The flower once symbolised purity of thought. Now, it stands for the BJP’s muddy politics
In primary school, we were taught that the lotus is our national flower. In middle school, we were told that the lotus symbolises the purity of our thoughts, mind, and speech. In the contemporary school of Indian politics, we have quickly learnt that Operation Lotus has a whole new meaning — most recently exercised in Maharashtra. A beautiful flower, which blossoms amid mud is now being used to promote such muddy values!
A journalist asked: What do you think the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are really outstanding at? Easy answer: Marketing, branding and brilliant event management. Your columnist didn’t say this. L K Advani did. Way back in 2014.
The G20 presidency, which India assumed from December 2022 to the end of 2023, is a good case study. There has been a jamboree of events held to amplify the same. Gujarat alone is hosting four meetings in July. Last month, when I was in Bihar for a day for the Patna Summit, one found it hard to get a hotel room because the city was all “booked out for a G20 programme”. Official meetings apart, over 150 cultural events have been organised across the country in the first four months of India assuming the presidency. One hundred heritage monuments have been lit up in the G20 logo and colours and it is being touted as a testament to India’s growing soft power and global standing. The perception being created is of the G20 presidency being a coveted trophy which India won after out-bowling, out-batting and out-fielding all diplomatic teams in a keenly contested T20 tournament in which 20 countries participated. The truth, as you know, lies somewhere else.
What is lost in all the brouhaha is the fact that the presidency is rotational, all 19 member countries and the European Union take turns to assume the presidency on a yearly basis. Initially, India was supposed to take over presiding duties in 2021, but it traded places twice, first with Italy and then with Indonesia, before finally settling to head G20 in 2023. This was no doubt a sharp piece of marketing to set the stage for a PR blitz in the run-up to the 2024 general elections.
Amid the incessant barrage of G20 events, what caught my eye was the G20 logo, featuring the Nelumbo nucifera (commonly known as the lotus). The flower is the foremost symbol of beauty, prosperity and fertility. Some observers say it represents eternity, purity, divinity, and is widely used as a symbol of life and fertility. Though its roots are based in mud, the flower has the characteristic of blooming again, clean and fresh, after being submerged overnight in water.
Apart from being the national flower, and a part of India’s state emblem, the lotus is also embossed in the centre of the Government of India’s Padma awards, one of the country’s highest civilian honour medallions.
Last year, I visited the Museum of Christian Art in Goa. The museum houses multiple displays about Mother Mary (mother of Jesus Christ) and showcases Indo-European and Indo-Portuguese artwork. Many of these works combine the crown and halo, celebrating a beautiful mix of cultures and religions. It was intriguing to find a statue of Mother Mary seated on the national flower. Mother Mary is shown on a crescent in the traditional Christian way, and the statue rises from the centre of a blossoming lotus — the identity of India that we used to know and cherish.
The lotus is the national flower of two countries: India and Vietnam. It was chosen as our national flower in 1950. The Bharatiya Janata Party was formed in 1980. In all its wisdom, the Election Commission, headed by R V S Peri Sastri, reserved the lotus and sanctioned its allocation as BJP’s electoral symbol in 1989. The All India Forward Bloc uses the tiger, the national animal of India, as its symbol on the party’s flag, but its electoral symbol is the lion. The BJP, conveniently, works hard to blur the line between the political symbol allotted to it and the national symbol.
In recent years, the BJP has tried its best to further appropriate the flower, which was discovered 3,000 years ago. The Union government is spending one thousand crore rupees to indulge brand Modi in the guise of the G20 presidency. That amount could have funded two orbiter missions to Mars, or could have seen more than ten thousand kids through from kindergarten to high school. The deceptive appropriation of the national flower to a party symbol is a modern-day marketing case study.
[This article appeared in The Indian Express | Friday, July 7, 2023]