Four years Of Mr Modi : Gaming the constitution

Part VI

Not far down into his five year mandate , Mr Modi on 26th Feb 2015  declared “My govt’s only religion is ‘India first’, holy book is constitution”

To imbrue a constitutional innings with a religious hue runs an obvious risk . Failure to deliver attracts the additional indictment of blasphemy. The need to maintain constitutional rectitude ,thus , rests heavier on the shoulders. 

At the core of the ‘holy’ book lie institutions established by the constitution, the inviolate pillars of our political edifice  that dispense the rule of the law equitably. These pillars need continual  chiselling to stand out as authentic embodiments of a vibrant democracy , else they degenerate into dust bowls of democracy that Russia and Turkey, to name a few, are today.

And Karnataka cataclysm was a chop not a chisel at prominent pillar - Governorship. The grotesque power grab that unfolded besides raising an obnoxious stink left behind a worrisome presage. Despite seventy years of democracy it is still feasible for an unscrupulous regime determined to have its way at any  cost, to cook up different versions of the ‘holy’ book to suit its immediate purposes. One Governor ignores the largest single party and lets an alliance stitched up, post poll, into government formation, another debunks a similar post poll alliance with verified majority to let the single largest party cobble up majority by devious means and deliver a government born in illegitimacy. 

Ironically, both acted on the advice of the same Centre governed by PM ,Mr Modi. Can it therefore be said that Mr Modi acted true to his oath “I will do right to all manner of people in accordance with the Constitution and the law, without fear or favour, affection or ill-will.” ? 

Such instances of governors’ misuse of discretion or stepping outside gubernatorial propriety have multiplied manifold in Mr Modi’s charge. Mr Rajkhowa within a few months of his arrival fuelled existing dissensions in Arunachal Pradesh Congress. A bizarre spectacle remincent of the Aaya Ram Gaya Ram phase of politics in Haryana played out soon. ‘kangaroo’ courts of rebel MLAs held in Conference halls of  hotels , elected a ‘Chief Minister’, impeached the Speaker, and the deemed ‘assembly’ passed a vote of confidence in the Chief Minister elect. The  Centre waiving  the requirement of a majority or lack of it being determined on the floor of the assembly and nowhere else, endorsed the rebels cause by imposing President’s rule. 

Some Governors have refused to stay within their role. Anandiben, Governor of MP, suffers no qualms in holding training camps in the state for BJP workers. The governor of Kerala refuses to read parts of address critical to Mr Modi. And so on. 

Disconcertingly ,overwhelming voices in the media choose to glorify unholy power grabs facilitated by governors as masterstrokes . Ram Madhav with a smug smile suffusing his countenance unabashedly proclaims on TimesNow, in case of numbers falling short, ‘ Don’t worry, we have Amit Shah”, much to the delight of the news anchors presentand chagrin of constitution lovers. Media too has abdicated its watchdog role for a cheerleader of government, its handbag poodle. The fourth Estate proper  is now much shrivelled  in size, a pale shadow of itself, its voice a cry in wilderness . 

Even the judiciary is being banefully impacted. The Centre refuses to settle the MOP for appointment of judges, uses its monopoly of issuing notifications of appointment and giving vigilance clearances to flex muscles in appointments to higher judiciary or cherry-pick judges to notify, KM Joseph is the latest victim ostensibly for hailing from a state that GOI feels is over represented in SC. The real reason is not too difficult to divine- quashing of centre’s  dismissal of UK congress govt. If over representation is a defining criterion one can legitimately ask why all material administrative posts are manned by only Gujarat cadre personnel - from CEC to NIA to RBI Governor ? 

While the constitution guarantees certain freedoms to all its citizen, the state seems hell bent on curtailing it. Harsh criticism ,in some cases even caricaturing of Mr Modi ,is likely to bring the Some restrictions are imposed to pander to sensivities of Hindus.  Cow slaughter, and beef-eating are strictly anathema to Hindus and banned in most states. Fine, but making a concession here  opens the door a little for other ban demands on same grounds. No meat on Hindu festival days, no meat eaters in Vegan localities, no onions and garlic too in stricter vegan ones..... There will be no end to it . In Haryana and UP lately ,voices are being raised in sympathetic constitutional quarters against Muslims offering Namaz in open public spaces , presumably for the same subterranean reasons.. Promoting  majoritarianism is starkly unconstitutional. 

The litany of constitutional workarounds being practiced by the present regime is long , including selective use of CBI, NIA , ED to target political opponents, safe passage to economic offenders like Mallya .Modis and Choksis, burying Panama Papers , dropping cases or refusal to collect evidence of wrong doing against cronies......What can be a more eloquent testimony of how friendly caged parrots have become that even Kathua rapists demand their case being investigated by CBI in a state ruled by BJP ! 

Undeniably ,other regimes in the past too have gamed the constitution and set wrong ,nay, evil precedents . But that can’t justify its continuance in more virulent forms today. A party claiming to be a party with a difference must be different indeed . 

Four years of Mr Modi : ₹2000 or ₹200 for a ₹1000 note ?

Part V


Economists’ analysis of the state of an economy is a leaf out of the fable of elephant and six blind men. Each sees partial truths, none the whole truth. Else, the world would have been forewarned of boom and doom catastrophes that rocked economies in the past. 

Admittedly, figuring out the net result of greed and sentiments of individuals is no walk in the park . It is no elephant in the room too, for the economy affects each one of us. Hence everyone has an opinion on it. After all, it is a bread and butter reality. 

So, where do we stand today ? To pose the same question figuratively, was the ₹1000 note commandeered by way of demonetisation exchanged for ₹2000 or a ₹200 note? 

To begin with ,the adduced success of a Gujarat Model of vikas held unlimited possibilities of replication at the national level by the very one who pioneered it, Mr N D Modi . A fresh approach, divorced from Nehruvian Fabianism and UPA’s Rights and Entitlements , to management of a tired looking economy was foretold. 

If I have understood it rightly, the model is an amalgam of market economy, anti-povertarianism disfavouring subsidies ,and better administration captured in the catchphrase “ minimum government ,maximum governance” 

But as the day has worn on, the economic management has looked singularly unimaginative. Past schemes have been dusted ,repackaged and relaunched under the names of new icons, the most popular being Deen Dayal Upadhyay. (One wonders why Hedgewar, Golwalkar, the founding fathers of RSS, get a short shrift ,while even a railway station stands baptised with Deen Dayal Upadhyay’s name. ). We see this happen routinely in pharmaceutical industry. A drug patent expires, it gets relaunched under a different brand name by a new manufacturer. Not too innovative, i say. 

‘Modilectuals’ consecrate this resurrection as incrementalism. But it lacks the whiff of fresh air that was to blow with the regime change. True, some of these schemes are muscularly followed up and doing well like Swacch Bharat Abhiyan. Not so other schemes, take village electrification. Of the 6 lac villages,congress rule saw over 9600 villages getting electrified per year over 60 years. Ii took Modi sarkar four years @ 4500 villages per year to electrify  the remaining 18000. That is a half reduced vigour. 

The subsidy regimen, much maligned as promoting povertarianism , continues unabated, adding new ones like free LPG connections. If the Gujarat Model stood for a free market, recent strengthening of the MSP for agricultural produce doesn’t gel with it. Plugging leakages in subsidy administration is noble but isn’t any evidence of economy being nudged towards market control. 

On current evidence, therefore, management of the economy is beset with ideological obfuscation. 

Start-Up India, Stand -Up India, Make in India, Digital India , Skill India ,to name a few ,held 

promise of a structural transformation in GDP in favour of industry. However ,the share of industry in GDP remains unchanged while the services sector continues to grow . Apparently industrial renaissance continues to Sit down.Though it is said that India now is the fastest growing economy amongst the ones that count. But has it done better than its predecessors ?  Let’s see. 

                                                            MMS                      NAMO

GDP growth.                                        1.12                         1.10 

(compound growth rates -Fy12-FY14  for MMS years ,FY15-FY18 for Modi years, at 2011-

12 constant prices)

No earth - shaking numbers and a little worse than its predecessor. The trouble is MMS years were his worst, much calumniated as one in throes of economic paralysis. If so ,what does one say of the lesser Modi numbers ? 

Mind you , Modi sarkar kicked off the block with some god gifted boons (a fact Mr Modi publicly acknowledged , ऐसे 'लकी' हैं, जिससे सत्ता में आने से पेट्रोल, डीजल और दूसरी जरूरी चीजों के दाम गिर जाएं...)— a steamroller majority in Lok Sabha with a divided ,scuppered and chastened opposition ,a steep fall in crude prices ,and a global economy seeing green shoots leafen. 

Like the blind men, Modilectuals will point to many other indices that look to paint a contrary picture. And as in the fable each tells a truth. But at the end of the day , the economic endeavours must lead to rising standards of living, more wealth for the people at the median level, and abatement of income disparities . 

The four years seem to be a lost opportunity on this score. 

1.Per capita GDP hasn’t really taken off .

                                                            MMS                      NAMO

Per capita GDP growth                        1.09                         1.08 

(compound growth rates -Fy12-FY14  for MMS years ,FY15-FY18 for Modi years, at 2011-12constant prices)

2.A Credit Suisse report states, between end 2013 and middle 2017, the wealth of an average adult increased at a compound growth rate of  1.09 %. However, median wealth increased by only 1.05%. 

3.The World Inequality Report 2018 -Top 1% of the income earners appropriated 22% of national income, while the bottom 50% had just 15% of it to share among themselves.   

4.India’s rank in The World Happiness Report 2018 fell from 111 th to 133rd out of 156 countries since 2013 . All ,yes, all our neighbours ranked higher. 

5.The average adult became doubly indebted between 2013 and 2017( Debt per adult shot up to $609 from $335).

Last but not the least is the little matter concerning poverty. The country slipped from 55th rank in 2014 to 100 th rank out of 119 countries in the Global Hunger Index. In the new measure of poverty, Multi-dimensional Poverty Index, MPI, as much as 41 % of population is deemed poor, including 22 crores living in extreme poverty, the destitutes. Another 23% are vulnerable to poverty. Thus 64 % of our 125 cr people who placed their trust in Mr Modi, as he is wont to point out, are in or on verge of poverty. 

India was among the few countries that achieved the MDG in poverty reduction -50% reduction of destitutes in the first 15 years of the millennium  .This momentum needs to be carried forward. Contrarily ,the first thing Modi Raj did was to disown the Tendulkar or Rangarajan poverty line. NITI aayog was tasked to draw a better poverty line. The committee it set up ,  deliberated for two years yet failed to arrive at one. Niti has now abandoned the project, so we don’t have any poverty line . Good or bad a poverty line would have helped in planning and monitoring of progress in reduction of destitutes. 

Sadly, the inescapable conclusion is that distributive justice implied in Sabka saath Sabka Vikas hasn’t translated into reality any better ,if not worse. than in previous regimes. But what rankles is the patent lack of sincerity about it. 

To a farmer compelled to suicide due to crop failures or sub-cost market prices, the Soil Card govt issues looks more of a soiled card. Youth being told to set up pakoda stalls or Paan shops is an abject admission of failure to generate promised employments. The reality of Job losses in the IT sector or of Indian expatriates returning home from Gulf countries due to lay offs has come to strike us nearer home. 

Meanwhile, Modi sarkar is increasingly seen as relentlessly pursuing ,often by hook or crook, a congress mukt agenda to the exclusion of issues of bread and butter. The common man wonders, was that the mandate I gave? Did I want a congress mukt over a poverty mukt Bharat ? 

While Mr Modi’s oratory won many political brownie points in the last four years, his economic management surely has lost as many . 

Four years of Mr Modi : A plate full of ‘Modibole’ !

Part IV 

“History is a pack of lies that we play on the dead.” , said Voltaire. How true !

Longer the dead lie interred, simpler it becomes to graft newer set of lies on ‘history’ to serve newer goals, secure in the knowledge that the dead will not arise to set the record straight . The ingenious ones need feel no qualms in picking and retrofitting those pieces of history that best suit their purpose. Mr Modi has a natural flair for it ,one that he perfected to a tee over a long gestation as Sangh pracharak. And he uses it with telling effect now. Combining historical chicanery with mesmerising oratory he spins a rhetoric that instantly bamboozles the aam aadmi. 

I call it ‘Modibole’, an acronym of Modi and hyperbole. Why Modi ? because he is the leading exponent of it . Modiboles are not momentary lapses of memory, or mere oratorical gaffes . They are well-thought out verbal coup de grace, something of a surgical strike on history wrapped in eloquent sophistry, 

The only spanner in the works is that it leaves a lingering, morally sour aftertaste. 

Let’s look at a few instances for a better understanding. Just four pickings from the recent ones that are still fresh in public memory.

Rahul Gandhi pays a courtesy call to an ailing Lalu Yadav at AIIMS, soon after Mr Modi roars at a poll rally in Bidar 

“when freedom fighters like Bhagat Singh , Batukeshwar Dutt...were jailed did any congress leader go to meet them ? But the congress leaders have the time to meet people who are corrupt and have been jailed.”

A historical subterfuge -despite its principled disavowal of violent means to achieve freedom, Congressi lawyer, Asaf Ali defended them, (Asaf Ali also became the convenor of Congress’s INA Defence Committee). 

A contrived connection of the lie to the present - how does a visit to a jailed ,unassociated Bihari leader or the history of freedom movement square with merits of present choices before Karnataka electorate ?

Yet the imputation is stark, none miss it. Congress is unpatriotic and in company of corrupt. The Reddys and Yeddys of immediate relevance to polls and travelling in Modi’s train can breathe easy, the spot light is turned away. 

There you have it - the anatomy of a typical Modibole. Goebbels at his best. 

Take  Gujarat polls, Modibole hammers- Congress has an anti - Gujarati DNA. It overlooked Sardar Patel and Morarji Desai for PMship. Forgotten in the narrative is that it was another Gujarati, M K Gandhi, that chose Nehru over Patel and for that reason Patel recused himself. Didn’t the Syndicate of which Morarji Desai was a prominent member itself dump him for an outsider ? When history of the present times is recalled a hundred years hence by a congressman would it be proper for him to assert that BJP is anti- UP or anti- MP because neither Rajnath Singh nor Sushma Swaraj is the PM today? 

The third one. While campaigning in Coorg that gave two army chiefs to the country ,Mr Modi says, 

“In 1948, it was under... General Thimayya’s leadership that the war against Pakistan was won. But after that victory, the saviour of Kashmir, General Thimayya, was repeatedly insulted by then Prime Minister Nehru and then defence minister Krishna Menon. And it was for this reason, his honour, that General Thimayya had to resign from his post.”

Fact-check - In 1948 the army chief was Gen Roy Bucher, Thimayya operated under command of corps commander SM Shrinagesh, and Western Army commander Lt Gen Cariappa. Krishna Menon was not then the Defence Minister. There is no contemporary historical record of Nehru humiliating Thimayya at any time. Thimayya became Army Chief in 1957, superseding two senior officers, courtesy Nehru. True, he did resign in 1959 over policy differences with Mr  Menon but it was Nehru who made him withdraw it. But then the dead can not rise from ashes to tell their side of the story.

Finally, Gujarat polls -Somnath temple. 

“When Sardar Patel took up the work of re-construction of Somnath temple, Nehru was unhappy. Your great grandfather Nehru wrote a letter to President Rajendra Prasad when he was to come for the opening ceremony of the temple," PM Modi said

Fact check- Nehru cabinet soon after the merger of Junagarh with India in 1947 approved reconstruction of the Somnath temple. Patel agreed to Gandhi suggestion that funds for it should be collected from public donation, not state exchequer. Its reconstruction was supervised by Union minister K M Munshi.Nehru expressed his reservations about President, Dr Rajendra Prasad inaugurating the temple as

"I confess that I do not like the idea of your associating yourself with a spectacular openingof the Somnath Temple. This is not merely visiting a temple, which can certainly be done by you or anyone else but rather participating in a significant function which unfortunately has a number of implications,

Nehru held to the very end of his life that state shouldn’t be in the business of patronising any religion ; however,  individuals were free to pursue their faith in any manner they deemed fit. Modibole, however,  construes  it as opposition to temple building and a step beyond, anti - Hindu. 

While Modibole is a fresh coat on the past, speculating on  history as would have been , too scores  political brownie points. It insulates the  speaker from being seen as intellectually dishonest .Of  course , the most topical theme in this genre is-how different India would have been if Patel, not Nehru had been PM of independent India. Or as Giriraj Singh would have us speculate “ Agar Rajiv Gandhi koi Nigerian ladki se byaah kiye hote, göri chamra na hota toh kya Congress party uska netritwa sweekarti?” 

I admit to  running a real risk of getting  it all wrong. Purushottam Nagesh Oak  under the aegis of “ Institute for Rewriting India history’  may finally ‘prove’ Modibole ,the truth,  and existing historical literature ,post- truths. The contours of such an Orwellian project are already visible. Text-books in Rajasthan declare Rana Pratap Singh a victor of Haldighati, so Akbar becomes a post-truth. Sangeet Som hollers “ I promise with guarantee that fresh history will be scripted”  after having already written one “ builder of Taj Mahal jailed his own father” . A hitherto unknown  efflorescence in science and technology that invested ancient times with plastic surgery, stem cell transplant, transatlantic aerial voyages on Pushpak viman, and live telecast of Mahabharata war from ground zero, Kurushetra, over TV channel, ‘Sanjaya uvwacch’ is being discovered to boost our national ego. 

In addition to , not exclusion of, the power of their oratory, statesmen in the past moved  their listeners by irrefutable logic in their arguments, and the intrinsic persuasiveness of substance in the convictions they expressed. Opponents drew flak for flaws in their arguments,  and ideological inconsistencies  in their counter- narratives. They did  not slander  or reduce history to a gossip (Oscar Wilde) or a distillation of rumour (Thomas Carlyle) . In short, they didn’t need  Modibole. 

Our  national ethos,  so succinctly   expressed as  Satyamev Jayate. too does not support Modibole. 

Four years of Mr Modi : the ‘honest’ corrupt are more worrisome

Part III

Jesus Christ in his Sermon on the Mount said “they (the meek) shall inherit the earth”. But who shall rule it ? 

We live in kalyuga that Vishnu Purana so presciently foresaw as one where “ kings will be of churlish spirit,violent temper ,and ever addicted to falsehood and wickedness....dishonesty will be the universal means of subsistence..” Till the redeemer, Kalki , arrives the world, therefore, is likely be ruled by the corrupt. 

Or the ‘honest’ corrupt, the more vicious. Like a ruminant they keep regurgitating righteous indignation at the corrupt. All are caluminiated as corrupt who dare not sit on their bandwagon . They carry a laundromat about them. The corrupt ‘others’ are incentivised to drop their ill-gotten coins into it and emerge laundered as Snow White BJP denizens  ; like Himanta Biswa Sarma who BJP identified as the Assam kingpin in Louis Berger bribery case ; like Sukh Ram convicted in telecom scam ; like Mukul Roy of Shradha scam infamy ;like Pema Khandu charged of “corruption and criminal conspiracies” by none other than his former chief ministe, Late Kalikho Pul. Unabashedly, they will rail against the corrupt from a stage populated by men prosecuted for corruption and their political mentors like the Yeddys, the Reddys and Sriramulu. 

The honest are honestly compelled to keep honest company. The ‘honest’ corrupt ,on the other hand ,while they do not allow a single speck of dirt to settle on their jackets, let their ‘fellows’ in sullied clothes dip their hands in muck to achieve the collective goal of Congress mukt Hindu Rashtra first , and the mundane existential concerns of aam aadmi as a byproduct. Any political order that believes in ends justifying the means is well and truly on the corruption highway. 

The honest corrupt will not further an eco system that inhibits corruption like putting a Lokpal in office, and operationalising an effective Whistleblower legislation, and making funding of political parties more transparent. Rather ,it allows floatation of electoral bonds that flow into coffers of political parties anonymously, opening up secret negotiating chambers where corporate donations get weighed and balanced with appropriate quid pro quo. 

The honest corrupt will apply the law uniformly differently. Allegations of Dushyant Singh selling his company shares to Lalit Modi of IPLgate notoriety @100000 per share , or Piyush Goyal his at 1000 times book value to Piramals involving a clash of interest, or Jay Shah’s company sales jumping 16000 times within a year on BJP’s ascent to power at centre are all laughed away. But Kirti Chidambaram gets the stick, hounded by multiple agencies, including CBI & ED looking for straws of evidence , ending finally in arrest for lack of cooperation in investigations. The temerity of not confessing his guilt did him in. 

The honest corrupt will not inquire what suddenly induces MLAs from opposition parties breaking away to it at crucial junctures like RS elections in Gujarat,; or assembly elections in UK, Assam ; or an entire Congress govt in AP shifting to BJP, or how the largest party at hustings, fails to gather majority support but by some queer circumstance, a losing BJP does , whether it be Manipur, Meghalaya, or Goa. 

The honest corrupt are like an umbrella . Under its canopy cronies can go about their business unmolested . Hyigher and Shahl in their typology of corruption include,  

“state capture or regulatory capture - collusion among public and private agents for private benefit “ , 

In layman terms, cronyism. 

And it is here that the honest corrupt are implacable. We will look into it next . 

To be continued.... 

Four years of Mr Modi : Corruption - “ Are you serious ? “

Part II

Mr Modi ,supposedly, won two batches of honour in his decade long stewardship of Gujarat - Anti-Graft crusader and Vikas-purush. Fortuitously, in 2014 ,UPA II offered on a platter the very issues -rampant corruption and an economy put on hold against which Mr Modi was said to have won his spurs. To quote a worn out cliche , he seemed the right man at the right time. 

More than any thing, it was allegations of corruption that threw an obnoxious stink  around UPA II. And Mr Modi in his poll cries exploited it to the hilt, doing a V P Singh ,squared . With malicious glee he tore into the moral legitimacy of Congress to rule, promising his disillusioned, dispirited, aspirational middle class a regime that would  relentlessly, remorselessly hound the corrupt and uproot systems and processes that nurtured graft . 

That was four years ago. Now’s the day of reckoning, has Mr Modi delivered ? 

Take first the reform of eco- system breeding corruption. At the start of his tenure he had three cooked  anti - graft legislations pending enactment. Instead of pushing it through vigorously , he has allowed these to suffer deep legislative paralysis.

1. The Prevention of Corruption Bill 2013 that ropes in bribe-giver and commercial organisations for the first time is in limbo. Contrary to trumpeted intent not to give any quarters to the corrupt, amendments are proposed that dilute rigours of the existing law. Now prior approval is needed not only to prosecute but also investigate cases ; offence of obtaining a valuable thing or monetary reward without public interest has been dropped; and burden of proof shifted from accused to prosecution. 
2. The Whistleblower’s Act 2014 having previously wound its tortuous course through the parliament now stands arrested at the Gazette Notification stage. Meanwhile, hundreds of whistleblowers have lost their lives for lack of protections available under it. The Act will remain ‘unacted’ till amendments freshly proposed redo the legislative rounds. More than the delay, worrisome is the nature of the amendments. They emasculate the Act and dis-incentivise whistleblowers. For instance, disclosure of wrongdoings in institutions covered by the Official Secrets Act will not immunise the whistle against prosecution under the O S Act. Further, exclusions proposed are so wide that only a traffic cop need dread a whistleblower. 
3. Lastly, the big one, Lokpal. In a tortoise plod lasting half a century the Lokpal had finally crossed the finishing line in 2014. It was expected to be in business by now. However in the manner that appointment of a Gujarat Lokayukta was fended off for 10 years till Mr Modi could appoint one on the terms of the executive and to its liking, he neither follows SC directions to recognise the leader of largest party/group as LoP member (in cases where it lacks the numbers to be designated as LoP) in the selection committee, nor fulfils  its promise to amend the Act suitably to this effect.

That is ,one measure stuck at bill level, one at Gazette notification stage , and the last one at the operational level. 

Ironically, these measures along with RTI act came from a regime branded as most corrupt , while a regime with a strong anti-corruption pitch is yet to conceive one but is happy sending those of its predecessors to the morgue. 

The nation with ample justification is left to wonder “ are you serious ? ” 

Maybe the regime relies on stronger enforcement of existing laws to grease its anti-graft crusade. But has it done so and in what manner ?

To be continued . 

Four years of Mr Modi : Half full Half empty or Half full Half air ?

Four years is a tick in the history of a nation but a long long time in politics , long enough to make , unmake a nation. Hitler took much less to emasculate Reichstag, extirpate all other political parties , whip up unbridled Xenophobia against Jews, saturate the populace in jingoistic fervor, demand of the world more lebensraum (living space) and acquire the means to corral it. On the other hand ,just four years of Marshall Plan (1948-52) not only helped rehabilitate the war ravaged economies of Europe but also laid the foundation for its economic integration. 

One can ,therefore, with much legitimacy ignore voices to the contrary and draw up the score sheet of Modi sarkar thus far. 

Mr Modi’s ascent four years ago promised disruptive reconstruction in the true dielectic mould - from a maun leadership to one spewing fire and brimstone on corruption, Lutyens cronism, and maa-bete ki sarkar ;from one writing letters to cantankerous neighbours to one oozing muscularity and in battle readiness to eyeball and bare a 56” chest to them ; from economic paralysis of 60 years to national nirvana in next 60 months; and more. The nation felt a whiff of fresh air pregnant with Acche Din and Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas suffusing its body-politic. 

But in politics, more than anywhere else , things don’t always pan out the way politicians want it to. Herbert Hoover in  his 1928 presidential campaign   famously promised Americans ‘a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage’, what Americans got instead was a  Wall Street crash and Great Depression. Mr Modi has held out a similar promise - ₹15 lacs to each citizen from the stash of black money in Swiss banks that will be brought home. This too has proven as elusive. 

Yeats bemoaned “ Political rhetoric lies to the people”. We in India have a more fanciful name for it ,Jumla . So is rhetoric of Mr Modi all jumla as the opposition would have us believe, or there is substance to it ? Mr Modi loves being seen as an incorrigible optimist. The glass to him is never half empty rather half full of substance and half full of air. The proof of the pudding however is in its eating. So at the end of the day, one needs to know how much air does Mr Modi’s glass hold. 

Over a few pieces I would be sharing my thoughts on it ,a layman’s viewpoint. Learned men would do a more analytical and much better job of it. Still, if the fable where a child is the first to point out  ‘the king is naked’ while more elderly looked on and praised the king’s new dress, holds any lessons, who knows, this layman too may hit upon a grain of truth. 

TO BE CONTINUED ......