Thoughts on "conservative politics" in India

The base of H-Right is motivated by religious insecurity, H-Rashtra urges, minority appeasement

Policy wonks on the Right want economic reform, institutional reform

These two planks don't come together in the BJP

Sharp contrast to US, where the intellectual ecosystem of the Republican party embraces both the social conservatism of the Christian Right and the Reaganite policies with respect to governance / economy

Until Trump emerged, at least

So if you take a conservative think tank like Hoover Institution in US, it connects to the Republican Party in both ways

A TV show hosted by Hoover - Uncommon Knowledge - embraces not just libertarian economics, but also social conservatism

The two converge in a common eco-system

But in India, the two don't talk to each other.

The H-Right's linkage with the body politic is fairly strong
But the policy wonks on the Right have no political affiliation to the BJP

So in terms of policy, the government has no "conservative" slant.

For H-Right, their H-Rashtra urges (however legitimate) cannot result in policy decisions

Because H-Rashtra is too remote from the current constitutional reality

On matters of policy, H-Right has not much to say. Except groans about "revising textbooks", freeing temples etc

On all other matters, the policy is completely non-ideological

Social conservatism independent of H-M tussles is a non-starter in India

Because ours is already a v religious, conservative society

Unlike US, where there are debates over whether gays should raise children or whether Transgenders should have bathrooms for themselves

So social conservatism independent of H-causes has no political case for it

What you are left with is H-rhetoric, which cannot translate to policy except perhaps a more muscular nationalism (which is a good thing in my view)

So H-nationalism on the ground translates primarily to that -

A more muscular hawkish stance on defense, foreign policy and internal security (which I fully support)

But not much else.

For rest of the policy, you need an ideological vision

The H-Right had that wide-ranging vision at one point

Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and his "Integral Humanism"

But the current BJP has drifted too far from that

Nor has it embraced the views espoused by policy wonks on the Right

Some points in this thread triggered by a conversation with @akshayalladi