Two phases of elections are over. Analysts will keep discussing claims and counterclaims on the impact of lower voting. The desperation in the Opposition camp on projecting the INDI alliance as an alternative has led to a bizarre proposal that there could be one prime minister for one year to avoid conflict of leadership.
Strange but true that the Opposition would do everything to convert their hatred of Narendra Modi — a hatred that emanates from fear — into a tool for political mobilisation. They are fighting a losing battle with their feet on the edge. One more term for Modi and the country would witness a great transformation in the political, social and economic lives of the nation. This is something that happened in Singapore under the leadership of Lee Kuan Yew who got rid of corruption and created a system that delivered economic and social prosperity to the people of the tiny Island state.
India is no Singapore and hence it would take more time to achieve the same transformation. Modi has already started a movement where opening a business establishment is more rewarding than trying to make money out of politics. The old system is getting replaced gradually. The Damocles Sword hangs over the heads of everyone who has made money by misusing the system. The need to maintain compliance has gone down the throats of habitual violators who thought they could deal with the system using political clout.
Many others are unhappy with Modi because his determination to cleanse the system demanded that the bottlenecks be removed. The middlemen who pocketed 85 of the government largesse meant for the poor would definitely be not happy. They have lost money and also the control over the system which they managed by posing as benefactors to the poor. Now the prime minister interacts directly with the beneficiaries to know their lives.
It was always fashionable amongst youths to be a Leftist because the Utopian ideology inspired them and allowed them to live an existence where dreams and imagination met the idea of arm-chair revolution. The Leftists tried to maintain their hegemony by giving ideological support to the Congress and, in exchange, got a big share of the booty that the education department provided such as scholarships, foreign tours, teaching assignments and also control over the minds of children by manipulating the NCERT syllabus.
The Modi regime has changed that. While some Leftists may have sneaked into the system by posing as nationalists (a term anathema to any genuine Leftist), by and large, the system is getting cleansed. Real issues of cultural rootedness and survival as representatives of one of the oldest civilisations have started figuring prominently in the intellectual discourse.
Those who believe that India is a nation of nationalities imagine India emerging out of the womb on August 15, 1947. Ideologues of this thinking often articulate that unity is a forced one and if enough pressure is exercised from within, the society would explode. It is this thinking that sees a Tamil as different from a Bihari, or imagines cutting off India from the chicken neck.
The counter viewpoint which is the nationalist narrative recognises the constitutionality of 1947 or 1950 but sees India as a unity that evolved over generations whereby, a national identity was created in the past of India or Bharat being one nation. Nation here is not a mere state defined by a definite boundary. It exists in the hearts and minds of people when they crisscross from one place to the other. It is this unity and cohesion that has withstood the 400 years of Islamic rule and more than 200 years of British rule.
Modi has accentuated the nationalist narrative and mixed it with a liberal economic ideology that would remove fretters and enable every Indian to dream big and realise his dream. The dream of a $5 trillion economy would be realised only if the country is able to have more and more entrepreneurs and businesses.
This thinking is opposed to those who created some rich people by funding cronies and in return got favours during elections. The era of the Raj where Indian businesses survived at the whims and fancies of British officials transformed into the era of the Brown sahibs where license and permit ruled the roost. A fresh breath of air came during the regime of former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao. Dr Manmohan Singh could have done much better but the retrograde Leftist and NGO mentality did not give him free hands. Modi has unleashed energy that would make rollback impossible. He has converted development and faster development into an ideology.
In earlier times, the government used to change but Lutyens’ Delhi always prevailed. This was understood in the adage prevalent in Delhi, shown in the movie The Kashmir Files: “They have the government but the system is ours”. The Vajpayee government brought many changes but it could not take the Lutyens’ Delhi by the horns since he was dictated by coalition compulsions.
There used to be an unwritten law that the holy cows (important leaders) in Opposition parties would not be touched but the lesser minions could be sacrificed. Change of government, therefore, did not matter much till there were pliable bureaucrats and friendly politicians who would oblige by doing a few errands for the Opposition as well. In such a vast system of government and administration, nobody would actually notice. The media would also keep these holy cows happy.
Modi’s ascension changed this overnight. Modi had come on the promise of change and transformation and was bound by his promises. In trying to fulfil these promises, he had no other way but to ride roughshod over those who had hijacked the system. The Congress and other Opposition parties are clueless on how to tackle Modi. He has no friends who can influence him though he may listen to their advice if given in the interest of the country.
Those who had indulged in corruption when in power are finding the noose of the law closing in on them in a gradual way. The agencies of the government have been given the freedom to do their job without fear. Whether it is Rahul Gandhi or Mamata Banerjee or Lalu Prasad Yadav, the thread that unites them is the same: the fear of the law and the failure to discover ways to tackle Modi.
The writer is the convener of the media relations department of the BJP and represents the party as a spokesperson on TV debates. He has authored the book ‘Narendra Modi: The Game Changer’. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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