BJP perfects its winning formula

Mr Modi has finally managed to weaponise Hinduism and reduce governance to electoral math

Even the Prime Minister’s bitterest critics will have to concede that over the last six years or so, he has achieved what was once considered impossible: He has weaponised Hinduism as an election-winner.

Till Mr Modi won his landslides, politicians had always believed that while minorities may vote on the basis of religious identity, most Hindus were too secure and too comfortable in a country where they constituted the overwhelming majority to allow their religion to influence their voting decisions.

Hindus did sometimes vote on the basis of caste but even the Jana Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) believed that