The people of India, through their votes, have told Narendra Modi and the BJP firmly that they disapprove of the politics of hatred and division any more. That is why they did not give the BJP a majority, although the impressive performance of its allies like TDP and JDU can save Narendra Modi and the BJP from being thrown out of power. BJP's defeat in UP, the epicentre of communalism and the politics of hatred is a warning to the saffron party that there is a limit to communal politics. BJP's defeat in the Faizabad constituency, within which comes Ayodhya, gives an important lesson that Lord Ram will not tolerate any more exploiting his name for political purposes.

The 18th Lok Sabha election witnessed a cauldron full of hate speeches and dog-whistling, and all credit for this infamous achievement goes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Although spreading falsehood and hatred against Muslims and Christians has been a strategy of the Sangh Parivar to polarise Hindu votes in favour of the BJP, the credit for weaponising hate speech goes to Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. Narendra Modi started specialising in it while he was the chief minister of Gujarat and enhanced his expertise in this art of hate-spilling during the last decade when he was the prime minister.

The usually soft-spoken and erudite former prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, was forced to send an open letter chastising Modi for vitiating communal harmony with his hate-filled speeches. "No prime minister in the past has uttered such hateful, unparliamentary and coarse words meant to target either a specific section of the society or the opposition…" he wrote. He also added that it was now our duty to save our "beloved nation" from these forces of discord, which is what the people of India have done through this election.

As soon as PM Modi finished electioneering before the last phase of the election, he flew to Kanyakumari for his highly publicised meditation on the rock of Swami Vivekananda, with TV cameras recording every moment of this latest spiritual tour. He shared the result of his spiritual rumination with the people of India in the form of an article, "New Sankalps from the Sadhana in Kanyakumari", published in many national and regional newspapers on June 2, 2024.

The prominent ideas expressed by PM Modi in his article are the unity and oneness of the universe, the confluence of thoughts in India, Bharat's governance becoming a model to many countries, lifting 25 million people above poverty, building a Vikasit Bharat by 2025, and dedicating the next 25 years solely to nation-building. Nothing new or creative has come out of his contemplation for 48 hours. The PM has repeated all these ideas several times in his speeches and mann ki baat.

"The confluence of thoughts" is a word not often found in the mouth of the PM. "Kanyakumari is the land of confluences. "The sacred rivers of our country flow into different seas, and here, those very seas are believed to converge. And here we witness another great confluence - the ideological confluence of Bharat! Here, we find the Vivekananda Rock Memorial, a great statue of Saint Thiruvallur, Gandhi Mandapam, and Kamarajar Mani Mandapam. These streams of thought of these stalwarts converge here to form a confluence of national thought. This gives rise to great inspirations for nation-building", wrote the PM.

Unfortunately, the PM did not extend the idea of "confluence" to India's diversity of cultures and religions. India has been a land of diversity, and today, India is the result of a confluence of thoughts, cultures, and beliefs. The syncretic nature of the essence of India is expressed in the Upanishadic saying, "Eekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti" (Truth is one, and the wise perceive it differently). Swami Vivekananda highlighted this in his iconic speech at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago in 1893.

Swami Vivekananda emphasised the importance of religious tolerance, universal acceptance, and the idea that all religions lead to the same truth. Vivekananda spoke against sectarianism and fanaticism and called for a harmonious coexistence of different faiths. "We believe not only in universal toleration but we also believe that all religions are true", said Vivekananda. "Sectarianism, bigotry and its horrible descendant fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, and drenched it often, and often with human blood, destroyed civilisation and sent whole nations to despair", he noted. Modi and the BJP have a terrible habit of appropriating national icons like Swami Vivekananda, Sardar Patel, B R Ambedkar, etc., without accepting their pluralistic vision for India. Going for meditation on the rock of Swami Vivekananda was an attempt to appropriate a saint who always opposed communalism and religious fanaticism.

Reflecting on the musings of PM Modi, the introspection of his ten years of rule, particularly his electioneering style and the content of his speeches, should have been more serious. His dream of India would have gone beyond Viksit Bharat if he had a genuine meditation or introspection. He would have dreamt of a Viksit Bharat along with a socially and religiously harmonious Bharat and a Bharat as envisioned in the preamble of the Indian Constitution where the core values like pluralistic (secular) democracy, justice, liberty, equality, fraternity and respect for individual dignity flourish.

It seems that in the absence of genuine introspection, the meditation at the rock of Swami Vivekananda confirmed PM Modi's beliefs and ideas based on the Hindutva ideology - an exclusive, discriminatory and divisive India. PM Modi doesn't have any compunction about the damage he inflicted on the soul of India through his blatantly hateful and divisive speeches during the recent elections to the Lok Sabha.

Surprisingly, many people in India continue to admire and idolise Narendra Modi. One can understand that the godi media have their own compulsions to continue to support Modi. Still, the brainwashing of a large section of the Indian population remains a great mystery. The blind devotion of people might have motivated PM Modi to make the bizarre statement "that he was not born to his biological mother, and was sent by god for a great purpose". If any other person had made this statement, people would have advised them to consult a psychiatrist.

A disturbing question for critical thinkers is, "Who is responsible for the current situation filled with hatred and revenge against certain communities and the glorification of a man who is responsible for polluting the atmosphere of communal harmony?" The polluted atmosphere of recent electioneering and the rise of personality cults reflect the deterioration that has taken place in Indian Society.

According to the election watchdog, Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), out of the 8,337 candidates in the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, 20% have criminal cases against them. About 14% are involved in serious criminal cases, including charges related to rape, murder, attempt to murder and crimes against women. If people with criminal records become law-makers, what would the future of India be? This situation calls for inculcating ethical and moral values in our citizens and educating people on the sacredness of the democratic process.

Our educational system appears to be the greatest culprit for eroding democratic, human and ethical values. Its focus has been churning out 'intelligent robots' to make life materialistically comfortable. Character formation that can lead to critical thinking, ethical intelligence, humanity, compassion and love has often been neglected. As TM Krishna, a prominent public intellectual, writes in one of his articles (Unlearn the Lessons), "when intelligence that transcends transactionality (process of buying and selling) is not cultivated, human beings fall prey to hatred and rumour-mongering". That is what is happening in Indian society. In the absence of critical thinking and inculcation of core Indian constitutional values, people can easily be brainwashed by false propaganda.

The election results assure that the opposition in the 18th Lok Sabha is stronger than the previous one in terms of numbers, mutual understanding, and cohesion. The opposition parties (INDIA) have to prepare a common strategy to make the BJP government accountable to the people. They have to focus mainly on three issues: 1) building bridges between different communities, especially Muslims and Hindus, and fighting against the communalisation of India; 2) fighting for the issues of common people like unemployment and price rise; and 3) pressurising the government to change the policies that favour crony capitalism, and thereby reduce the gap between the rich and the poor.

No country can progress in the absence of communal peace and harmony. The licence to the Hindutva organisations by the BJP government to take the law into their hands is to be countered by the combined opposition. Rahul Gandhi's two yatras have played a decisive role in doubling the seats of the Congress party in this election. One of the catchy slogans of Rahul Gandhi during his yatras was "Open shops of love in the market of hatred". The combined opposition has to prioritise it in their policies and campaigns.

The opposition parties must start a special campaign to regain the soul of India - pluralism and unity in diversity and harmony among the followers of different religions. This can become a fitting response to the BJP and the RSS, which are responsible for injecting the poison of hatred into the veins of Indian society. The best way to prevent the resurgence of the communal and hate politics of the BJP-RSS is to "open shops of love in the market of hatred".