Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a grudge. No, the grudge isn’t about Chinese intrusion or Pakistani mischiefs. The grudge is against fellow Indians who can’t digest India’s progress. No other prime minister had imagined an enemy — Indians who are so perverse that they abhor a rising India — in the last 77 years after Independence. Has a great civilisation of a glorious history of thousand years really become so perverse, or the prime minister has misinterpreted his own political insecurities as people’s betrayal?
The conspiracy theory almost marred the festive mood on the Independence Day. Addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Modi said:
“Hum sankalp ke saath badh toe rahe hain, bahut aage badh rahe hain, lekin yah bhi sach hai ki kuchh log hote hain jo pragati dekh nahin sakte hain. Kuchh log Bharat ka bhala soch nahin sakte hain. Jab tak khud ka bhala na ho, tab tak unko kisi ka bhala achha nahin lagta. Aise vikrit maansikta se bhare huye logon ki kami nahin hoti hai. Desh ko aise logon se bachna hoga. We nirasha ke gart mein doobe huye log hain (We are marching ahead with resolve, we are going far, but there is another truth that there are some people who cannot digest India’s progress. Some people cannot visualise good things for India’s. Till their own vested interests are not served, they don’t like anybody’s progress. There is no dearth of people having such a perverse mindset. The nation must be ware of such people. These people are filled with cynicism).”
Modi went on:
“Aise mutthi bhar nirasha ki gart mein doobe huye log jab unke goad mein vikriti palti hai, tab wo vinash ka kaaran ban jaati hai. Sarvnash ka kaaran ban jaati hai. Anarchy ka marg le leti hai aur tab desh ko itni badi haani ho jaati hai jiski bharpai karne mein hame naye sire se mehnat karni padti hai. Isiliye aise jo chhut-put nirashawadi tatva hote hain, wo sirf nirash hain itna hi nahin hai, unki goad mein vikriti pal rahi hai. Yah vikriti vinash ke, sarvnash ke sapne dekh rahi hai. Tane-bane jodne ke prayas mein lagi hai. Desh koi se samajhna hoga (Such handful cynical people, when perversion is nurtured in their laps, then it becomes the reason for destruction. For total destruction. It takes the route of anarchy and then the country suffers such a damage that we have to restart the efforts to rebuild. These handful cynical people are not only hopeless, they nurture perversion also. This perversion is dreaming of destruction, total destruction. They are trying to network. The country must understand this).”
While some people can find philosophical flaws in Modi’s argument, wondering how a handful of cynical people plan total destruction, the larger question is why a robust prime minister so worried about them after winning the consecutive third term and who are these people who cannot digest India’s progress? If these people have a problem with India’s rise, they are not cynical, they are subversive and anti-national. Yes, anti-national. Has the prime minister forgotten the pet slur of his ideological fraternity?
Who are the people the prime minister is hinting at? The voters who punctured Modi’s 400-plus balloon, whittling it down to 240? Or the Opposition parties that raised questions about jobs, prices and social justice? Is Rahul Gandhi cynical, nay subversive, because he talked about giving minimum support price to farmers and financial assistance to poor women at a time when Modi was singing bhains-mujra-mangalsutra?
Is Akhilesh Yadav cynical and anti-India because he stuck to his agenda of uplift of backwards and minorities? Are Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar anti-national because they survived despite destruction of their government and parties? Is Mamata Banerjee cynical and anti-national because she defeated the BJP’s desperate machinations to capture Bengal? Is the DMK cynical because it derailed the BJP’s southern juggernaut?
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Or the prime minister was hinting at the farmers who protested against the farm laws and the women wrestlers who revolted against sexual exploitation? Or the prime minister found fault with the civil society that gave voice to the sufferings of Manipur? Or the prime minister was angry at the youth resenting the “perverse” Agniveer scheme that would retire them in four years? Or the prime minister was rattled by the Congress party’s sustained campaign against the Adani group’s murky dealings? Or the prime minister was frustrated because the alternate media still spoke the truth despite the surrender of the mainstream media?
The prime minister cannot make such serious allegations — of subversive activities — in vague terms. He is duty-bound to clearly articulate his concerns. A leader who has been the chief minister for 13 years and the prime minister for 10 years cannot brand a section of citizens as anti-national and get away with it. There is, after all, no greater tragedy for a nation than its government standing against its own citizens.
Modi should not be allowed to move on without a credible explanation about who he was condemning as anti-India. Are the Opposition parties asking questions about jobs, prices, caste injustice, corporate loot and Chinese intrusion anti-national? Are the activists, journalists and intellectuals articulating their concerns on vital national issues traitors? Patriotism is not Modi’s monopoly and India was freed from the shackles of slavery and turned into a modern nation-state much before Modi arrived on the national horizon.
Modi’s boastful claims on development, reforms and corruption also suggested he has presumed intellect is dead in this great country. He speaks as if the audience is bound to listen in unquestioning obedience, without using their brains. He described this phase as golden era, forgetting that internal sabotage isn’t an attribute of such a miraculous time, arguing how the aspirations of youths soared in the last 10 years.
He said:
“Countless opportunities for employment, which never came in the seven decades after Independence, are knocking their doors. New opportunities abound. My country’s youth is not interested in slow progress now. My country’s youth now doesn’t believe in incremental progress. He is in the mood to make a long jump.”
The only big jump the country has seen is of Gautam Adani, jumping to the second position in the global ranking of richest persons from a position below 600 in a few years. Independent agencies have regularly reported how unemployment in India had acquired dreadful dimensions but Modi has refused to acknowledge.
On corruption, the astonishing claims about an “honest crusade” sounded laughable against the material evidence available at multiple levels. Many prominent leaders who were branded as corrupt by the BJP were embraced while opponents were ruthlessly hounded. Courts have repeatedly remarked on lack of evidence and the Enforcement Directorate track record bears testimony to the political vendetta theory.
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The demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to look into the countless allegations against Adani have been stonewalled. Even the Rafale deal was not investigated, despite credible evidence of norm violations. The selection of officers for key positions has regularly triggered controversies. But Modi said he had staked his own prestige in the fight against corruption. He expressed bewilderment at some Opposition parties hailing the corrupt, without explaining why tainted leaders were holding key positions in BJP governments.
Modi has his own yardsticks to judge success and good governance. He presented the “Har Ghar Tiranga” movement, in which every citizen hoisted the national flag at his house, as a proof of freedom from caste, class and religious discrimination. While the campaign miserably failed this time, with barely 5 to 10% of people displaying the tricolour even in BJP-sympathetic housing societies in most cities, this can scarcely be the benchmark to measure equality. What takes the cake is his claim that the incomes of every individual has doubled in the last 10 years. There is no empirical data to vindicate this claim.
Sanjay K Jha is a senior journalist.
