Good Intentions Avenue

 Good Intentions Avenue

The road to Hell they say, is paved with good intentions. And perdition awaits the gullible. We already live in a nation state that is echoing the failed state antics of our Islamic neighbour next door. As of now, we mimic Pakistan only in a minor key. But with a daily diet of rapes, murders and terrorist atrocities perpetrated robustly by a bad element running riot in the absence of good government; it is indeed cold comfort.

Indian Law and order is on its knees, the courts are completely over –burdened, and the enforcement agencies are undermanned, under-funded, ill equipped, and ineffective. 

The future leader of the Congress Party, now anointed its Vice President, steadfastly refuses to leave learning mode. On the threshold of his possibly becoming prime minister in 2014, it is just as well there are many competent people in the Congress Party with years of actual hands-on experience of governance to support their leader.

The opposition BJP may have a powerful and proven candidate in Narendra Modi and several others at the top of the heap in BJP run states; but are not blessed with much administrative experience down the ladder.

Besides, unlike the dynastic cohesiveness of the Congress, the BJP seems to be in considerable disarray, with many senior leaders   blatantly jockeying for power. There is consequently much weakening factionalism. In addition, the BJP is remote controlled by an out dated and cabalistic RSS which continues to be its ideological mentor.

The ideological underpinnings of the Congress Party too are confusing, because it leans both Right, in so far as its reformist agenda goes, and Left, in terms of its vision for the upliftment of the poor. Its Socialist past, and years of governing with the support of the Communists internally, and the USSR externally, has partially moulded its DNA.

But even since 1991, when the results of modernisation has placed India in the ranks of the most attractive economies and markets in the world; there remains much hesitation in its policy direction. So the reform agenda is lagging the promises, as is the progress of the national economy as a consequence. So our income is hampered by ideological squeamishness, but our expenses on burgeoning welfarism and a gargantuan government establishment are ever increasing. This makes for a disastrous formula that could end up bankrupting us.

The concern for the poor and aam aadmi is expressed largely in terms of hand-outs and write-offs rather than training, infrastructure development, job creation and the like. Giving a man a fish feeds him for a day as the old adage goes, but the Congress Party refuses to teach him how to fish.

The BJP, on the other hand, practically has no reformist economic vision at present. The original party for small business, shop-keepers, and the middle classes, now has nothing to offer its adherents but ideological rhetoric and reactivity.  Even Hindutva that worked so well to catapult the party to its pole position in national politics, is now old hat.

These days it is economics that sets the tone by default not just in India but the world over, and politics has no choice but to chime in and harmonise. If this does not happen wilfully, there is jarring cacophony and confusion in the mind of the voter.

In Modi’s Gujarat, one can see his commitment to business and industry, and the solid results this has produced; but at the Centre the BJP opposes every reformist move for what appears to be the sake of opposing.

Sadly, the BJP’s performance at the Centre over the last couple of years or more, has more in common with Mamata Banerjee’s arch- left policies in West Bengal rather than Modi’s business friendliness in Gujarat. It is a strange dichotomy that lets the leaders of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha claim Modi won his third term in Gujarat because of his track record on development, without backing similar policies elsewhere. Modi   then is apparently successful despite the BJP and its anachronistic RSS cradle, and he seems to know it.

To some extent this running- with- the- hares and hunting- with- the- hounds brand of hedged politics on the part of the two major national parties, is due to the compulsions of coalition politics.  Coalition politics will have both national parties dependent on the support of regional ones for over one hundred parliamentary seats after the next general elections.

But the biggest drag on BJP’s prospects of winning power at the Centre is its ideological inability to attract the minorities into its fold.  Not only that, it is anathema to many regional parties dependent on minority votes. It is a great pity that the  Congress Party and its allies are able to boldly paint the BJP as communal without any comeback from it.

The underpinning RSS too needs to move on from its partition- of- India mind-set, its obscurantist sanskar, to embrace India’s loyal Muslim and other minorities. Muslims have done this country proud in the Armed Forces, in the Police, in the Intelligence Agencies, in the IAS and the IFS, in Sports, in the Corporate World, in Bollywood, in the Arts. And it is unfair in the extreme to pay lip- service to the needs of poor Muslims as the Congress does, or to ignore them outright as the BJP does, in the name of their version of secularism.

The implicit hostility to all Muslims in the RSS and allied organisations is an anachronism and a tired over- played one at that. This only helps the terrorists across the border while giving the UPA an unfair advantage over the already much depleted NDA.

Even the JDU is having trouble staying in the NDA because of its electoral compulsions in Bihar, and the biggest slur on Narendra Modi’s reputation, is his perceived, if not real, hostility towards the Muslims of India. The BJP and its associates need to urgently address this problem to give themselves their best chance at winning power at the Centre in 2014.

The situation is ripe for a change of government but as things stand the chances of yet another Congress led coalition or even a third-front led government seem plausible. This will not be strong or stable but BJP cannot seize the day if it continues to be untouchable.

Meanwhile as America’s black president launches into his second term of office, we can take inspiration, as the most populous democracy from the oldest one. We can persuade ourselves that inclusiveness is the mantra that gives both hope and strength to a nation.

(1,102 words)

22^nd January 2013

Gautam Mukherjee