PRIMEMINISTERNarendraModi, who won a landslide

victoryin the 2019 generalelection,after the swearing-in

ceremony on May 30. With him are PresidentRamNath

Kovind(centre),HomeMinister Amit Shah, DefenceMinister

RajnathSingh,RamVilas Paswan,Ravi ShankarPrasadand

PRAKASHothermembers of his team.

SINGH/AFP

over from within’

InterviewwithAijazAhmad.

BYJIPSONJOHNANDJITHEESHP.M.

AIJAZAHMADISA MARXISTTHINKEROFIN-

dianoriginandaninternationallyrenownedtheoristof

modernhistory, politicsandculture.He hastaughtin

variousuniversities inIndia,CanadaandtheUnited

Statesandcurrentlyservesas DistinguishedProfessorin

theDepartment of ComparativeLiterature, University of

California, Irvine,whereheteachescriticaltheory.

A large partofthisinterviewconcernsquestionsof

Hindutvacommunalism,fascism,secularismandpos-

sibilitiesfortheLeftintheIndiancontext.Inother

sections,hereflects onglobalisation,globalprospects for

theLeft,theusesandmisuses ofAntonioGramsci’s

thought,andtherelevanceof KarlMarxin ourtime. The

interviewwasconducted beforetherecentgeneralelec-

tionin Indiaandupdatedaftertheelectionresultswere

out.

AijazAhmadarguesthattheRashtriyaSwayamse-

wakSangh(RSS) anditsfronts, includingtheBharatiya

JanataParty(BJP),displaydistinct fascisticcharacterist-

R.

RAVINDRAN