Thread by @gauravsabnis

There is no difference. Modi is basically BJP and vice versa. He is not an opportunitic anomaly like Trump or Bolsonaro. Modi is a lifelong swayamsevak and is like he was made in a lab by the BJP ideology.

https://twitter.com/JaeyeB/status/1408069593436856320

And they have a deep bench. I've seen many IIM dudes go from being reluctant "modi cos TINA" guys in 2014 to full fledged "modi is too soft, we need yogi" this year. That's how fascism spreads. It is often waiting under the surface like cicadas. They're out now.

That is why there was a big #NeverTrump movement in the republican party but there is no such #NeverModi or #NeverYogi thing in the BJP other than maybe yashwant sinha. There can be no indian lincoln project.

There is no other nicer kinder benevolent BJP out there. This is what the sangh has been for a century.

The way to save india is worry less about modi, who is 71 anyway, and more about the BJP as a whole.

This. Vajpayee seems like a moderate now and was generally great at selling the genial uncle persona but remember, he was held back by centrist coalition partners. Once even kicked out of office by one. If he had Modi's majority, he'd be same.

https://twitter.com/BabaGlocal/status/1408098190394642432?s=19

Vajpayee created Modi. Modi used to be a Sambit Patra in 20 years ago. No experience in governing. Just RSS work and screaming on TV channels. Vajpayee promoted him overnight to Gujarat CM. And kept him on even after the pogrom. Just made sad faces. But kept him on.

Then Modi used his only real skill, news cycle manipulation, and fooled the world into thinking he was some awesome administrator because Gujarat, already one of the wealthiest and business heavy states, became wealthier during the general indian economic growth of the 00s.

The thing is, india itself would have probably kept growing if he'd just left the economy alone like MMS did. He actively scuttled a soaring economy with demon, aadhaar, gst, CAA, and now covid. And has made bigotry and jingoism very mainstream. Vajpayee would have too.

Vajpayee just did not have these majorities. Everything modi and shah are doing is THE bjp philosophy. Not just a Modi thing.

And Bisht or Pragya or Surya are NOT some fringe extremists. They are all lifelong BJP. And the product of that odious philosophy and its next generation. Stop trying to find a genial nicer bjp.

In fact Modi *was* created in a lab because that's what the RSS is. A lab to create committed lifelong hindu nazis. It is not a 2014 thing. It's a 1925 thing. Modi never held a real job until Gujarat CM. His daily bread was from the RSS. That's by design. As is being single.

I grew up in brahmin heavy pune and I know many many such people like modi, bisht, pragya whose entire life has been about RSS. And they were considered like heroes or saints in living rooms where savarkar is more revered than ambedkar. Dedicating life to rss, wow so noble. 🙄🙄

The being single thing is important because brahmacharya is a core RSS tenet. It creates this "selfless hardworking non corrupt leader" myth and gives them a different halo in a polity full of dynasties. Like see modi and yogi have no one they will hoard money for.

The scope and sophistication of the RSS is not just logistical and financial. It's primarily ideological. For huge chunks of the population, working with RSS, part time or full time, is considered like selfless noble "nation building" stuff.

American maga fascists have nothing equivalent. Why Trumpism doesn't really have a bench beyond junior and Tucker. Plus honestly, american conservatives are, well, generally trying to conserve what they had a century ago, not remake America too much.

This current Trumpy phase is dangerous and I am not trying to minimize it. I am just saying the RSS/BJP are way more dangerous and efficient than pretty much any neo fascist. Cos RSS isn't "neo" fascist. It's the only OG fascist movement from the 1920s in the main stream.

When a sanghi goes all "shouldn't throw around words like nazi or fascist 😠😠", he's not objecting to the philosophy we are equating them with. He's upset because in 21st century, they are bad words. They happily self identified as fascists originally.

This phase is the culmination of a century of that philosophy and it finally got the power that for years looked elusive. And they ain't giving it up without burning the house down.

In one of his podcasts, Steve Bannon, the midwife of trumpism held up the RSS as the role model for what he wants to create in the US. A cadre based organization that makes the individual irrelevant.