Seasoned media persons or bureaucrats are hardly ever impressed by the bubbly froth called news as they know that the real action is taking place somewhere else. Recently, they may have noticed what most others missed in their fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) hurry to cover a ‘non-biological’ who demonstrated India’s ancient ‘duality,‘ by simultaneously tormenting and forgiving cockroaches. Let us recall two bits of ‘other news’ in the last few days, as they really matter more than what an old man prattles ominously. The first news says how the government has reached out to the opposition (in the midst of the unending uproar in parliament) to discuss the ‘Delimitation Bill’ for a full 50 minutes. The second reports how the government flipped the same legislative pizza on another side by beseeching the opposition to push for the reservation of 33% of seats for women, that has artfully tagged along with the earlier bill. The real planBut behind both is a deadly plan to ensure forever the hegemony at the core of Hindutva – that the Sangh now identifies as coterminous with Hindi as a language and a civilisation, with Gujarat and a part of Maharashtra added for good measure. The latter postulate is quite true, as the sprinkling of Hindutva over non-Hindi states is rather spasmodic and tokenistic, despite Assam having woven this into its paranoid narrative of illegal immigration. This master plan of a forever-tilted advantage for the more assured Hindus of the Hindi and adjunct belt depends, however, on the zone’s population numbers being engraved into the architecture of parliamentary democracy, through Lok Sabha seats. And, to make this dead sure, a two-thirds majority has to be procured by hook or by crook, in the 18th Lok Sabha, 2024 to 2029. It is assumed that the ruthless juggernaut that benefits enormously in India from the economic policies of the far right (also based in the Hindi and adjunct belt) would go to any extent to retain its preeminence and profits. Engineering such skilled hatchet-games like ‘Operation TMC’ was, as we shall see, an initial expensive exercise to sustain and strengthen the juggernaut’s user-friendly political setup. After all, it is the divisive politics of this setup that distracts popular attention from real problems of India and also ensures that the hate thus generated is recycled into more votes. This machinery has already perfected the science of winning elections, by raising the expenditure bar far too high for others to cross, and the art of horse-trading in murky post-election scenarios when ‘Plan A’ fails. Over the past decade, state after state has witnessed the costly exercise of luring over of legislators to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while the higher judiciary has chosen to be a complicit bystander of this post-democratic capture of power. ‘Grab Trinamool’ operationThose who were amazed at the lightning speed with which some 60-odd deserters jumped off Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) sinking ship in West Bengal (seats that the BJP did not require), did not see the other end of the transaction, namely, parliamentary seats. It were the swimmers who had deserted the TMC in Bengal that were desperate to support the new BJP government to procure an “insurance policy” to save themselves from charges of extortion and corruption and from well-aimed flying eggs. All insurance policies, obviously, have their own premiums. We can dismiss the whole episode as treachery, which is half the soul of politics, or brand it as unbridled avarice, which is the other half. But the main point to understand is that such expensive game plans are not crafted overnight – they are worked on, with exceeding professional thoroughness, below the surface, for quite some time. Like submarines, they surface only when it is ripe to strike. This submarine plan succeeded in weaning over TMC’s elected representatives in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha as its main target and, therefore, the Vidhan Sabha defections were only starters. The cross over of three TMC MPs of the Rajya Sabha and their election as BJP MPs was unimaginable after they had spent their whole lives fighting the BJP. But the point to note is that with this, the BJP has just reached the 117-mark in the Rajya Sabha, where 122 is the halfway line. This explains why Modi had recently admitted 7 Rajya Sabha MPs of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) into the BJP and his National Democratic Alliance (NDA) that now has 152 MPs – only 10 away from the two-thirds majority. However, what matters the most to Modi is the Lok Sabha. His slogan for the 2024 elections: “Abki Par Char Sau Paar” (We’ll Cross 400 This Time) landed him with just 240 seats out of 543, lower than 303 seats in 2019. The traditional National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners could cobble together just 25 more seats which was still 7 short of the majority mark in the Lok Sabha, until special deals had to be struck with the Telugu Desam and the Janata Dal (United) parties for their support of 28 MPs. Adhikari’s ascent to chief ministerIt is in this context that the ‘Grab Trinamool’ operations of 2026 makes sense. It may appear very audacious, indeed, but while resigning prematurely as a TMC MP in 2024, one had pointed to the state of corruption within the party – which makes everything possible. As expected, the 20 former TMC MPs were quite desperate to seek the BJP’s ‘washing machine‘ immunity from legal action and delighted at whatever else they received. This was a godsend to Modi, as it assured him that this lot would cling to him for protection, power and other rewards that come their way, even if they come in instalments. Their support would ease Modi’s total dependence on Telugu Desam, that may be constrained to vote against the Delimitation Bill in the near future. Besides, in politics, support always comes with an expensive price tag and alternatives are, therefore, welcome. This somersault by the TMC has pole-vaulted Suvendu Adhikari to the centre of power in Delhi because it was he who got over his own former colleagues from the TMC to join the BJP’s bandwagon. He also silenced the ‘original BJP’ leaders in Bengal, who were extremely wary of TMC defectors and many still find it difficult to accept an ‘outsider like Adhikari as their supreme leader. He is not only a tainted TMC leader, but also BJP’s former deadly opponent, who joined them just 6 years ago. Now that he is flooding the three legislative sabhas with elected members of his former party, the ‘original BJP’ cadres, who spent many years fighting these very elements, are grudgingly cohabiting with them – though frictions are already visible. Before the 2027 censusAge is catching up with Modi. He must somehow secure two-thirds support in this Lok Sabha as it could be his last chance to amend the constitution to convert India into a Hindu Rashtra. But one constitutional amendment can be negated by another in future, so the better option is to re-fix the numbers of MPs in the Lok Sabha so that it is permanently tilted in favour of Hindi-Hindu-Hindutva. There will never be a better chance for this, as the results of the long-delayed census of 2027 will be out soon thereafter and may surely confirm that the population of the Hindi belt which was 43% in 2011 has reached the halfway mark. The Southern states are furious in advance as Modi’s moves suggest that the next delimitation punishes them for better performance and lower population, while rewarding the economically-backward and ultra-conservative parts of India. This is, sadly, almost coterminous with the Hindi heartland, that is more aggressively extremist that others and has recklessly produced more babies, as well. The language questionOver the last half century, much of India outside the Hindu belt has struggled with three languages, their respective mother tongues and varying amounts of Hindi and English, for survival or for economic reasons. But the Hindi-speaking population could do (and did) well enough through just one language, Hindi. Even Shakespeare is said to be taught in Hindi in schools. Except the English language elite, the vast majority in this huge area missed the opportunity to widen its worldview by learning and understanding cultures other than Hindi. Rules prescribing that they learn two (or at least one) language beyond their mother tongue, went away with ‘Hawaa Hawai.’ The constant overuse of Hindi in pan-Indian communication, direct official bullying and a sense of Hindi entitlement also ensured that they could get by with Hindi almost anywhere in India. No one has objection to Hindi as such, as it is a binding language, and to the Hindu culture, as the unifying force behind a civilisation. It is when the two combine together in an obscurant tango and valorise their narrow unexposed version of North Indian majoritarianism as the only desirable India that the problem starts. As it is, examinations to all government and semi-government central services were and are invariably available in Hindi, in addition to English. But such facilities are hardly ever available to other languages, whatever be the official policy. Thus, Hindi speakers are likely to be in a majority in government and police services now. No official data on this is available, however, as RTIs (Right to Information) are made ineffective. Only government can clarify this doubt, but it appears more keen on harvesting the benefits of the explosion of an impoverished population in the Hindi-speaking north. Modi and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are absolutely clear that their Hindutva is/was very ‘north Indian’ (hence Varanasi is where Modi planted his flag) and it is not only obsessively Hindi-centric, but also increasingly intolerant of Islam and other religions.But Modi alone has not created this reality. For the past seven decades, ministers and bureaucrats (largely from the Hindi and adjacent belt) have added as many as 56 languages under the term “Hindi”, before census operations commenced. Bhojpuri and Rajasthani-speaking populations opposed this strongly and demanded they be included in the 8th schedule of the constitution to be considered distinct from Hindi. Several others, like Magahi, Chhattisgarhi, Garhwali, Kumaoni, Bundelkhandi (Bundeli), Angika, Nagpuri (Sadri), Kurmali, Bagheli and Awadhi, have made similar petitions, but to no avail. A warning to be heededThis is the worrisome scenario. Six Shiv Sena MPs have switched in Modi’s favour. But the game to delimit Lok Sabha seats in proportion to population has just begun seriously and the south is already protesting. Kashmir, Punjab, Maharashtra (a large section, at least), Bengal, Odisha, Assam and the northeast are yet to take a view. Much of this will depend on all states understanding what exactly the plan under rollout means for the five millennia of carefully aggregated Indian plural civilisation. They need to grasp why the census and the delimitation are sought to be part of the master plan and why women’s reservation has been tagged along unnecessarily with Machiavellian perfidy. If only one language and culture is to prevail in every matter over all others, for all times to come, let it be a conscious choice. It cannot be a deceitful sleight of hand that wrecks the cultural and linguistic heterogeneity of India as part of an ‘official programme.’ Jawhar Sircar is a former Rajya Sabha MP of the Trinamool Congress. He was earlier secretary, Government of India, and CEO of Prasar Bharati.