra declares it unequivocally “In the happiness of the people lies the happiness of the king,  their welfare is his welfare. ” (Art. 1.19.34). Thus, the welfare policies of the BJP and the government follow a continuous ‘civilisational perspective’ on the role of the state in putting all round welfare of the people, front and centre. An outcome oriented approach The BJP and RSS’s broader approach as an organisation has always been outcome oriented, on matters of welfare and economic upliftment rather than being dogmatic. Despite the Prime Minister’s sharp remarks on NREGA in the Parliament in 2014, the government did not hesitate in effectively relying on the programme to ameliorate economic distress in rural India during the Covid crisis.   The budgetary allocation for MGNREGA was raised from Rs. 33,000 crores to Rs. 36, 967 crores in 2015-16 and it kept on increasing consistently to as high as Rs. 98,000 crores during the peak of COVID pandemic in 2021-22. Similarly, realising the merits of Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT), the Modi government did not hesitate in carrying forward the UPA’s efforts. In its first year itself, a concerted approach was adopted which started with opening crores of bank accounts under the Jan Dhan Yojana. This laid the foundation for shifting the welfare schemes to DBT and plugging thousands of crores of leakages.   The debate over BJPs intent behind Welfarism is an important reminder about the limitations of viewing Indian politics through Western binaries - Socialism versus Neoliberalism, conservative party versus liberal party. In some sense, the BJP’s approach defies straight-forward characterisation into the binary of Left and Right-wing economic thought as conceptualised in the west. For an accurate understanding of political realities, we must formulate concepts and categories that are based on contextual realities. Pranav Gupta is a doctoral candidate at University of California, Berkeley; Omkar Joshi is a Research Scholar at the Department of Sociology and Maryland Population Research Center University of Maryland; Kartikeya Reddy studies at Ashoka University. Views expressed are personal.  Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.