Can the Gujarat Model Work Nationally?

CAN THE GUJARAT MODEL WORK NATIONALLY?

Economists, like astrologers, vary widely in quality and root bias. Both are into handing out prescriptions on how to improve one’s fortunes, and both do not worry over much about the burdens of efficacy or proof. By the time the results are out, astrologers and economists alike, have wrapped themselves in layers of protective caveats and codicils, or pushed off to the World Bank, IMF, the United Nations, or some professorial job/well paid think- tank abroad.

Some are mealy-mouthed about the actual growth of Gujarat during the Modi years, grudgingly admitting a higher trajectory, but caviling that it is still not all that great, not good enough to justify the hype and hoopla. These worthies need to be reminded of the difficulties of a state turning Right into market-driven economics, pushed by a dedicated but one state act of a Chief Minister.

This, while the country at large has been turning determinedly Left, in a paroxysm of statist socialism, orchestrated by a ruling party with a nostalgia for the seventies and eighties. Back then, majorities in parliament were the norm, and nobody in power circles talked about gauche things like money, or the necessary evil called ‘the economy’.

It was, instead, a high-minded orgy of employment over profit, social objectives over viability, ideology over truth, and other such stirring nonsense much beloved of the thinkers of the time. Remnants, no, entire continents, of this kind of date-expired belief still come from the worst run states, drowning in misery and squalor to date.

States such as Communist Kerala, which would be worse off than almost anywhere on this planet, if it were not for the hard earned Gulf money of millions of Keralites gone abroad. And West Bengal, ruined in mind and body by years of Communism, and now, muddle-headed populism. Its unjustified culture of entitlement without work and discipline, that has retarded Bengal. Or the gasp inducing backwardness of Bihar, where any stone thrown will tend to land on an anti-social of some kind, and any improvement, however miniscule, is still called an upswing.  

These states are also the loudest in proclaiming they have done excellently well, and Gujarat has achieved nothing compared to them. Oommen Chandy calls the Gujarat Model ‘a farce’, and well he might, because if he doesn’t laugh, he will surely have to cry.

Less than a year ago, Congress propaganda had it that the architect of the Gujarat Model, its Chief Minister Narendra Modi, had no takers outside the state borders of Gujarat. When this lie was nailed with the Modi Wave surging across the country, the attack was modified to include his model of governance. Meanwhile, Modi had grown in stature and popularity with talk of development, growth, jobs, industry, super-fast railways and the like.

Congress, smug in its assumptions, was waiting to pounce on the BJP’s Hindutva agenda when revealed, and, poor chaps, they are still waiting, even as the 7^th stage of polling is concluded.

 In between, alarmed at Modi’s success even as campaign head, the Congress tried their ‘Anybody but Modi’ tactic by having their media minions try and sow discord. They feverishly suggested the names of various other BJP leaders. This too fell flat, and Modi was nominated the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate after all.

NaMo meanwhile, kept working throughout with a vigour, stamina and determination not previously seen in Indian electoral politics. This degree of application and demonstrated leadership is a key, if intangible, element of the much vaunted Gujarat model. A system is only as good as its driver after all.   

Congress now said Modi had done nothing special to foster the relative prosperity evident across almost all parameters in Gujarat; it was the innate industriousness of the Gujarati people, and that he was just taking credit for it. Conversely, finding this line was actually perceived as back-handed praise, Congress switched tack once again: Now Congress said the statistics, even those compiled by national agencies outside Gujarat Government control, were fudged, the reality on the ground was different, only certain sections prospered, big business were the only beneficiaries, and so on.

The flummoxed Congress could not however explain how Modi had won three consecutive terms with healthy majorities, every time. Besides, there was the ever present communal slur, but belied by the fact that BJP has won, even the municipal elections in Muslim majority wards, not once by fluke, but time and again.  

Still to the Congress, Modi is a ‘Feku’,  a name coined by the substantially out-of-work Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh, a minor royal, and author of a thousand outrageous quips. He is only rivalled in the arena of boomeranging insults, by fellow senior Congressman Mani Shankar Iyer. But ‘Mani’, to give him his quixotic due, laments his own irrelevance with the same prominence as he insults Modi and the Gujarat Model of development.

Actual Right-leaning economists, as opposed to politicians from the UPA or the regional parties, like Bibek Debroy, tend to praise the Gujarat Model, even placing it at No. 1 in the state rankings three years running now. And Jagdish Bhagwati from Columbia University, along with his colleague Arvind Panagariya, have made clear they want to contribute significantly to a Modi-led NDA government.

But, inevitably, then there are others, like the welfare economist Amartya Sen, and his chela Jean Dreze, who trash GDP growth and jobs/industry oriented Gujarat, and for that matter, all of Sonia Gandhi run India too, for its inadequate record on alleviating poverty at ‘the bottom of the pyramid’ as the late Management Guru Prahlad had it. They want more given to the poorest of the poor, never mind what it does to the balance sheet.

It does, of course, set the politician up as an annadata, a far loftier position to comfortably occupy, than wanting to be judged and juried on performance, like the erstwhile chai-walla  Narendra Modi. The Gujarat Model puts the cat amongst the pigeons. So it is natural to hear a lot of squawking and seeing feathers that fly.

(1,003 words)

April 30th, 2014

Gautam Mukherjee

THE RATTLED DYNASTS

THE RATTLED DYNASTS

Rattled to their back teeth by the spectre of an  electoral rout, Congress is desperately casting about for a way to reverse their predicament. Unable to convince anyone that giving waste-land in Gujarat to Gautam Adani at a concessional rate for him to set up job-generating industry is tantamount to crony capitalism, Congress strategists are looking around for new spit balls to throw.

They’ve mostly finished trying to malign Modi on the matter of his wife Jashodaben, as she is legally married to him still, and has not featured in his life for decades by mutual consent. Congress backed off from its mock horror and fake morality on this issue when confronted with the threat of the BJP going public with a number of illicit and juicy scandals concerning the Gandhi family, past and present, as well as a number of senior Congress ministers.  

Next, Farooq Abdullah of National Conference in Kashmir,  who was quoted just the other day saying that the Congress game was more or less up, and that it was ‘too late’ now. And that Rahul Gandhi should have joined the government at least ‘three years ago’ to establish his governance credentials. Overnight, the self-same gentleman is seen spewing intemperate and insulting fire and brimstone. Kashmir is a hot button issue, and Farooq going ballistic is either an oblique critique of Modi and the BJP at a minimum, or an effort to fan the separatist movement at the maximum, in order to polarise Muslim votes further in the rest of India.

Ironically, a communal riot is difficult to organise in the Kashmir Valley because there are no Kashmiri Pandits left there to attack! Still, son Omar Abdullah lost no time in blaming the Opposition PDP for the ethnic cleansing of Pandits, holding his own Abdullah dynasty blameless. Omar also expressed a mealy-mouthed hope that the Pandits would return to the Valley, and dared Modi to visit to campaign, inadvertently underlining the communal and hostile atmosphere rife there. With friends like this, Congress does not need enemies.  

The sudden rodent images, coming from Congress missile cum dynastic port-of-last-resort, Priyanka Gandhi, is understandable. The numbers, of deserting people, and dwindling probable wins, is enough to unnerve anybody. Coupled with the massive Congress corruption and culpability, it must be the stuff of nightmares.

Senior Congressmen have given up their electoral ghost. Many have been busy buying property abroad and shifting large sums of money out of the country. And some have found themselves nominated Rajya Sabha berths.

Rae Bareli and Amethi however must be secured as a sine qua non, because a Nehru-Gandhi kicked out of Uttar Pradesh, is a Nehru-Gandhi more or less on its way to be kicked out of politics.  Nevertheless, erstwhile southern bastions being considered, even this time; Medak, in now messed up Telengana, Chikmagalur in Karnataka and Alappuzha in Kerala. Still, to the heat and dust the dynasts must go, and wheedle out another victory out of their not so quiescent ‘pocket boroughs’. Going south, for insurance, in this keenly contested election, is not going to look so good, despite a surging Narendra Modi standing from both Vadodara and Varanasi and poised to win both.

But if either Sonia or Rahul, or both, actually lose in Uttar Pradesh, despite Priyanka pitching in, it will tell quite a story of terminal decline. But, I hasten to add, this may be as much of a pipe dream as Mulayam Singh’s persistent ambition to become prime minister.

Aggressive Priyanka, like milder brother Rahul, ailing mother Sonia, and over the last decade or more, husband Robert, live behind high walls and in protected compounds, surrounded by fawning courtiers. At least Robert had his hardscrabbling back history, full of bankruptcy, suicide, and sudden death, to draw practical experience of life from. Sonia Gandhi, coming from a modest background too, well appreciates the decades of benefits she has enjoyed by marrying into the Nehru-Gandhi family.  But Robert worked quite fast to monetise his influence with the dynasts, and became an instant fat cat with many toys to match.

The Gandhis themselves, uniformly low on education, and with little knowledge of economics or governance, always play the emotional card at the hustings. They have nothing to drone on about except the dynasty itself, its ‘greatness’ and its ‘sacrifices’, because theirs is a totally self-referenced world. 

So when Priyanka emerges into the light and thunder of electoral battle, she looks, to put it in her own words ‘baffled’ and ‘spooked’, just like her brother or mother. They can’t believe a real challenge can be mounted against them democratically. Priyanka is also apparently convinced, being the wife, and proverbially the last to know, that her husband Robert, an Anglo-Indian with the Errol Flynn moustache, is blameless.

Of course, the accuracy of Robert Vadra’s own description of India, run by his mother-in-law for the last decade, being a nation of ‘Mango people living in a banana republic’, tallies with the ease with which he defrauded it. So what if there is no legal wrong doing except in minor infractions, it is the limitless influence of the Gandhis over its functionaries and appointees that he put to good use. If  Rajat Gupta can go to jail for insider trading, so can Robert Vadra for the exercise of undue influence over government chief ministers, bureaucrats, real estate companies, and others.

Priyanka too is probably not the ‘pained’ and ‘outraged’ ingénue she pretends to be, because not too long ago when Robert allowed he might join active politics, she smiled her dimpled smile, and said she thought it was extremely unlikely, as he was too much the ‘businessman’. 

But Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is presently on the offensive, posturing about her ‘big heart’ and being an ‘insider’, invoking Indira Gandhi’s determination, promising to retaliate against BJP ‘lies’. It is ironic to hear her squealing about Modi’s crony capitalism, when a major beneficiary of the very thing levels the charge!

 Meanwhile, the Congress is losing credibility at an alarming rate.  Not only are Congress politicians, high, medium and lowly Congress ‘workers’ deserting, but erstwhile Congress intellectuals, voters cum supporters, urban and rural, rich, middle-class and poor.  

Now the last hope that Congress is nursing, is a wishful barrage of ‘internal assessments’ which are far more optimistic than the opinion polls, or indeed the B JP’s internal assessments.  Congress war roomers think, improbably, that it will win 140 seats on its own, presumably out of some 160, they have tagged as Congress leaning vote-bank seats. And then, they say, they are all set to prop up a third front government.  

(1,099 words)

April 28^th, 2014

Gautam Mukherjee

THE RAT DIARY

THE RAT DIARY

The sudden rat imagery coming from Congress missile cum dynastic port-of-last-resort, Priyanka Gandhi, is understandable. The numbers, of deserting people, and dwindling probable wins, is enough to unnerve anybody. Coupled with the massive Congress corruption and culpability, it must be the stuff of nightmares.

Senior Congressmen have given up their electoral ghost. Many have been busy buying property abroad and shifting large sums of money out of the country. And some, favourites like Kumari Selja from Haryana, have found themselves nominated Rajya Sabha berths.

The expendable old war horses, like Captain Amarinder Singh, the unpopular royal from Patiala, and Ambika Soni, the grandmother who was once a glamorous Sanjay Brigade Youth Congress figure, are fighting in the heat and dust of Punjab. It was fight or be counted out as politically useless, and so they will do their best.

Rae Bareli and Amethi however must be secured as a sine qua non, because a Nehru-Gandhi kicked out of Uttar Pradesh, is a Nehru-Gandhi more or less on its way to be kicked out of politics.

Nevertheless, erstwhile southern bastions being considered, even this time; Medak, in now messed up Telengana, Chikmagalur in Karnataka and Alappuzha in Kerala. Still, to the heat and dust the dynasts must go, and wheedle out another victory out of their not so quiescent ‘pocket boroughs’. Going south, for insurance, in this keenly contested election, is not going to look so good, despite a surging Narendra Modi standing from both Vadodara and Varanasi and poised to win both.

But if either Sonia or Rahul, or both, actually lose in Uttar Pradesh, despite Priyanka pitching in, it will tell quite a story of terminal decline. But, I hasten to add, this may be as much of a pipe dream as Mulayam Singh’s persistent ambition to become prime minister.

Aggressive Priyanka, like milder brother Rahul, ailing mother Sonia, and over the last decade or more, husband Robert, live behind high walls and in protected compounds, surrounded by fawning courtiers. At least Robert had his hardscrabbling back history full of bankruptcy, suicide, and sudden death, to draw practical experience of life from. Sonia Gandhi, coming from a modest background too, well appreciates the decades of benefits she has enjoyed by marrying into the Nehru-Gandhi family.  But Robert worked quite fast to monetise his influence with the dynasts, and became an instant fat cat with many toys to match.

The Gandhis themselves, uniformly low on education, and with little knowledge of economics or governance, always play the emotional card at the hustings. They have nothing to drone on about except the dynasty itself, its ‘greatness’ and its ‘sacrifices’, because theirs is a totally self-referenced world. 

So when Priyanka emerges into the light and thunder of electoral battle, she looks, to put it in her own words ‘baffled’, just like her brother or mother. They can’t believe a real challenge can be mounted against them democratically. Priyanka is also apparently convinced, being the wife, and proverbially the last to know, that her husband Robert, the Anglo-Indian with the Errol Flynn moustache, is blameless.

Of course, the accuracy of Robert Vadra’s own description of India, run by his mother-in-law for the last decade, being a nation of ‘Mango people living in a banana republic’, tallies with the ease with which he defrauded it. So what if there is no legal wrong doing except in minor infractions, it is the limitless influence of the Gandhis over its functionaries and appointees that he put to good use. If  Rajat Gupta can go to jail for insider trading, so can Robert Vadra for the exercise of undue influence over government chief ministers, b ureaucrats, real estate companies, and others.

Priyanka too is probably not the ‘pained’ and ‘outraged’ ingénue she pretends to be, because not too long ago when Robert allowed he might join active politics, she smiled her dimpled smile, and said she thought it was extremely unlikely, as he was too much the ‘businessman’. 

But Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is presently on the offensive, posturing about her ‘big heart’ and being an ‘insider’, invoking Indira Gandhi’s determination, promising to retaliate against BJP ‘lies’. It is ironic to hear squealing about Modi’s crony capitalism, when a major beneficiary of the very thing levels the charge!

 Meanwhile, the Congress is losing credibility at an alarming rate.  Not only are Congress politicians, high, medium and lowly Congress ‘workers’ deserting, but erstwhile Congress intellectuals, voters cum supporters, urban and rural, rich, middle-class and poor.

Now the last hope that Congress is nursing, is a wishful barrage of ‘internal assessments’ which are far more optimistic than the opinion polls, or indeed the B JP’s internal assessments.  Congress war roomers think, improbably, that it will win 140 seats on its own, presumably out of some 160, they have tagged as Congress leaning vote-bank seats. And then, they say, they are all set to prop up a third front government.  

(818 words)

April 28^th, 2014

Gautam Mukherjee

Brazen Corruption Is About To End

Brazen Corruption Is About To End

There is an uncanny resemblance in the political trajectories of Rajiv Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto. Both were hereditary scions of the top political dynasty of their respective countries and young prime ministers at the same time in the now distant eighties.

Both had spouses who were allegedly corrupt, and not much interested in the welfare of the people, but wielded great influence over their spouses. Asif Ali Zardari, a feudal lord, earned the notorious sobriquet of ‘Mr. 10 per cent’; and ‘Mr. Clean’ Rajiv Gandhi, was brought down from the greatest parliamentary majority this country has ever seen, by the squalid Bofors scandal.

It involved the purchase of some excellent Swedish field guns, 38 in number, some still serving the Army after all these years. The gun purchase involved unproven but smoking gun payola for Rajiv Gandhi and his family with bank accounts code-named ‘Lotus’. It also involved, mysteriously, close family friend, the Italian company representative from Snamprogetti in Delhi, the infamous Octavio Quatrocchi.

The scandal broke in Sweden, rather like the Augusta Westland helicopter scandal of recent times, that broke in Italy; and once again featured the self-same Quatrocchi, albeit out of reach this time.

The Indian government did not prosecute Quatrocchi in the eighties, and not only let him leave the country without hindrance, but years later, absolved him of any wrong doing, and gave him access to all the money allegedly obtained as commission from the Bofors deal, stashed safely in European and British banks. 

There was a clumsy investigation than meandered on for years, involving many foreign trips for officials of the government, with clear intent to be an eyewash. So nothing was ever proved against the Gandhi family, or anyone else, including the Hindujas, Quatrocchi, agent Win Chaddha, and many others who were duly investigated.  This is in keeping with most ‘for show’ government probes including two that examined the anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984. Still, it did Rajiv Gandhi and his reputation in. Soon after losing power, in the wake of the Bofors scandal, Rajiv was dead, killed on the campaign trail, blown up by Tamil terrorists in Tamil Nadu.

Evidence of Zardari’s immense wealth sprouted in the form of palatial homes in Britain, Dubai and the United States. He, like the widowed Sonia Gandhi, who soon took over the Congress Party here, became President of his PPP in Pakistan, immediately after Benazir was gunned down by Islamic terrorists in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, during her attempted comeback in the end days of the Musharraf presidency. He then did more than a single term as President of Pakistan as well. 

Sonia Gandhi’s wealth, has allegedly grown manifold over the years, from the ‘64 crore’ Bofors Scam days. It now reportedly runs into many billions of US dollars stashed in two banks in Switzerland and one, till lately, in the Vatican, Italy. The Vatican deposit came to light because she allegedly withdrew $10 billion at a go, because new banking norms in the Catholic citadel and ‘God’s Bank’, now involve disclosure of the names of account holders.  

The much read US website Huffington Post also suggested in a sensational report a few months ago, before  it was taken down abruptly, probably to avoid litigation, that Sonia Gandhi, is now amongst the richest women in the world, richer by far than the Queen of England.

Rajiv’s only son Rahul and Benazir’s only son Bilawal, are in the process of inheriting their respective political legacies, but coincidentally again, both are weak leaders, with little gift for sub-continental politics. They are also, by default, extremely wealthy. Ambivalent, misfits, with rumoured dissolute lifestyles. Both have made half-hearted netagiri efforts, but neither has been able  to    make his mark.

In India, Rahul’s sister Priyanka, likened by some, rather hopefully, to grandmother Indira Gandhi, is  seen as a possible alternative. Priyanka is also the mother of two children, unlike the as yet bachelor Rahul. But the stink of corruption in several highly lucrative land and property deals hangs in the air. Robert Vadra, Priyanka’s husband, seems to have benefited from the misuse of influence through Congress Chief Ministers in Haryana and Rajasthan, and prominent real estate giant DLF Limited. DLF, now one of India’s biggest private sector companies, in fact got started on its real estate development work in Gurgaon thanks to Rahul’s father Rajiv. It is, in a very real sense, a very small world.  

Congress lawyers cum spokesmen are loudly proclaiming that Vadra has broken no laws, because such massive influence peddling is not the same as specific legal infraction. Nevertheless, the flamboyant and colourful Vadra, once a handicrafts dealer and brass artifacts exporter, is cited nationally and internationally as the beneficiary of sudden and substantial wealth. Wealth of an order, acquired in a manner, that another person in his place could not have come by it with such consummate ease.

As a consequence, Priyanka’s poll prospects are considerably dented, at least till public memory fades.  In the meantime, she can certainly console herself that the Vadra family have become dollar millionaires many times over, thanks to the power of her Gandhi family, and her husband’s prowess at exploiting it.

In this election season, when the Gandhis in particular, and the Congress Party in general, have been extraordinarily vitriolic and harsh in their casting of aspersions and name-calling directed solely at Narendra Modi, they now find that it all seems to have boomeranged. Modi is going from strength to strength while the Gandhis, with no political traction, seem to be in terminal decline.   

The Congress problem is that there is absolutely no corruption to point to in Narendra Modi’s life, career or circumstances. In response to the hullabaloo on Congress corruption however, Modi has pledged to investigate expeditiously when the NDA government is formed. The stress however will be on preventing such rampant corruption in future, even as the law will be allowed to take its course on the tainted from the past, and in a time bound manner. 

Modi himself intends to keep his singular focus on development, because it is the only way to change the destiny of this country, mired in poverty and backwardness for a good third of its population.

The change coming up is indeed authentic, much desired by a people who have been let down for decades. Modi is a genuinely poor man made good, a workaholic determined to serve the nation. This has not escaped the notice of the voting public, who have noted the contours of this unique leader, and are responding with the Modi Wave engulfing the nation.  

(1,098 words)

April 23^rd, 2014

Gautam Mukherjee

Concentrate On The Essentials

Time To Concentrate On The Essentials

Narendra Modi’s rise to popularity and national leadership has been both awe inspiringly swift and spectacular. There must, inevitably, be several people who are jealous, both near and far, people who thoroughly underestimated him. And others who are feeling insecure because they have never been friends of Modi.  Even US President Obama has been quick to blame former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, somewhat fraudulently, for the anti-Modi American stance so far.

On his own part, NaMo has promptly suggested that over-zealous supporters of the BJP/NDA,  some purporting to be his own supporters as well, must watch what they say in this highly charged atmosphere during this election season. They should not say or do anything to stir up communal passions or hurt the sentiments of any section of the population. This tactic may be routine for the Congress, with their illogical, if truly impotent, sneering about fascism, communalism, divisiveness, poison, dictatorship etc. who nevertheless are indulged in their perfidy by most of the intelligentsia.

But are the fringe elements trying actually to undermine Modi and his development-first message? It may well be, given the obscurity of the people spewing the hatred. And are they possibly acting on behalf of those who don’t like the Hindutva agenda pushed to the back burner by the BJP/RSS of today? Or for others, with covert prime ministerial ambitions of their own? There are also those of the elderly old guard who fear redundancy in a future Modi government. All these elements are similarly apprehensive and motivated to dampen the public’s enthusiasm for Modi.

The fringe extremists who erupt from time to time into hate speech and bullying behaviour, airing their ignorance, intolerance and personal prejudice, are not doing this country, or the BJP/NDA electoral campaign, based on an even playing field brand of secularism, the blindest bit of good!

But such disruptive people are quite happy to sow discord for its own sake, irrespective of consequences, whether they be an Owaisi or a Togadia. Thankfully most people do not take such extreme views seriously.  Owaisi, nevertheless is something of a Congress pet, because his kind of savagery is more suited to its style of self-serving but divisive vote-bank politics.

And then there is the Congress candidate from Saharanpur, UP, one Masood, who threatened loudly to cut Modi into little pieces; is proud of having done so, and swears he will say so again, jail, prosecution, EC or no EC.  Rahul Gandhi thought it fit to go to Saharanpur, share the stage with Masood’s wife and brother, soon after Masood’s outburst, to campaign for his victory. Masood himself was in police custody at the time, but the Congress Vice President was apparently quite comfortable to show solidarity with the candidate. 

Narendra Modi personally however is determined to put development first, despite all these distracting noises. More so, because India is in terrible economic shape, and without generating growth, a tall enough order under the given circumstances, but without which, the new government will not be able to meet many of its   stated objectives, or indeed, the aspirations of the people. So compared to the challenge of achieving growth in a shrinking economy, all this snarling and posturing is irrelevant, trivial, and counter-productive.

Many Indian Muslims today, including some noted senior clerics, are aware of this charade. They want to put the fear-mongering theatrics of the Congress, SP, BSP, RJD, TMC, BJD  etc., who put on an unabashed if insincere play for Muslim votes, behind them. They want to vote for the sake of straight-forward progress and prosperity under Modi. The Muslim weavers of Varanasi, for example, have said they want the prosperity Modi has brought to their weaver brothers in Surat. They know Muslims have prospered in Gujarat in many fields, without a single communal riot since 2002, and they want Modi to run the country now.

The people of India who are voting for Modi now are quite fed up of communal politics, and  so is Narendra Modi. But this is perhaps difficult to digest for many people caught in a time-warp, including hundreds of well-known public intellectuals, who have made a profession out of fanning such flames, promoting old-time Nehruvian Socialism and hypocritical notions of pluralism without substance. These hollow theoreticians will be put out of business soon, and are therefore doing all they can to turn  the clock back. Back to a time when caste, sub-caste, creed, religion, class, education, cultural and geographical differences and so on, were the nuts and bolts ingredients of political calculation. They are casting shrill doubt on Modi’s pitch to promote the interests of ‘125 crore Indians’. They can’t believe their ears and are therefore suggesting it is all a lie.

Besides this, nobody in the Indian political  firmament ever wanted to be judged on performance before Modi, not from the BJP and Congress, and certainly not from the  ‘family-owned private limited’ regional parties. Modi has raised the bar in this also, providing the promise of a real accountability for this coming government, and all future governments.

Before Narendra Modi, there has never been a prime ministerial candidate who has risen to the position, by dint of merit and hard work, from poverty and a backward caste, without any family ‘influence’, and in the face of tremendous opposition. There has never been a  contender for the top job who has been a Chief Minister of a state before. This is a sign of a maturing democracy, a grass roots leader grown to seize the day, after 67 years, In a world generally ruled by money, patronage and massive privilege.  

Narendra Modi, B JP’s bold prime ministerial candidate, abused by his detractors day and night, has still captured the public mood for change; and the long established and much devalued power structure in the country is scheduled for an unprecedented overhaul and renewal.

(976 words)

April 22^nd, 2014

Gautam Mukherjee

Shame Has A Poor Memory

Shame Has A Poor Memory

Shame has a poor memory

Gabriel Garcia De Marquez

With the economy in sharp decline due to the neglect of a highly discredited government, electoral politics has temporarily displaced concern with economics. We are now in the thick of the slog overs of the campaigning and voting process, alongside the deepening onset of summer heat. Everyone is living on hope of a sea change in governance, and counting the passing days to the new government.

With about 25 days to go before the votes are counted, the Congress seems to know the outcome, and acts cornered, as if it is already defeated. This despite raising every negative point it can think of constantly in an effort to prejudice the voters against the BJP and the NDA.

The BJP too is sharpening its attack, particularly on the massive corruption allegations against Sonia Gandhi and her   ill-begotten  billions, and Robert Vadra, her exploitative and street-smart son-in-law. Many other famously corrupt Congress and UPA ministers are rightly worried about being investigated by the arms of the expected BJP/NDA government. However Modi himself, has made it clear that development, his main poll plank, will indeed be first priority.

Narendra Modi, acknowledged as a superior, even thrilling orator in his political rallies, has recently also given a series of lengthy one-on-one interviews on multiple TV channels as well as in the print media. He has answered searching questions in depth, with charm, finesse and authority, putting paid to those critics who were complaining that he was not available to answer questions. And the contrast with the childish and vacuous effort put up by Rahul Gandhi in his interviews could not be more stark! The Congress, which tried so hard to project Rahul Gandhi as its prime ministerial candidate has failed because the candidate itself is not up to the task.

This even as a disgraced but shameless government, which has wilfully brought business and industry to its knees, with high interest rates, scarce credit, corrupt banking practices, profligate allocation of natural resources, and spectrum, partisan behavior with the States, unforgiveable defence procurement scandals, high food prices, snail’s pace infrastructure development, critical power shortages, acute water deficits, disgraceful policing, slack law and order, poor international diplomacy, yawning intelligence failures, frequent Islamic terrorist attacks, border incursions etc.; still thinks nothing of attacking the BJP!

Congress, unashamedly, continuously tries to debunk the prosperous Gujarat model, lying about it being mere big business cronyism, while ignoring the 80 per cent development of small scale industry for example, besides Modi’s stellar track record in the crucially important area of agricultural development. Modi wants to give farmers a 50 per cent return on their produce going forward. Congress question this, calls it inflationary in its usual obtuse, churlish and sour grapes manner. It cannot see the irony of its surface concern for the poor when it won’t restructure government processes to grant dignity and prosperity to the rural population, instead of a humiliating dole. Nor has it managed to garner more than a 3 per cent agricultural growth anywhere in the country, to Gujarat’s year on year 10 per cent, that too for the last decade and more.

Typically, though it has failed on every front itself, without so much as an apology or any kind of remorse,  it feels free to air its resentment for the confidence shown by Indian business in Narendra Modi. Congress seethes at the fact that business and industry around the country, is looking forward to Modi becoming prime minister of India very soon.

Modi clearly inspires extraordinary confidence in the minds of ordinary people longing for progress and prosperity in the shape of jobs and mobility, as well as the high and mighty searching for better profits. So much so, that the strength of the Modi Wave is bewildering to his political opponents.

They find their seasoned politicking, their rural-urban divides, the constant half truths, outright lies and vicious name-calling, are bouncing off NaMo, and falling on deaf ears elsewhere. Instead they find themselves being laughed at, contemptuously disregarded, and counter-questioned, all by a mocking electorate fed up of non-performance. The public wants to know how is it that nothing has been done to benefit them over the last 10 years. It is as if Modi, with all his exhortations, has opened the eyes of the public, and now they are not willing to be fooled for another moment, let alone another day.

In Uttar Pradesh, an estimated 23 per cent of Muslims, despite ugly efforts at scare-mongering by the Congress, are reportedly in the process of voting for Modi and the BJP this time.  Minority confidence, after all the toxic and one-sided noise on Godhra, is Modi’s litmus test. His even-handed secular message of ‘One India, One people’, and refusal to indulge in Congress style vote-bank politics, is getting through, as intended. It has, after all, been working very well in Gujarat for over a decade.

Congress, on the other hand, is in the process of losing its already split and dwindling vote-bank of much exploited and betrayed Muslims. This, on top of the loss of the Dalits and Other Backward Castes (OBCs) in earlier elections to the now powerful regional parties.  

While BJP is growing more sure-footed by the day, the ruling government is in disarray, thoroughly demoralised to the extent that its stalwarts are scared to stand for elections, and in retreat. The Congress’ so called Brahma-astra Sonia Gandhi, after the insipid and uninspiring Rahul failed to enthuse, far from turning the tide, looks stricken and ill, seemingly unable to carry the burden of sure defeat any longer.

(936 words)

April 20^th, 2014

Gautam Mukherjee

The Modi Wave Gains Momentum

The Modi Wave Gains Momentum

Style is as important as substance in politics, and perception is everything. Narendra Modi, always carefully dressed, calm and controlled, has demonstrated that he understands this truth with the respect it deserves, unlike most, if not all, of the political field passing over our TV screens for these months, in the studios, and on the campaign trail.

Narendra Modi does not visibly perspire, in his coloured galaband kurtas buttoned up to the top, and pastel coloured waistcoats with the Lotus party symbol prominent on his chest. His hair is always combed and beard trimmed. Sometimes he wears colourful headgear when the mood takes him. He drinks little water during speeches, that often last over half an hour, delivered at a  comfortable pace, modulating his voice to drive his points home.

Modi strictly does not rabble rouse, and yet gets a consistent response, a sure sign of a connect with his capacity audiences. He changes his pitch to suit the venue and location with great dexterity, peppering the big picture vision with the relevance of local issues. He clearly does his homework on the stump, despite multiple appearances in different parts of the country on any given day. He looks at his audience and straight into the cameras, does not need set speeches, and yet demonstrates great fluency and grasp, both of his material and message.

The effect of all this is that the ongoing 2014 general elections are pulling in the voters in unprecedented numbers. In the 5^th phase just completed, 121 parliamentary constituencies across 12 states went to the polls on Thursday 17^th April. Almost all the concerned states had higher voting percentages than in the general election of 2009. Of course, the voter lists too are much longer, with lakhs of first time and young voters added, but there is also a palpable excitement in the air. The electorate senses it is about to bring about a profound change in the destiny and direction of this nation. Modi is clearly that man of destiny, come to change our collective fortunes. And as he likes to joke, he is no Babbar Sher, to be feared, either.

High voter turnouts and polling to date also indicates that the people are not getting tired of the elongated schedule, drawn out over 6 weeks and nine phases. This, even at this 5^th encounter, more than half way through. Incidents involving problems with the EVMs and disruptions were recorded in a few instances this time too, but all have been noted by the EC and will lead to repolling where necessary.

The BJP is on most approving lips even in casual conversation. Most analysts too, view the markedly higher levels of voting as a noticeable manifestation of the Modi Wave on the ground. And not just in the media, as alleged by an envious and deeply worried Congress. Voting, in this instance, is tantamount to believing, and the Congress has not managed to say anything new  in a long time. They have just run a rear- guard and retreating action of heaping calumny on Narendra Modi  and hoping for the best.

The EC’s own extensive campaign to encourage people to exercise their franchise supported by several other public service advertisements, endorsements by celebrities and stars,  ‘the power of 49’ campaign to bring out even more women voters, have all had their effect too.

India is today a highly televised and increasingly online country, politicians can adapt or perish on this anvil. The oldtime radio jingles, spots and hoardings are also omnipresent. Are we then, perhaps more politically aware now?

But Modi’s  commanding TV presence, impeccably turned out, soaring oratory,  sonorously compelling voice, sense of humour, easy and spontaneous delivery, ability to connect with his audience, are all new phenomena in Indian electioneering. Nobody has made so much effort to get his point across to the electorate ever before and it is working.

The sound and video feed quality in our satellite channels live coverage has also improved dramatically, even from the Vajpayee days, also a tremendously engaging orator, just 10 years ago. Further back, in the abysmal Doordarshan terrestrial TV times, Indira Gandhi, for all her innate sophistication, used to rant on the stump; and Sonia Gandhi makes every asthmatic attempt to copy her.

Rahul Gandhi, like mom, rants too, just this side of hysteria, slovenly and unshaven a good deal of the time, looking harried and cornered, but always sadly low on content. Rahul, indeed sounds childish, his sister, come on the scene lately, looks raddled and sounds petulant, as if the effrontery of the Indian public is unforgiveable for not falling at the Congress first family’s feet. Sonia, feeling the strain, looks more and more like she is about to collapse. The age of television has  become somewhat all seeing.

The Congress spokespersons, with less to lose, still sound perpetually angry and frustrated, visibly rattled, resorting to insulting language, annoyed that the public prefers the BJP over them this time. Modi, who has climbed up a slippery political slope inch by inch in the face of enormous difficulties, has gained in stature tremendously as a consequence. He looks like he is in complete possession of himself, and yes, presidential in bearing and vision. There is no question of who is making the highest impact on the voter, who is drawing ever more and more supporters to his side.  

Kejriwal, the flash in the pan of recent times, looks unhealthy, greasy, dirty; he, whines and complains endlessly, but, as his campaign crashes, looks more and more depressed and beaten. Nothing it seems can be hidden anymore.  

Modi is the best speaker in the BJP too by a long chalk, followed by Rajnath Singh who speaks beautiful cultured Hindi, and carries himself with great dignity. And then  there is Arun Jaitley, the articulate legal beagle and ideologue of the top trio, with the best delivery in English of all in the BJP.

TV presence then, in addition to his sell-out, full-house rallies, his whole measured style, in televised campaign appearance after appearance, has left all the rest of the field far behind. The NaMo led BJP looks sure of winning a comfortable majority, even two thirds, in an epochal election. The nation waits for May 16^th and the counting. 

(1,046 words)

April 18^th, 2014

Gautam Mukherjee

Congress Is All Gas And Gaiters

Congress Is All Gas And Gaiters

It would be a welcome surprise to find the Gandhi trio,  now in full chorus, speak occasionally out of their own heads, instead of mouthing carefully crafted PR lines. These currently are fixated on a compulsive obsessive rendering of references to ‘ideology’ and ‘secularism’, with no mention whatsoever of development, governance or progress. Not even of the Jean Dreze/Amartya Sen variety, full of sanctimonious sentiment, that animated the thinking in the Sonia Gandhi led NAC. These worthies too are presently missing-in-action and not providing any covering fire from afar either.

The sad and defensive PR lines however are classic deflection under pressure, because the BJP and Narendra Modi have stolen a substantial march over the Congress on all economic issues that matter to the population. Narendra Modi has long taken a page out of Jagdish B hagwati and Arvind Panagariya’s line of reformist market- economics, in Gujarat. And this, epitomized by his ‘minimum government, maximum governance’ line, and other aspects of his development vision, explained simply by him during the campaign, is now resonating with a national electorate, yearning for a change in both government and governance.

The Gandhi trio needs to understand people cannot eat either their warped notion of ideology or their self-serving version of secularism. Helicoptering and air dropping versions of caring for the poor do not wash. Not even the Muslims they are desperately targeting can make a meal out of empty rhetoric and melodrama about povertarianism.  They are not willing to vote for Congress, having been badly let down in every way, even if they refuse to come over substantially into the Lotus fold just yet.

The Left has been pushed to the wall in Bengal and Kerala precisely for indulging in this very kind of sloganeering, election after election, without delivering food, employment or social justice as promised. And Congress ought to know better, after fooling the people for 56 years, that this time the old line will simply not work. They have already lost the Dalits, and now they will decisively lose the Muslims too.

The country has changed so much under its very nose, that discredited and clueless leaders like the Gandhis, and the slavish Congress Party that follows them, are both headed for an electoral drubbing and decisive dismissal.

Meanwhile, with a month to go, unconvinced still, and complacent that this particular confidence trick pulled on a trusting people is a winning formula, Congress is trying it yet again. Besides, the Gandhis, unwilling to risk displaying their towering ignorance of ground realities, like sticking to the script, and dutifully trot out what’s in it.  

To illustrate how mere Congress style hot air does not fill bellies, let us note that we have an estimated 30 per cent unemployment rate, huge and damning by any standards, and higher than the presently economically ravaged West by  more than 10 per cent. Comparisons can possibly be made with Sub-Saharan Africa and other very badly run parts of the world!

Let us also note that India has some 25 million people working and living abroad, many of them Muslims working in the Gulf, some still citizens of this country, and others who are part of the diaspora; and together, last year, they sent in $70 billion for their families and dependents here in India. This is according to the World Bank. This sum is $ 5 billion more than India earned from its total software exports in the same period, and the largest inward remittance from any ethnic diaspora in the world. Chinese abroad, with similar family values, sent in $60 billion last year to our $70 billion. In this, if nothing else, we are indeed ahead of China.

Perhaps we need to ask ourselves why so many Indians live and work abroad in the first place if not for better opportunities there. If the Congress has done a good job of administering this country over so many decades, given our natural resources and strengths, people would be flocking to India from all over the world instead.  But, in reality we have a huge unemployed and dependent population that is literally fed and clothed by these inward remittances. Inward remittances build houses, pay medical bills of elders, send small children to school, for many, particularly in Communist Kerala with almost zero job creation for decades! Even Chidambaram’s economy counts on it for foreign exchange and hard currency reserves, dependable for its consistency over the years.

It underlines however that despite a huge demographic dividend we are unable to generate a sufficient number of jobs in country, let alone well paid ones, in business, industry, government, or in any other field. This is not only a time bomb but yet another signal failure of the UPA over the last ten years. And no amount of welfarism can provide more than a subsistence, given our huge numbers, provided the programmes and systems are well run, as in three-term winning Raman Singh’s Chhattisgarh. 

But if one looks at the 11 states currently run by Congress, the massive welfare schemes thought up by the Gandhis as their trump card, are not being properly implemented.  All the B JP run states and those in the care of their NDA allies, it is clear, have implemented Congress central welfare schemes better than  the Congress or the UPA.

So it is a case of their not even being able to deliver on their flagship initiatives. So, emotional rhetoric on ‘ideology’ and fear-mongering ‘secularism’ is all that is left to talk about.

The sad truth on the ground however is that the UPA under Sonia Gandhi and her children, via a ‘defanged’ prime minister Manmohan Singh, has concentrated on accumulating an unprecedented amount of loot through the most extensive corruption this nation has ever seen.

This money, running into billions of dollars, will, no doubt, come in handy, when, much diminished, it will be sitting in the Opposition benches of the 16^th Lok Sabha.  

(991 words)

April 17^th, 2014

Gautam Mukherjee

Congress In A Hopeless Tizzy

Congress In Hopeless Tizzy

The inexorable truth emerging is that Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi with the contribution of the extra-constitutional and arch-leftist National Advisory Council, plus her Vice President of the Party son, and businessman’s wife daughter, is responsible for the sorry economic mess this country finds itself in.

With the torment she and her party have routinely subjected the BJP and its leading lights to, the timing of such revelations about her own wrong doings, is most inconvenient. There are also worrying references to an Accountability Commission in the works should the BJP form the next central government. Terrified at the prospect, Sonia Gandhi has just made a presidential address to the nation spewing venom at the BJP, and suggesting it will ruin the nation if elected.

 And of course, Sonia Gandhi has chosen to reply to all the swirling questions on her own conduct with an arrogant and deafening silence. Her party, ministers, and spokespersons on the other hand, are busy pouring scorn and denial on all that has been alleged lately.

It is pitiful, in the aftermath of the scandal that has broken on her role in subverting the office of the prime minister, to see Sonia Gandhi ‘live’ at her election rallies. There she is, reading doggedly from her canned script, totally unspontaneous and wooden. She turns the pages on her lectern, sounding dated and stiff, circa the 1980s, spouting school level Hindi and routine homilies of Congresspeak, far removed from the grim reality we find ourselves in.  

This, after a lifetime spent in India as Indira Gandhi’s bahu, without yet learning the language. But then, it is reported that it took her many years to even acquire Indian nationality. As for her language skills, she is unlike so many ‘foreigners’ who speak, read, and write Hindi and other Indian languages, quite often better than the natives.

She did learn her English mercifully, because she met Rajiv Gandhi, while in Cambridge, England, when she was being tutored at the Bell Educational Trust for the purpose.

Sonia Gandhi’s campaign speeches , full of set Congress clichés, are transcribed in Roman script, in easy to pronounce words for her broad Italianate delivery. She does not use a tablet or a computer for the purpose, or even a teleprompter, Obama fashion. As a consequence, she is hardly able to look at the audience, unable to even gesticulate, with both hands occupied. This, while the bussed and trucked in rent-a-crowd audience listens dutifully, baking in the heat, clapping when the Congress crowd managers say so.

Her script today gets her to mention Mahatma Gandhi and Maulana Azad, amongst the whole galaxy of modern India’s founding fathers, though that’s it, even as she is speaking on the father of the Indian Constitution, Bhimrao Ambedkar’s birthday!  The script-writer obviously didn’t notice this, and neither, for that matter, did she.

Sonia Gandhi shouts out that only Congress can provide a strong Government, oblivious of the pass she has single-handedly brought it to.  Then she shouts Jai Hind, three times, exhorting the crowd to join her.

Away from the speechifying, she maintains a sphinx-line silence. Books by former media advisor to the PM Sanjaya Baru and Coal Secretary PR Parakh rule a section of  the media space today.

Both accuse Sonia Gandhi of reducing Manmohan Singh to a rubber stamp for decisions that were essentially hers, using trusted Secretary Pulak Chatterjee as the go between. Baru uses a fond tone for Manmohan Singh ion his book, while Parakh seems bitter at being unsupported and let down.

Baru  states Manmohan Singh was aware of his book being written, and tacitly wanted it to come out before he demitted office so that the public would know that he was indeed  rendered helpless.  Of course, Manmohan Singh clung to his seat, and its privileges and perquisites, for all 10 years of his so called ‘accidental’ double-term.  This despite all the insubordination and humiliation that came his way for being,  albeit willingly, powerless.

Whichever way one looks at it, this by itself  is a sorry and inescapable indictment of Singh’s character. That he also betrayed the authority of his office in terms of his Faustian pact with Sonia Gandhi, is also undeniable.  In the Congress Party however, such compromises with the suzerainty of the dynasty are routine, and for Manmohan Singh to have stood on principle would have been silly and suicidal.

As the news broke, the BJP started saying ‘we told you so’ all along. And the cornered Congress, more because they are losing this election, than yet another scandal breaking over their heads, came up with a knee-jerk reaction.

On the one hand it loudly trashed the character of both authors, cast aspersions on their motives, and the timing of the book releases, and got the PMO to flatly deny it all. Still, tellingly, there is no direct sound-byte from the ‘invisible’ PM himself.

 Congress however, to deflect attention, decided to perform another U turn amongst all the talk of a rubber-stamp prime minister.  It had been frequently praising prime minister Vajpayee lately in an attempt to contrast his statesmanship with Modi’s alleged ‘authoritarianism’. Now, turning on a dime, it proceeded to call Vajpayee two-faced and weak for not putting Modi out of business in 2002.

This, while controversy raged as both books by the UPA insiders pointed to Manmohan Singh’s bound and gagged status under Sonia Gandhi’s pernicious and ill-advised rule.  It implies however, that Sonia   Gandhi, and not Manmohan Singh, was responsible for all the  rampant corruption and the nose-diving economy.

That Sonia Gandhi approved every sensitive government decision before the hapless prime minister merely rubber stamped them.

But, as the 81 year old Manmohan Singh gets ready to demit office and retire to former Delhi CM Shiela Dikshit’s old house set in 3.5 acres,  he might be quietly smirking up his beard, that the Congress, and the dynasty that runs it, may well be out of power for longer than he managed to occupy South Block himself.

(1,001 words)

April 14^th, 2014

Gautam Mukherjee

The New BJP

The New BJP

There is a very good reason why the Congress has been caught flat-footed and out of tune this time despite nervous shows of dynastic ‘strength’. Times have changed, though Congress and the Liberal-Left commentary with its talk of ‘polarisation’, ‘divisiveness’ and vicious name-calling, is still playing out. But brazen as it may be, Congress is staring at the worst drubbing in its history. 

Today’s Congress, appears not to have grasped the key difference. The old BJP was indeed concerned with Mandir-Masjid politics and Hindutva that  pitchforked it from 2 seats in the Lok Sabha to the 150 odd seats mark, but unfortunately, no further.

The new BJP   is concerned almost exclusively with growth, modernisation, development, equal opportunity, and jobs. This new version of BJP is unbelievable to the Congress, whose spokespersons insist it is a sham, but not to the voter; and is a key reason for the Modi Wave. It has however left the Congress floundering and disconcerted. It is firing all its missiles at, for the moment, abandoned targets.

Rahul Gandhi is so rattled that he is busy repeating his B Team boss Kejriwal’s lines, silly as they are, in the apparent absence of any ideas of his own. And even experienced BJP baiters like General Secretary Digvijay Singh, are sounding like they are in a time-warp circa 2004 or 2009.

The old BJP did rise into the status of a national party in one fell swoop, mainly through the efforts and strategies of NDA Chairman  Lal Krishna Advani. This was reiterated by BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi at the time of filing of  Advani’s nomination papers at Gandhinagar, attended, not only by Modi who accompanied Advani to the venue, but the entire Gujarat Cabinet as well.

Modi said that there would have been no surge towards a possible majority-showing for the NDA today, if the BJP had not been led to the status of a national level contender in the first place by party patriarch Advani. This was followed by a very successful term of governance under the leadership of Prime Minister Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Advani.

But, the fact remains, the master strokes of the nineties were already out-of-date in  2004, let alone 2009, with the rival Congress fully prepared for BJP’s no surprises pitch of Hindutva plus development. So this time, the BJP is seen  to have  radically changed its ways. Its strategists must have realised, early in the preparations for 2014, that it needed a game-changer. It called for a new face, a new aura and energy, a new emphasis, and a focus that could not be subverted, diluted, or thwarted by the competition. That it needed to mature its narrative and truly seize the right-of-centre political space in its economic tone, rather than muddy the water with what had become easy to attack majoritarian themes. As we go into the middle overs of this general election, the metamorphosis seems complete.

The change in stance is reminiscent of the ‘New Labour’ shift under Tony Blair in the UK, no longer trade unionist and hostile to capital, or the makeover of the US Democratic Party under Bill Clinton into a more economy friendly avatar. In India, most political parties have been more or less Leftist from inception, but as in Britain and the US, the time has come when its glaring ideological and implementation shortcomings have become a road block. The Congress Party, under Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, wound back the clock, despite the reformist changes of 1991, with ruinous consequences.

Our ‘democratic dividend’ of millions of young people demand jobs, and low or nil growth Socialism just cannot provide them. The unemployment rate in India for the eligible is an alarming 30%, and the voting public is not willing to feed on empty pro-poor rhetoric and live on demeaning doles.

Blair had to take a page out of the Thatcherite conservative, property owning revolution that preceded it, and likewise, Clinton had to capture some of the optimism and growth orientation of the Reagan years that he succeeded to. In India, the best and most consistent growth model in terms of industry, agriculture, infrastructure, security etc. over the last decade and more, is that of Gujarat. And Gujarat’s Chief Minister since 2001 was therefore seen to be the right man to lead the nation into similar growth and prosperity. It is also true that the Gujarat story owes its success to good governance, a business and industry friendliness that is unparalleled anywhere else in the country, efficient use of resources, and quick decision making.

With all this going for it, the BJP has become an elusive pimpernel for the attacking Liberal-Left and its adherents. The new BJP is not what it used to be, and what it has become is very difficult to fight against, in a country going through its worst economic crisis in 10 years. Also, it is no use attacking the BJP for being communal, because it is seen to be more truly secular than the Congress and its allies, with their virulent vote-bank politics, and blatant fear-mongering.

Modi is concerned primarily with how to make this country prosperous and secure, and this intention is resonating very well with the people.  And significantly, Modi, who has come out of the crucible of the RSS as a Pracharak, is being backed stoutly by it. The RSS, and the rest of the Sangh Parivar too, has dramatically changed its own emphasis, to make Narendra Modi’s rise possible, backed fiercely by the rank and file cadres.

Ironically, it is Congress which is astonishingly date expired, harking back to a failed and wasteful Leftist doctrine abandoned all over the world.  It is the BJP now which has a credible notion of inclusiveness and progress for all, without divisive reservations, without vote-banks. Congress, corrupt but playing poverty politics, negligent of most issues confronting the nation, seems clearly clueless and lost and fit to be thrown out of power.

(996 words)

April 12^th, 2014

Gautam Mukherjee

Slipping And Sliding

Slipping And Sliding

As the polling for the general elections proceeds through this month and part of the next, the voter’s mood is not to buy into the same old canards and arrogant lies.  Will the prevailing wind deliver that much desired Congress Mukt Bharat that Narendra Modi and the B JP/NDA is striving for?

We will know the contours of the expected NDA win on May 16^th , but Congress is apparently headed for a two-digit tally. The stark best choice countrywide, per the prevailing buzz, is definitely a Modi-led B JP. This is how the electorate, particularly the youth, is calling it, inspired by Narendra Modi’s repeated calls for development above all else, and concomitant job creation. And this strong perceived response from the voters is wrecking all other assumptions and allegations.

Lost for a way out of their decline, the Congress, is ranting misinformation, and making last ditch, efforts to malign the front-runners. Sonia Gandhi has called Narendra Modi a ‘Magician’ in an unintended backhanded compliment. Jadugar, the classic Magus, is always a game-changer, someone should have told the under-educated Gandhis.   

The none too intelligent Congress Vice President and PM doubtful, Rahul Gandhi, is, on his part, objecting to the BJP projecting Narendra Modi over all others. But then, he probably hasn’t noticed that strenuously projecting RaGa likewise has simply not worked for the Congress!  

The Congress chorus of sycophants meanwhile, are trying their best to trash the hard to debunk Gujarat model, shout about secularism, and polarize Muslim votes at the same time. They also moan about how their good work, meaning the extensive welfare programmes, $ 16 billion of its cost having been shoved into the new Government’s tenure by Chidambaram, is not being appreciated by the public.

Congress maintains a muerta-like silence however on its massive corruption but still wonders how the public is sceptical.   It has, as   always, put up several prominent scam-tainted ‘winnables’ and those with ‘goonda’ antecedents. What is there to lose when relentless media exposure has stripped the truth bare. It has exposed not only the corruption, but the fact that Congress has the most accumulated blood on its hands. 

This, from multiple communal, ethnic and caste riots under its watch over six decades of rule more or less. These have taken place, repeatedly, over the years, and in different parts of the country including Gujarat, Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi and so on. Some of the strife has allegedly been brought on by the aiding and abetting of illegal Bangladeshi immigration. Nandan Nilekani’s Aadhar card initiative with its biometrics and profiling has reportedly  legitimised many such illegal aliens, some of whom have proved to be terrorists with Pakistani connections. 

A few have been caught, mostly in the aftermath of sudden and unexpected bombings of innocents in public places, and gamely confessed as much. Yet the Congress never misses an opportunity to call the BJP communal and anti-national. This is repeated constantly, Goebbels fashion, in direct contradiction of the damning facts that blacken its own face. But today, even the Muslims are fed up of this clap-trap.  But Congress, undaunted, goes begging for Muslim votes to the Shahi Imam of Delhi. And Ahmed B ukhari proceeds to explicitly canvass for it. Then it proceeds to object to Baba Ramdev and Sri Sri Ravishankar’s leaning towards the BJP.

The pot is therefore in no condition to call the kettle black despite the use of a very selective logic. Meanwhile, the Liberal-Left is in a state of apoplexy. They cannot believe what is happening to their prognostications of utter failure for the BJP and its leader. Nobody, except people like themselves, seems to believe them any more. They are in shock and denial, slipping and sliding on a  giant saffron banana peel. So they’ve turned ugly, hurling crude insults, fanning fears, floating rumour and abetting innuendo. But, as usual when it comes to Modi, probably the most vilified major politician India has ever seen, it only seems to increase his popularity and reach.

 The slew of foreign financial institutions, watching India keenly for the  substantial investment opportunity they foresee, are now looking at scenarios of an NDA in a majority on its own, or with a minimal number of  post-poll allies. This outcome, and the decisive Government it will make possible, will not only stave off a disastrous downgrade to junk investment status, but occasion a possible upgrade.  

The BJP Manifesto, released on the 7^th of April, laid out a direction replete with development and progress, backed by Modi’s reputation and track record for swift implementation.   And the stock market has already responded with a 300 point plus rally. It is now already within striking distance of 23,000 on the Sensex. It is headed towards the Goldman Sachs call of 25,000, expected by some by June 2014, with the Nifty also at 7500 or 7600 by then.

The UPA and friends howl and scream at such forecasts as they clutch at contrary straws in the wind. Meanwhile, the opinion polls, the betting fraternity giving very good odds, and the foreign investment community, have been joined by celebrity astrologers such as  KN Rao, Bejan Daruwala and KB  Gopalakrishnan, all predicting a handsome victory and government formation for the NDA.

Gopalakrishnan, confidently willing to be counted after the results are declared, thinks the NDA is in for two consecutive terms, given a swearing in at the auspicious muhurtam; and that India will see unprecedented prosperity over the next decade.

(913 words)

April 10^th, 2014

Gautam Mukherjee