The Prime Minister can reach out to ordinary people by offering condolences on Shujaat Bukhari’s murder.
It’s the morning after Kashmiri editor Shujaat Bukhari’s killing and @narendramodi’s 1.48 minute fitness video continues to rock social media. The Prime Minister’s timeline continues to be flooded with messages from ordinary folk, IPS officers and table tennis star @manikabatra_TT (who recently collected an armful of medals at the Commonwealth Games). All of them were challenged by the Prime Minister to demonstrate their fitness routines.
At last count, the PM’s video had been watched an unprecedented 6.05 lakh times and liked more than 88,000 times.
Here are moments from my morning exercises. Apart from Yoga, I walk on a track inspired by the Panchtatvas or 5 elements of nature – Prithvi, Jal, Agni, Vayu, Aakash. This is extremely refreshing and rejuvenating. I also practice
breathing exercises. #HumFitTohIndiaFit pic.twitter.com/km3345GuV2— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 13, 2018
But there’s not one word by the Prime Minister condemning Shujaat Bukhari’s tragic death that will definitely affect the politics of Jammu and Kashmir. Information and broadcasting minister @Ra_THORe described it as an “assassination” and @RahulGandhi offered his condolences and expressed his anguish. Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti shared their grief. The Editors Guild of India put out a sharply critical statement underlining the costs needed to sustain a free and independent media.
But the Prime Minister, the morning after, began the day by offering his greetings to the “people of Odisha” on the festival of Raja Parba, also in the Oriya script. There’s not a word on Shujaat Bukhari. Even death, it seems these days, doesn’t break down some categories.
Meanwhile, @narendramodi’s Twitter team has posted an animated video of the PM – sandwiched between images of enthusiastic audiences in Bhilai and PM applauding SCO general secretary Rashid Alimov, from Tajikistan, for promoting yoga – on the benefits of the practice of ‘dhyan’ or meditation.
Sharing a video this morning, on Dhyan. Practice regularly to rejuvenate the mind and body. #4thYogaDay pic.twitter.com/1tvJllqOpA
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 11, 2018
Perhaps that’s one way to deal with the Chinese. Back-to-back meetings in Wuhan and Qingdao with Chinese president Xi Jinping would likely exhaust a less fit man. Perhaps the Prime Minister is also taking note of the manner in which Beijing deals with international condemnation of its human rights record – slamming it with one hand and reaching out to its critics with the other, offering the chance to Make in China. From Hello Kitty products to Ivanka Trump shoes, the strategy continues to work across the board.
So what does India do? As a much economically weaker nation, Delhi’s options are far fewer and much more circumscribed, of course. For example, a report on the gruesome goings-on in Kashmir by the Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights Thursday has been slammed by India. This is the first time in decades that the UN has directly taken India to task on Kashmir. Shujaat Bukhari’s killing, in fact, demonstrates that India seems to be back to the Kashmir of the early 1990s, a state seemingly on the verge of slipping out of control.
What can India do? Unfortunately, the Prime Minister refuses to learn from former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao who, in the wake of international condemnation on the Babri Masjid demolition and militancy in Kashmir, sent his political opponent and then leader of opposition, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to the Human Rights Council in Geneva in 1994 as the head of a multi-party delegation to take on the world’s charges.
Narasimha Rao was telling the world that India is united on dealing with its criticism.
Will Modi ever think of doing this? Unfortunately, the Prime Minister’s relations with his main opposition, the Congress, are so bitter that such an idea will never hold. The perils of diminishing the opposition on a daily basis are coming home to roost.
Offering condolences on Shujaat Bukhari’s murder would be one way of reaching out to ordinary people above party affiliation – @narendramodi’s Twitter timeline is full of such examples. But even that isn’t happening. Kashmir is aflame, once again.
It’s clear, meanwhile, that the Prime Minister’s hold on foreign policy is slipping as elections draw near. This means that Sushma Swaraj’s ministry of external affairs is returning to its traditional positions, which include voting against Israel at the UN. Only a year ago, Narendra Modi was walking on the beaches of Haifa along with Bibi Netanyahu, pronouncing undying friendship.
Many are welcoming this return to Non-Alignment 2.0 but remember that in this last year before general elections, the PM is as much driven by the assessment that India’s borders must be kept safe. A Doklam-like incursion would be hugely detrimental to the BJP’s prospects. Sweet-talking the Chinese in Wuhan and Qingdao, especially with an unpredictable man like Trump on the other side, seems to be India’s only option.
As he stretches over a boulder on the lawns of his residence in his fitness video, perhaps, the PM knows that India is caught between a rock and a hard place.