As the nation heads into the election season to elect its representatives in the Lok Sabha the jury is out and divided as to who is better, who will win, who should win and all gloves are off. Journalists who are supposed to be neutral and the 4th pillar of democracy have become 5th columnists whichever viewpoint you look at them from. Some have decided to come out of the closet after having leveraged their position to promote the views of their preferred politics and contesting elections. Yet others are unapologetic about their being cheer leaders of their preferred politics.
Never before in the history of
this nation was there as much polarisation of political views as in the past 5
years. Never before had there been such involvement of the common every day
citizen in politics. Every street corner, every chai and coffee shop, every break
in the office meetings, every chance encounter in a park, mall anywhere with
friends, even casual conversations with total strangers in public areas, every
other Whatsapp group the discourse on politics is all pervasive. This is the
best thing to happen to India – and though the reader may agree or not, this
has happened due to just one person – Modi. Let’s try to understand why.
The detractors of Modi
regularly critique that he has divided society, religions, people and in short
they blame every difference of opinion, habit, lifestyle on Modi. They may be
very well right on this but that is like saying that a sick patient has fever. That
he has fever is a fact, nobody can deny that but is that the disease? Is that
what he is suffering from? Reality is that the disease is something different.
It can be anything from a common flu virus to a deadly cancer. But to focus on
the fever and discussing that would be detrimental to the health of the
patient. To me this critique of Modi is like blaming and focussing on the fever
because we don’t want to investigate and find out what the disease is.
Let’s step back over the last
7 decades till 2014. What was common to Indian politics? The Indian freedom
struggle was under a common umbrella of the Congress. It didn’t matter whether
you agreed with specific decisions, ideas, plans but you agreed upon one thing
– you were Indian and wanted freedom from British rule. Everything else didn’t
matter. The only strong viewpoint was from the Muslim league which with the
creation of Pakistan disappeared. The other strong viewpoint was RSS but they
couldn’t and didn’t go anywhere. Their fate was linked to India. But even if
people had divergent viewpoints, they all came under this Congress umbrella.
Congress was like a brand, an
identity, and if in 1947 as suggested by the Mahatma the Congress had been
dissolved, the politics of this country would have taken a far more mature,
decisive turn. That is because these divergent voices in the society would have
created their own identities and fought elections without being linked to a
common umblical cord. India, the
identity of India would have been the umblical cord that would have bound them.
But instead what happened was
that Congress metamorphosised into a political party in independent India and everybody
even if they had different ideas on how to run the country was still a part of
it. Their DNA remained. The parentage was common. So, you had a Subhas Chandra
Bose rebelling, but still a Congressman. You had a Sardar Patel who worked with
Congress even if he did not see eye to eye on most issues with Nehru and often
compromised because Nehru was a friend. You
had a Sardar Patel banning the RSS which has always revered him as god and as the
man who united India. You had a Nehru who involved RSS into being a part of the
republic day parade and hobnobbed with them even if he didn’t agree with their
views. In short India was one large political family united in brand and DNA
(Congress) but divided in ideas and vision.
As would happen with family’s
divisions happen and so different political offshoots got created. The level of
differences of vision and ideas was such that this brand Congress has never got
even 50% votes ever. One would expect that given their giant presence they
would at least start their life as any brand leader should with close to 100%
market share. This shows the divergent views within the country even from the first
days of independence.
But then blood is thicker than
water. Just as a Mukesh will bail out an Anil to prevent him from going to jail,
however much there was divergence of views, the politicians, the parties were
all the same brand Congress but called by different names. This situation has
prevailed in India since 1947 and did so until that fateful day in 2014 when a
man named Modi took over.
I would say rather bluntly
that from 1947 to 2014 India has never had a non-Congress government. We have
had a pure Congress government for over 5 decades and some others masquerading
as a non-Congress government. Just go do a search of every political leader and
you will find them having started their political journey with the Congress –
barring some very rare exceptions.
The result of this was that
the citizens of India were being fooled all the time till 2014 and even if a
Vajpayee was PM and it was supposedly a BJP government the bonhomie and filial relationships
were intact. Everybody scratched each other’s back. That is why when an Arvind
Kejriwal said – Sab miley huve hain – it found resonance and he won 67 out of
70 seats in Delhi. That he completely
betrayed the trust of a generation and after having positioned himself as the
only genuine non-Congress party/leader is now begging to join hands with
Congress is a story that needs no repetition.
Whenever the Congress was in
power, as they did for long, they fed, clothed and looked after the brothers in
opposition. They did a Mukesh by bailing them out whenever needed. The so
called opposition was beholden to the elder brother, the patriarch Congress
that when successive generations took control of the party and anybody felt
uncomfortable they did the best thing they could to massage their ego – created
a Congress in a different name and still remained subservient to the mother
ship but mentally felt that they were taller, freer and leaders in their own
right. They lived and live a false life, a mirage but then they are happy with
it, so be it. Just check the names of the supposedly different parties of leaders
like Mamata, Pawar. Those who’s ego’s were higher or were trying to be smarter,
took the Janata tag but they still had their Congress umbilical cord intact.
These opposition including BJP enjoyed the crumbs that were thrown at them
under the table by the ruling Cong. Over time this became a addiction where
none of the non-Congress parties/ leaders had any fire in their belly. If they
won, fine, if they didn’t then equally fine, they didn’t lose anything except
that car with a red beacon.
That is why you will see that
till 2014, Indian politics has seen apparently strange bedfellows – TMC, TDP, DMK,
AIADMK, NC, PDP, JDS, JDU, BJD, BSP, SP, CPM - you name it they have shared a
bed with brand Congress or brand BJP without any qualms. They have also been
the tail that wagged the dog. All criticism was muted knowing well that sooner
than later they would be a team. The opposition to each other was more for
public consumption. Even the political
families were no different. Between a mother, son, nephew, niece etc they
straddled all parties and shared the spoils of power irrespective of who was in
power. Just look at 2009-14 when the BJP under their geriatric leadership
supported and helped Cong to pass every pernicious bill in parliament which
today they want to change but nobody is supporting them.
2014 changed all that. Modi
kick started the government by insisting that anyone above 70 cannot find a
place in the leadership team. He said that a family cannot have more than one
person in a position of power. These were new rules nobody had heard of.
Further the NDA alliances formed were on the assumption that it was business as
usual. But the Modi/Shah combine had other ideas. The new rules were that partners
listened to the PM, the leadership of the PM was sacrosanct and undisputed. If
anybody wished to walk away, they could. JDU and SS did walk away but soon
realised that they needed to play by the new rules and were back.
When you look back on the work
done over the last 5 years – readers can debate, discuss, agree, disagree on
various issues from economics to agriculture to defence to whatever – but, the
approach has been very different. From a stage where governments leaked like a
sieve with every information available either for a price or to a friendly
journalist, the secrecy is unparalleled. Nothing is known to the public till it
is officially announced and that’s how a government must function. Every major
decision is a surprise that on 27th March when Modi announced he
would address the nation, the defining moment of this election, the ultimate
Freudian slip was by Shashi Tharoor of Congress who said this.
Be it evicting over 1500
tenants from Delhi bungalows or stopping access to media or the cleaning of
Ganga/Varanasi or the response to Pakistan with public announcement or even a much-debated
demonetisation the Modi govt has been contrarian, unapologetic about its philosophies
& has approached governance like a corporate. Many have said that Modi has
been a hard task master, demanded accountability and this penchant to take
calculated risks has never been seen before. The man has surprised the nation and the world more than once and that is a good thing to happen.
For the first time in 7
decades when you look at the government and the opposition you actually see a
stark difference. Again, whether you agree with the policies or decision is
irrelevant, the fact of the matter is that India for the first time has two
very differing points of view, policies, attitudes and dare say even behaviour.
This is the best thing that can happen to a country.
It is no longer business as
usual. The opposition is truly an opposition, the lines of relationship have
been redrawn. When there is a government the opposition will no longer be given
crumbs to enjoy. The politicians have to have the fire in the belly to win, to
get elected, to convince the people and then when elected work to stay in
power. It’s no longer a chalta hain attitude and that the spoils of government
would continue to be available even if one loses. What we have seen in the last 5 years + is the
BJP team having to work hard to win, have the desire and fire to win, the
energy, the undiluted focus towards victory and there is no excuse for defeat.
THIS is the change that Modi and team have achieved. The focus is to bring
fresh faces, new faces, faces with potential and the hunger to win. Faces that
will deal with opposition on merit as Team India but not as quid pro quo.
THAT is why you see at the end
of 5 years a visceral hatred of Modi, a one-point agenda of the entire
opposition – remove Modi. Not one party is articulating any economic or defence
or agriculture vision. They simply talk of freebies and then every second
sentence is about Modi.
THIS change means that India even
if Modi wins or loses will have two major opposing viewpoints. Whatever the
situation the opposition will not join hands with the government – just see the
reactions even to terror attacks, air strikes and the opposition to Modi is evident,
never mind that in the process it ends up looking anti India by default. No government
can now get bills passed in parliament unless they have a majority and democracy
works or they carry along the opposition in a professional manner and not
because they have a drink together later.
But such change to find firm
roots takes time. Initially the change is always fearful, scary but change we
need. If we don’t get the change, what we will be doomed to live with is a
Congress, a Congress wearing Saffron, a Congress wearing Green, a Congress
wearing Blue, a Congress wearing Red. Modi has demonstrated that he brings
change. Just as the change in 2014 made the Gandhi family discover Hinduism a
2019 will make the BJP family discover other religions to co-opt. Just as Modi has
forced debates on holy cows like Art 370, Art 35, Triple talaq and the right
wing economics finding a voice the opposition will force debates on religious freedom
and attempts to change history of temples/mosques and a more egalitarian society.
India is far too diverse for any one faction to rule or to be kept out. Such arguments
are more scare mongering and political rhetoric. Nobody can implement them. Time
will ensure that political waters find their level and the muck settle down.
If not his ideas, vision,
politics just the behaviour of the opposition, the involvement of the citizens
with clear view points are all changes which will change the country going
forward. There will be some churn, heartburn, but things will settle down. Hopefully
soon we will have a nation where in its offices, come election time, citizens
will come wearing their party T shirt but still work as a team and as friends –
a la USA. The citizens will force their politicians to behave, to perform, to show
results and make politics truly competitive.
The 2019 -2024 period will
ensure that this political divide matures into something more than just
personality wars but into something more enduring like economic, defence and
other policies with differing viewpoints but with a common goal. For such
change to happen, to make the change more firm and rooted, for strength in this
change to become enduring, for the country and its citizens to become mature
politically – Modi needs to win and win big. Yes there will be mistakes,
missteps but finally we will have two teams where we know that the match being
played is exciting and not match fixing. Where the game, meaning the nation India
wins. Where the citizens of India win. For this as I said – a different model
must win and be given time to mature – and that is why Modi must win again in
2019.
The debate in 2024 will be
about performance, vision, leadership and not whether you want Modi or not.
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