Right Wing Vs Right Wing: Widening Cracks Within BJP's Influential Online Support Base  

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy have little in common. But in the last week, they have both managed to reveal an interesting trend emerging in the online social sphere of India: a growing divide within Bharatiya Janata Party’s support base.   

While the differences among the individuals in the right-wing ecosystem are not a new thing, there has been a notable shift in the narrative on the government’s economic policy in the past week which has revealed the fissures which exist in the ecosystem generally seen as supportive of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.   

The reaction to a few statements from Sitharaman and Murthy has raised the question of cohesion within the influential support base of the right wing.  

Fissures Emerge  

Sitharaman’s budget on July 23 managed to grab headlines for several interventions like launching a jobs scheme and changing the tax slabs. However, the changes in the direct tax regime such as the removal of indexation benefits from real estate and a hike in long-term capital gains tax on equity have divided opinions.  

TV Mohandas Pai, Chairman at Aarin Capital, said in a post on X that the government should take feedback on the move. He wrote, “Some feedback for Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. You folks have broken the trust of the middle class by this thoughtless action. When tax changes pl grandfather all previous matters except litigation. For angel tax withdraws prior litigation. PM Narendra Modi, please help, middle class, is furious and upset at this. When CG was introduced by FM Jaitley, past equity value was grandfathered and protected.”  

Moreover, anger has been directed at the government from a lot of quarters on the issue of long-term capital gains tax as well. In the budget, Sitharaman increased the LTCG from 10 per cent to 12.5 per cent which caused heartburn in the markets. D Muthukrishnan, who has more than 5 lakh followers, has been a vocal supporter of the government in the past on X.   

However, post the presentation of the Budget, Muthukrishnan criticised the finance minister for the changes to the taxation system which, in his opinion, created an additional burden on the middle class. “I can say this with high conviction. If elections are conducted today, especially after the latest budget by @nsitharaman, BJP would lose power by a huge margin,” he wrote in a post.   

The criticisms were not particularly well received by some government-friendly influencers on social media. To one of Muthukrishnan’s posts criticising high taxation in India, Rishi Bagree replied with a comparison of pre and post-GST burden on the middle class of the country.   

He wrote, “Dear troll, please note that GST implementation not only subsumed 17 taxes but also reduced the indirect tax rates drastically on the consumers. And no other country gives 3.75 times of per capita income exemption on direct tax.”  

The division within the online support base of Bharatiya Janata Party comes a month after it failed to secure a majority on its own in the general elections 2024. From 303 seats in 2019, the party fell to the 240 mark and has had to rely on support from allies which include Telegu Desam Party and Janata Dal United.   

But the fissures are not limited to the disagreements over the proposals in the budget. 

Services vs Manufacturing  

The government’s push to increase manufacturing in the country has been in the news for a while now. Modi government’s promotion via the production-linked incentive scheme has been a matter of debate among economists. While the government claims the scheme to be a success. Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has noted repeatedly in papers and one of his books that the overall result is net negative because the country is only assembling products which leads to an increase in specific imports.  

As a percentage of GDP, manufacturing stood at 13 per cent at the end of 2023 according to the World Bank. This is lower than 15 per cent in 2014 when the Modi government was sworn into power. The share of services remains around 50 per cent of the economy.   

Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy waded into the debate and indicated that it’s difficult to catch up to China. “China has already become the factory of the world. Around 90 per cent of things in supermarkets and home depots in other countries are manufactured in China. They have six times the GDP of India. It is too audacious of us to say India will become the manufacturing hub,” he said.  

The comments did not go down well with prominent conservative thinker Rajiv Malhotra. He took a sharp dig at Murthy in a post on X, writing, “One reason China is ahead of India is that Indian opportunists like Narayan Murthy filled their pockets by renting out brains of young techies to foreign countries & make quick billions.”  

Pai, who was former CFO of Infosys, reacted to the sharp criticism of the company and said that the tech giant created a lot of value for the country. “The IT services companies, have 215b$in exports, 145B$ cash coming in, 5.7m jobs and laid the foundation of start-up industry. They are globally dominant in the IT service space with a 60% market share. This is India’s top industry, and such serial abusers keep abusing,” he wrote.  

Notably, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met a group of online support base of the BJP to discuss the Union Budget 2024. The social media fissures within the BJP online base garner a lot of attention as the party is known for its strong presence on online channels. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has the most number of followers in India among politicians.   

Will the divide among the online support base of the right-wing increase or will the anger pass over time? The answer is blowing in the wind.