My evaluation of the two years of NDA rule can be summarized in the sub-title of this note. There is, of course, the economic component about which I have written before[i],[ii] and do not repeat it here.
Amit Shah, President of the BJP, in a rare moment of candour and honesty, let the cat out of the bag during the course of an interview with ABP NEWS channel.[iii] When asked about Narendra Modi’s 2014 election promise to deposit Rs. 15 lakh (Rs. 1.5 million) into the bank account of each Indian as a share of the black money that would be recovered, Shah stated that this was a mere election jumla, an empty promise made to attract voters. A less charitable way of thinking of jumla is to call it “lies told to hoodwink the electorate”. Admitting one jumla is the thin end of the wedge and one wonders how many more jumlas have been foisted upon an unsuspecting electorate. A lot of voters, especially those who had not been committed to the BJP, were enthused by Modi’s slogan of “Sab ka saath, sab ka vikas”[iv] (loosely translated as “together with all, development for all”). Events, as these have transpired over the last couple years (and I discuss these below), have raised the suspicion that this was also just another jumla. Voters, who had supported this progressive vision of the then Prime Ministerial candidate, must surely feel short-changed by the divisive words and actions of important members of the NDA government thereby negating the sab ka saath component of the slogan.
One would have expected that with the general elections of 2014 throwing up an unambiguous winner, the jumlas, half-truths and blatant falsehoods would have been a thing of the past and that one would have mature and calm governance at least till the din of 2019 elections took over once again. But, with numerous assembly elections that have taken place at regular intervals (and some more lined in the next couple of years), the BJP has just not gone off the election mode. One recurring theme visible in the rabble-rousing speeches of the BJP leadership, including the Prime Minister, has been the relentless effort to destroy the Congress party. This too, I am convinced, is part of the jumla but now directed towards the next general elections.
60 Years of Misrule under the Congress?
Amit Shah has declared that “In the history of India, this period [two years of NDA rule] will be written in golden words that so many developmental works took place, which never happened in 60 years since Independence”.[v] A blinkered, unthinking populace, which sees the NDA rule as a deliverance from 60 years of purgatory of Congress rule, has lapped this up. It is very disappointing to find that even those with access to authentic information have become cheer-leaders of the NDA government and the chant of “60 years of misrule” has become a mantra to be repeated ad nauseum. For those who believe in the sanctity of facts, there is enough evidence to show that the mantra has little connection to reality. See, for example, the article by Maitreesh Ghatak[vi], the interview with Pranab Bardhan[vii] as well as my own blog post from June 2014.[viii]
In the debunking of the achievements of the previous government, the BJP and its acolytes display an unseemly obsession with the Gandhi family. The BJP has taken Narendra Modi’s phrase, “Congress-mukt Bharat” (“India free of Congress”) so much to heart that not an opportunity is missed to take pot-shots at Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. To add more teeth to this campaign against the Gandhi family, the BJP has let loose in the Parliament the bête-noire of Indian politics, Subramanian Swamy, whose hatred for the family borders on the pathological. It does seem surprising that the BJP should be so obsessed with a party which appears to be in terminal decline and is rapidly descending into irrelevance and obscurity. It seems inconceivable to me that the Congress can possibly rise from its ashes to mount any challenge at all, at least, for many years to come. And with Rahul Gandhi set to possibly take over as Congress president,[ix] the party seems to be writing its own obituary.
With the Congress so weakened, what does explain the BJP’s obsession with the party? My suspicion is that the BJP is still badly scarred by the victory that Sonia Gandhi delivered in 2004, when it seemed impossible that the NDA, lead by the BJP stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee, would be defeated. But Sonia Gandhi achieved the impossible and the BJP was left out in the cold for ten long years. As in 2004, it seems impossible to imagine that the BJP might lose the elections in 2019. But the BJP is taking no chances: what if Sonia Gandhi, in one more Houdini-like trick, unshackles the Congress from the throes of irrelevance and obscurity? So grave is this fear of Sonia Gandhi that, for the BJP, it is not just enough to defeat the Congress electorally, it wishes to annihilate it.
Faux Nationalism
The BJP and Sangh Parivar have arrogated to themselves the role of sole flag bearers of India. This has been pursued in a muscular fashion leading to the faux nationalism that was on display during the disturbing Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) episode.[x] The ham-handed and aggressive manner with which the government reacted to the incidents at JNU created heroes out of Kanhaiya Kumar and other students. Some TV news channels added to the chest thumping fake nationalism by repeatedly airing doctored videos.[xi] Noble exceptions to this have been the English channel NDTV 24x7 and the Hindi language channel NDTV India which, even in the face of rampant illiberalism and communalism, continue to fight to keep liberalism and secularism alive. On these two channels, guests are given liberty to express their views, they are treated respectfully and the anchors (notably Barkha Dutt and Ravish Kumar but others as well) don’t drown discussions with their personal views and agendas. Mercifully, the print medium in India is still vibrant and has not compromised its independence.
So far not a shred of evidence has been made available that connects Kanhaiya Kumar to the anti-national slogans that were raised at JNU. Nonetheless, the inept Delhi police chief, in his desperate efforts to show his loyalty to his political masters, slapped sedition charges on Kanhaiya Kumar. So astounded was the Delhi High Court by these charges that it was constrained to ask whether the Delhi Police even knew what sedition meant.[xii] That the puppeteer behind this entire manufactured imbroglio was the NDA government itself was clear from the recklessness with which the Home Minister announced that the JNU agitation had the support of Hafiz Saeed, the chief of the banned terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba.[xiii] In a civilized society, when one makes such a ghastly mistake (the tweet that the Home Minister referred to was from a fake account), honourable persons issue an unconditional apology. But this was dog-whistle politics at its worst: the Home Minister’s pronouncement was aimed at the Sangh Parivar supporters who would not be bothered with mere misrepresentation of facts. The Home Minister’s ridiculous claim was signal enough for a bunch of ‘nationalistic’ goons to launch a brazen physical assault on Kanhaiya Kumar in the court in which he was to appear.[xiv]
An equally sorry spectacle was played out in Parliament during the discussion on the tragic suicide of Rohit Vemula at the University of Hyderabad.[xv] In a speech steeped in vulgar histrionics, the Minister for Human Resources Development, Smriti Irani, sought to distance herself and her ministry from the episode and denied claims that the ministry had put undue pressure on the Vice-Chancellor of the University, which, of course, was false.[xvi] Irani also falsely claimed that no doctor was allowed to examine Rohit Vemula’s body after he had died; the lie was nailed by the very doctor who examined Vemula body.[xvii] Irani’s speech, apart from purveying falsehoods, was one of the most ill-tempered that I have heard made on the floor of the Parliament. In fact, her performance was embarrassing even to the top leadership of the BJP.[xviii] Expectedly, Irani has been unrepentant and promptly blamed Rahul Gandhi for her chest-thumping histrionics. It’s amazing how everything gets connected to the Gandhi family! Irani claimed that, seeing Rahul Gandhi smile during the Rohit Vemula debate, something “snapped” in her mind causing her to launch into her disgraceful speech.[xix] Surely, this speaks volumes about the maturity of a cabinet minister who is in charge of some of India’s best educational institutions.
Aggressive Hindutva
Much is being made of the reduction in economic corruption during the two years of NDA rule.[xx] There is some truth in this since, as per the reports of Transparency International, India’s ranking has improved from 85 in 2014 to 76 in 2015[xxi] and this certainly is a creditable achievement. However, corruption of a different sort is stalking India. It is the corruption of the secular fabric of the country, corruption of its inclusive social ethos and corruption of the very concept of Hinduism and its metamorphosis into an aggressive form called the Hindutva.
Every few months, over the last two years, there has been some episode or the other which has targeted minorities in India, especially the Muslims. The aggressive, shrill and divisive Hindutva rhetoric quite clearly violates the provisions of secularism in the Indian Constitution. I doubt if the illiterate yahoos of the Hindutva brigade are able to distinguish the noble and progressive concept of secularism (as intended by the Indian constitution) from its perversion, the so-called “sickularism”, the monstrosity of a word that has been created by conflating secularism with the Congress party. The BJP, in order to disguise its divisive Hindutva agenda, has no alternative but to discredit the concept of genuine secularism and what better way of doing it than by equating it with the Congress?
Over the last two years, we have witnessed a variety of deliberately provocative actions and activities of the Hindutva brigade. Consider these: ghar wapasi,[xxii] love jihad,[xxiii] threats to send India Muslims to Pakistan,[xxiv] equating BJP’s electoral defeat with victory for Pakistan,[xxv] call to Hindu women to produce four children,[xxvi] calls to boycott Aamir Khan and Shahrukh Khan films for having the temerity to speak of growing intolerance,[xxvii] lynching of Akhlakh at Dadri,[xxviii] remaining roads named after Mughal emperors,[xxix] among many other similar episodes. Many of these episodes have been led by high-ranking ministers in the government or high functionaries in the BJP. While sporadic efforts are apparently made to control the individuals indulging in such behaviour,[xxx] the BJP motor-mouths refuse to be controlled and merrily thumb their noses at party bosses.[xxxi] Recently, one of the more aggressive “stalwarts” of Hindutva and a BJP Member of Parliament, Yogi Adityanath, has called for the release of “innocent” (sic) Hindus booked in the lynching of Mohammad Akhlakh[xxxii] after a forensic report stated that the meat found in Akhlakh’s house was beef. The sheer inhumanity of the Hindutva supporters, which values the origins of the meat over the life of a human being, beggars belief. Sadly, this stance is not merely that of a fringe group of the BJP – is there a distinction between the fringe and the mainstream anymore? – but also that of their party spokespersons and RSS ideologues. Not one has condemned the Dadri killing without equivocation. Any condemnation by the party has been followed up by some qualification such as the illegality of possessing beef or slaughter of the cow, offering thereby a justification for the lynching.
The free rein that Sangh Parivar members and, more notably, BJP members have had on communal issues calls into question the sincerity of the slogan of the Prime Minister sab ka saath, sab ka vikas. Clearly, the sab ka saath part of the slogan has already turned into a chimera if it was ever taken seriously; and, if the first part of the slogan has vanished into thin air, the second part – sab ka vikas – clearly cannot be realized. Perhaps we can be charitable and still believe that the Prime Minister was genuinely inspired by a vision of inclusive growth which would take minorities, specifically Muslims, along, but has been thwarted by the forces of RSS-led Hindutva. If this scenario is true, then we have a weak Prime Minister who has been unable to control the vile elements in his party as they have been choreographed by the RSS from Nagpur. The other, and certainly more frightening, possibility is that there is no difference in the thinking of the Prime Minister and his ideological masters in the RSS. If this is true, then the disturbing developments of the last two years are not an aberration but part of a plan scripted by all members of the Sangh Parivar.
Summing Up
In this note, I have paid little attention to the economy as it has evolved over the last two years. One reason, which I mentioned at the beginning of this note, is that I have written about this and had nothing more to add. The other reason is that, even though the economy seems to be sluggish at the moment with some significant problems that need to be solved, I am hopeful of a revival. Good fortune (in the form of favourable monsoon), recovery of the world economy and the innate ability of Indian business to take advantage of institutional changes being ushered in should see the Indian economy chugging along over the next couple of years. Consequently, I am not as worried about the economy as I am about the changes that are being wrought in the Indian polity and society. The divisive and confrontational forces that have been let loose over the last two years bode ill for India in the years to come.
[i] http://ajitkarnik.blogspot.ae/2016/02/state-of-indian-economy-2015-16.html
[ii] http://www.epw.in/journal/2016/16/budget-2016%E2%80%9317/lacking-substance.html
[iii] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo9EN-dlZns
[iv] http://www.bjp.org/manifesto2014
[v] http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-two-years-of-modi-govt-nda-s-work-will-be-written-in-golden-words-in-history-says-amit-shah-2216140
[vi] http://econ.lse.ac.uk/staff/mghatak/UPA-EPW.pdf
[vii] http://www.ideasforindia.in/article.aspx?article_id=1631
[viii] http://ajitkarnik.blogspot.ae/2014/06/did-upa-destroy-economy-counterfactual.html
[ix] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/rahul-gandhi-new-congress-president-coronation-take-over-sonia-gandhi-2829350/
[x] http://www.thehindu.com/specials/in-depth/jawaharlal-nehru-university-row-what-is-the-outrage-all-about/article8244872.ece
[xi] http://thewire.in/2016/02/20/times-nows-first-denies-airing-doctored-video-then-concedes-it-did-22148/
[xii] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/jnu-umar-khalid-sedition-anirban-jnusu-kanhaiya-kumar/
[xiii] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/jnu-row-behind-govt-claim-a-fake-hafiz-saeed-tweet/
[xiv] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/kanhaiya-kumar-patiala-house-court-delhi-police-bs-bassi-supreme-court/
[xv] http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/dalit-scholar-rohith-vemulas-suicide-letter-clarity-of-a-suicide-note/article8130703.ece
[xvi] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/politics/for-vip-minister-hrd-sent-five-reminders-to-university/
[xvii] http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/rohith-vemula-suicide-duty-doctor-challenges-hrd-min-irani-s-claim/story-tKW57fjjzAY9ZSk1to3POO.html
[xviii] http://www.asianage.com/india/bjp-cautions-smriti-irani-drama-039
[xix] http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/saw-rahul-gandhi-smiling-during-rohith-vemula-debate-snapped-smriti-irani-to-ndtv-1411683
[xx] http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/live-modi-speaks-at-government-s-second-anniversary-celebration/story-4YCATIjWu9QEyU5MvDkkBN.html
[xxi] https://www.transparency.org/cpi2015/
[xxii] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/VHP-to-launch-a-major-Ghar-Wapsi-drive/articleshow/51436577.cms
[xxiii] http://thewire.in/2015/10/05/bjp-rss-leaders-caught-using-love-jihad-bogey-to-fuel-communal-polarisation-12409/
[xxiv] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/shah-rukh-khan-a-pakistani-agent-should-go-there-sadhvi-prachi/
[xxv] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/politics/if-bjp-loses-crackers-will-go-off-in-pakistan-amit-shah/
[xxvi] http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/sakshi-stokes-another-controversy-asks-hindus-to-have-4-kids/article6763837.ece
[xxvii] http://www.hindustantimes.com/bollywood/being-tolerant-twitterati-slams-aamir-khan-wants-to-boycottdangal/story-ZOMAIvHjpg4aPaQp8oroiO.html
[xxviii] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/next-door-to-delhi-mob-kills-50-year-old-injures-son-over-rumours-they-ate-beef/
[xxix] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/rename-akbar-road-after-maharana-pratap-as-honour-to-the-great-son-of-india-v-k-singh/
[xxx] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Beef-politics-PM-upset-Amit-Shah-summons-leaders-over-controversial-remarks/articleshow/49438189.cms
[xxxi] http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/no-reprimand-from-amit-shah-sangeet-som-sakshi-maharaj/article7780186.ece
[xxxii] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/dadri-lynching-up-cm-questions-authenticity-of-report-2828884/
