India seems to be going through troubling times. Not that it’s a new phenomenon, as politics evolves something new every day in the life of nations. But Indian politics is of a varied variety. The total number of political parties, with members who come in different ideological packages; the number of states, with some having regional parties in charge of daily affairs; and the number of politicians across the land makes politics phenomenal. It led to Prof. John Kenneth Galbraith, who was US Ambassador to India, to remark that the country was a “functioning anarchy.” Now we have a self-declared and self-obsessed anarchist in Arvind Kejriwal ruling Delhi, the capital of the nation and also a “half-state,” the second time.
Rethinking Prof. Galbraith’s bold assertion – and assessment – of India during those fateful years, under Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, seems to apply to India permanently. India then was making small steps towards progress with Nehru’s socialism as its foundation. The RSS was ever-present then, having shot into prominence with one of its members, Nathuram Godse, doing a shameful deed of assassinating Mahatma Gandhi. It was looked upon as a thorn in India’s side and continues to be so even today. Godse is a hero to the RSS. The learned professor seems to have had a visionary foresight, as his predictions have stayed true all these years. And his prophetic words may remain to haunt India for all times.
(As a side note, let me inform that Prof. Galbraith also has relevance to Goa. Goans, particularly freedom fighters and those who favoured Liberation, should thank him for playing a small but significant role in backing Nehru’s takeover of Goa by military action. A Canadian by origin, this renowned economist chose to work in the USA and was picked by John F. Kennedy to serve as US Ambassador during the years when India-Portuguese diplomacy was tense and torrid over the issue of Goa.)
Prof. Galbraith came to mind with the current situation in Indian polity. The sudden rise of Narendra Modi has obviously given rise to the NaMo phenomenon. From Gujarat to Delhi, has been a glorious journey which is compared to the US President Abraham Lincoln’s birth in a log-cabin and his final tenancy of the White House. Not only that, Modi is also looked upon as someone who could wipe out Nehru’s long-standing record of being India’s prime minister. Right now, the prospect of Modi going that far is uncertain.
In the short journey so far in the hot-air atmosphere of Delhi politics, Modi seems to be still working at ways to come to grips with the reign of power. In Gujarat, Modi held the reign of power as a monarch. Though he’s trying to replicate his Gujarat dominance in Delhi, the going for him won’t be easy. There are too many hurdles and the Opposition parties aren’t going to let him trample over them. It’s a long haul before Modi establishes himself and thus prove to be as good, if not better, statesman like Nehru. Modi has performed spectacularly well on the diplomatic front by getting Barack Obama to drink ‘chai’ with him. However, success of it will come in terms of investment. There hasn’t yet been a beeline of US entrepreneurs to set up shops for the “Make in India” invitation.
On the home front, Modi came a cropper when the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) swept the rug from under his feet by winning the Delhi assembly elections. It was not that the writing was on the wall, as the BJP made desperate attempt by getting the motor-mouth Kiran Bedi to do its bidding in the electoral battleground. The NaMo phenomenon got a rude shock. In the process, the BJP learnt a hard lesson.
The promises made at the general election had not materialized before Delhi went to the polls. Modi’s silence over communal disturbances, some in the form of burnt churches, was deafening. Things came to such a pass that Modi had to break his vow of silence and assure the minorities of the government’s concern for their hurt feelings, particularly the Christians. Too late, and seemingly a “damage control” exercise. Delhi poll result had probably given the BJP a jolt. However, one has to see if Modi walks the talk.
Hardly had Modi spoken out against religious intolerance raging over the land and which threatened to break the back of secular India, the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, like a cobra raising its head, came out against Mother Teresa. Modi’s silence over Bhagwat’s sinful accusation is a case in point that the BJP government can turn a blind eye when it comes to confront the mother lode of the BJP. If not for RSS proving him with political baptism, Modi would be languishing as a RSS pracharak in Gujarat instead of becoming its chief minister. Having overseen the communal firestorm under his watch, the RSS helped him leapfrog to Delhi, sidestepping the veterans. The RSS remains as the bête noire of India’s communal life.
The RSS has served as a school of hard knocks for some of the BJP politicians of today. Isn’t Manohar Parrikar a product of the RSS grounding? He also graduated from being a RSS pracharak to Goa’s chief minister for three times. Modi air-lifted Parrikar, as both are RSS fellow-travellers, to Delhi. Many Goans look upon Parrikar as “mini-Modi”, as Parrikar has certain traits similar to Modi. The camaraderie between the two was evident at the BJP meet in Panjim, which Parrikar hosted, and ultimately served as a springboard for Modi’s elevation.
In fact, the BJP, after coming to power at the Centre, has shown wayward arrogance and diminishing attention to the travails of the common man. Modi woos the industrialists, some of who were his cohorts in his Vibrant Gujarat days, in his avowed “Vikas yatra”. The common man who launched him into political stratosphere are still awaiting the “achhe din” promised to him. As they say, it gets worse before it gets better.
True, India needs development for its teeming generation. But going about it in a rightful way and without bypassing the legitimate concerns of the lay person is a way forward. Not by shortcut and rough-shod methods, as the BJP has displayed. The whiplash the BJP got in Delhi shows that the BJP paid the price for misplacing its priorities. However, there seems a silver lining to this dismaying Delhi sideshow, with the BJP retaining Panjim in the by-poll. Thanks to Parrikar’s tentacles-like hand doing the manipulation to keep the seat warm for him, if he wishes to return wants to Panjim in the eventuality the BJP meets the fate, as it ran into the Delhi polls, at the next general hustings.
(Eugene Correia is a senior journalist who worked for The Hindu and The Free Press Journal)
