It’s amazing how Narendra Modi revels in public scrutiny and media focus. The more he is subjected to such intense examination, the better he seems to emerge from them all.
For more than a decade of his Gujarat chief ministership Modi was the focus of national attention, more for his alleged sins in the aftermath of the Godhra train incident than for all the good work he was able to accomplish in the state.
The prime minister’s post naturally carries with it the advantages/disadvantages of being the centre of attention for all things political and some more. And when Modi came to occupy that post, it was a case of focus “doubly redoubled.”
So it comes as no surprise that his August 15 Independence Day address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort became one of the most commented upon speeches by any prime minister in the last 67 years. In fact, the attention was turned on to Modi long before he climbed up the steps of the historic Mughal period fort. There was speculation on almost every aspect of his much-awaited speech: whether he will speak extempore -the last one to do so was Indira Gandhi - or read out from a prepared text, whether he will announce new programmes for the less privileged or denounce Pakistan’s alleged acts of violence against India. There was even speculation on what Modi, given his sartorial chic, would wear on the day.
Prime Minister Modi once again proved he is his own man in everything he does. For 66 minutes he held a nation of 1.2bn people riveted to television and radio sets. The directness of his message was so genuine that even his worst critics had to concede that Modi had carried the day with aplomb. “I had come to this programme prepared to criticise Modi, but after listening to him, I must confess that I could find nothing wrong with it,” said Tushar Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi who led India’s struggle for freedom, during the course of a television debate on Modi’s speech. Even those who wanted to see what would spring out of his wardrobe were happy to approve of his appearance complete with a somewhat symbolic saffron and green turban.
Modi did not mince words either. He said things that would have been anathema to the supercilious world of high politics on such occasions. But being born poor has its advantages when you get to the top. You could call a spade just that and sound all too innocent too. Modi held a mirror to the entire nation when he talked of how lack of toilets is forcing girls to leave schools and how the sense of cleanliness has gone missing from the social milieu. He pointed out how societies are getting skewed because of the desire to have boy-children only. Not that we did not know these issues. But coming from the prime minister, that too on the Independence Day, carried a certain weight that could help hang our heads in further shame! It was also a timely reminder to all those in power - his own ministers and bureaucrats as well as the governments in the states - that the prime minister is aware of the nation’s shortcomings and is ready to work to redress them. “If you work for 12 hours a day I am ready to work for 13,” he said.
Some of it may have sounded like homilies, but there was no getting away from the truth of it all. His “Make in India” call was a direct invitation to the world at large. Whether the world heeds it or not will be another matter. A recent visit by this columnist to Bangalore - the city that had caught the attention, and perhaps the envy, of none other than President Barack Obama himself - revealed the extent of decay that has set in India’s premier IT hub. Stray cattle and dogs have made permanent homes around stinking garbage that has not been lifted for weeks. Peak hour traffic in Bangalore means round-the-clock snarls. There is absolutely no let-up even at 10pm. To top it all, Bangalore’s record of being a woman-friendly city has taken a beating of late. “Make in India”? Not just yet, if Bangalore is any indication to go by.
Nitish gamble
fails again
“Vinaasha Kale Vipareedha Buddhi.” This Sanskrit saying roughly translates into: “In bad times you will only think negatively.”
In recent history this quote was made politically famous by Jayaprakash Narayan when he and a legion of Indian political leaders were incarcerated by then prime minister Indira Gandhi as she declared a state of national emergency on June 25, 1975. The emergency and what happened to Indira Gandhi in its aftermath is part of India’s dark history.
The saying gained further currency more recently when Nitish Kumar, then Bihar chief minister, in an obvious bid to upstage a fast-rising Narendra Modi, broke away from a 17-year partnership with the BJP. Kumar, who had till then demonstrated astute political acumen and had gained all-round praise both during his stints as minister for railways in the BJP-led government of prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and as Bihar’s chief minister, suddenly lost the plot completely.
He first tried to spring a united third front against the two combines led by the BJP and the Congress, respectively and when this failed, his Janata Dal (United) party fought the parliamentary elections on its own. The results were disastrous. The JD(U) was nearly wiped out, winning just two out of the 40 seats in the state while the BJP ran away with 31. Kumar, owning moral responsibility, had to resign.
But while Indira Gandhi did express her regrets, without officially apologising, for the excesses of emergency during her campaign speeches ahead of the seventh Lok Sabha elections in 1980 (which she went on to win handsomely), Kumar has had no such qualms visiting his conscience. Rather, Kumar is steadfast in his belief that a Modi-led BJP will polarise India on communal basis.
So convinced is Kumar about Modi’s ultra-nationalism that he is even ready to supp with the devil, as it were. For 20 long years Kumar won’t see eye-to-eye with Lalu Prasad Yadav, the convicted former chief minister and chief of the Rashtriya Janata Dal. Shorn off his power and barely managing to stay out of jail through bail, Lalu Prasad has been trying desperately to stay relevant by raising his anti-communal rhetoric to a higher pitch ever since Modi was elected to lead the BJP at the hustings.
Enemy’s enemy being a friend, Kumar thought he would hit pay dirt if he joined hands with Lalu Prasad, thereby lending further credence to the old Sanskrit saying once again. The duo’s much-hyped appearance at a public rally last week turned out to be a damp squib as they could muster just a few hundred people to attend. As many as ten state assembly seats are going to polls in Bihar soon and the Kumar-Prasad tie-up could be tested severely.
Kumar seems to have learned nothing from such a visible setback. He called on Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati, leaders of the two anti-BJP forces in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, to come together to provide a united front against Modi. Yadav, reeling under a barrage of criticism for the many crimes of the state government led by his chief minister-son, seemed willing to giving it a try. But Mayawati was quick to nip any such thoughts in the bud when she declared that her Bahujan Samaj Party would never think of joining hands with Yadav’s Samajwadi Party.
While Bihar had been the cradle of many a political movement, this particular one attempted by Nitish Kumar seems a non-starter.
