Modi Must Lay The
Foundation For A Three-Term Prime-Ministership
As we take in the import of this invincible poll result in
favour of the BJP and the NDA, we must possibly reflect on the most profound
opportunities it has thrown up. It is not enough to see this win as a weakness
of the other side, anti-incumbency, corruption, ineptitude, etc. undeniable as
all this is, but a win born of the yearning of the young people of this country
who think they have been short-changed for a very long time.
It is they who have voted in Narendra Damodar Modi, cutting
across caste, creed, and religious divides, despite the acrimony of a so-
called polarised election. The results show the minorities, concentrated in
many constituencies, must have also voted for Modi in significant numbers, making
this no majoritarian slugfest.
Our traditional post-MK Gandhi politicians, on both sides of
the fence, steeped in socialist apology to a lesser or greater extent, have, in
the past, sought to dampen expectations and claim virtue, make much of the
difficulty of the tasks in hand. They have been wary of raising aspirations
with confidence and ambition. They have characterised India as a poor,
post-colonial country, and persisted with this victimhood for generations.
Modi on the stump has ignored this narrative, and repeatedly said he had worked within the same imperfect existing system, but delivered very good results in Gujarat. What it takes, he said, is sincerity, executive will, and good governance.
Old style Indian
politicians from every party have been adept at explaining why it, meaning almost
everything, was interminably delayed, never on budget, or never even got done. They
have harped on poverty alleviation, inflation, subsidies and other measures to
make less go around, without ever addressing how such a great country endowed with such a wealth of
natural and human resources, should yet be in this sorry predicament!
Modi, coming from a poor family, came up the ladder by dint
of merit alone, became the country’s best known Chief Minister, and burst on
the national scene with a three-term track record in Gujarat. He spoke of a
bold new message of abundance, of unleashing the energies and ingenuity of the
Indian people, of technology-friendliness and setting no limits on the progress
possible for this nation. And he delivered it relentlessly, in unabashed ‘shock
and awe’ fashion, crisscrossing the entire country for every campaign day available
to him in seven to eight months.
Not only did the nation, via an enhanced voters’ list and
high percentage turn-outs, endorse Modi’s great vision for this country, but
the true implications and expectations of this win must be clearly understood. Modi
needs to achieve a grand target of turning India into a developed country
second to none.
This accepted, the time-frame realistically needs to extend beyond the 60 months Modi has spoken of on the campaign trail, to perhaps a consecutive run of 180 months. A half or quarter-finished job will not suffice or satisfy.
BJP State Chief Ministers, three of them, in Gujarat,
Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, with possibly a come-back skilled artist in
Rajasthan that closely mimics it too, have demonstrated their ability to win
multiple and consecutive terms. This despite, till lately, a fractious tendency
to infight and cleave to privileges, that has benefitted an effete and corrupt
Congress, blackmailing regional parties, rapacious independents. It lost the
BJP the general elections in 2004, and more particularly in 2009. Nevertheless,
on the plus side, an ability to overcome anti-incumbency to claim support from
the voter to execute a development agenda is firmly in the DNA of the BJP at
some subliminal level too.
Now that Narendra
Modi has been blessed with this spectacular success, this invincible tally, he
has the wherewithal to take India into the first rank of nations.
With a simple majority for BJP alone, Modi cannot be
effectively sniped at by BJP party rivals who may resent his ascendancy and
grudge him the magnitude and efficacy of his personal contribution. Though, it
is also certain he achieved this result with the staunch support of the RSS,
top brass as well as rank and file cadres, a strong and effective core team, an
efficient and gifted backroom operation, brilliant campaign strategy and
execution, a massive advertising campaign
etc.
As things stand, not only is India already the third biggest
economy in the world on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis, but it has the potential
to become a top economy in absolute dollar terms as well. The key desire,
easily understood by a Prime Minister who comes from poverty is to eliminate
it. Modi has the possibility of removing the greatest bane of poverty for
millions of the Indian people and becoming the greatest Prime Minister this
country has ever known. He can, and probably will go down in history as the
leader who eliminated poverty in this country. It is indeed a gargantuan task
for a man who can dare shoulder such a massive ambition.
But of course, it may well take more than a single term in
office. So, from day one, Narendra Modi must lay the foundations, the
groundwork, to ensure the winning of three consecutive terms. The Party apparatus
cannot afford to go to sleep now that the battle is won, because the
transformational war, as yet, awaits. Great lieutenants, such as the
astonishingly successful Amit Shah, are probably integral to the electoral
requirements going forward.
In fifteen years India can become either the biggest economy
in the world, or certainly, giving the US, China and Japan its due, amongst the top three or four, not in
PPP, but in absolute terms.
It is too early, days before the new Government is even
sworn in, to speak of the mechanics of such a great task. But it is not too early to demand this of a
great man of destiny, a moderniser, reformer, a doer, a secular, Kemal Ataturk
style figure, adapted, of course, to a 21st century milieu.
Narendra
Modi is on the threshold of a very unusual greater glory, bigger than even the
prime ministership; it is to give the true meaning to the provisions of the
greatest constitutional democracy on earth.
(1,027 words)
May 16th,
2014
Gautam Mukherjee
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