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HomeOpinionModi’s rajniti unable to tackle India’s three big crises. Time for lokniti

Modi’s rajniti unable to tackle India’s three big crises. Time for lokniti

The nation wants to know the reality of the coronavirus spread, the situation at the LAC, and the condition of economy. But the Modi government is washing its hands off.

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On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to India at the intersection of three full-blown national crises, something rarely seen in history. Coronavirus refuses to go away, presenting the biggest ever challenge to public health since Independence. The economy refuses to pick up after the lockdown, threatening the country with the first recession in 40 years. And China refuses to budge from the areas it has occupied on our side of the Line of Actual Control, causing the worst national security scandal since 1962.

A critical moment like this one is when leadership gets tested. The nation really wants to know, especially about the spread of coronavirus and the ground reality on the border. The nation wants to see a clear direction, especially about the strategy for combating Covid-19 and for economic recovery. The nation wants, rather desperately, assurance on all three fronts.


Political distancing

PM Modi did not even deign to acknowledge these expectations. Instead, he seems to have devised a strategy of political distancing from all these crises. This takes three different forms. The health crisis would be met with delegation of responsibility and blame to the state governments and local authorities. Economic crisis would be left to market forces with minimalist intervention from the central government. And brute silence punctuated by an occasional bravado would be the response to external security crisis.

Thus, Modi’s Tuesday address confirmed what is becoming clearer by the day. The next few months could well be the toughest time India has seen since Independence. The government is in no position to acknowledge the problem, let alone resolve it. Yet it remains politically unchallenged, in full control of all governmental and autonomous institutions, in a position to direct the media, dictate political agenda and shape public conversations. The Modi-Amit Shah duo is still a master of the game of politics and image management. Most of the mainstream opposition parties are in no shape to undo their political irrelevance during this national crisis. There is a political vacuum. This is the moment for lokniti, for a new kind of politics.


Also read: Narendra Modi is selling a failed Covid lockdown as a success


Political vacuum

Take the politics around the coronavirus pandemic. The current figures leave no room for bluster. Gone are the days of ‘breaking the chain’ or ‘flattening the curve’. The apologists of the Modi government have shifted from these ridiculous claims to now searching for modest reduction in the number of “doubling days” or to a meaningless count of “cases recovered” and now, finally, to a low count of deaths.

No matter how you spin it, the fact remains that we are headed to be amongst the highest number of coronavirus positive countries in the world, that we may well have been at the top if we cared to test as much as we should have, that we did not use the lockdown window to prepare for the extent of this emergency and that our public health system is collapsing in the face of the pandemic, including in some of our best served metropolitan centres like Mumbai and Delhi.

In the face of this crisis, the Modi government has simply washed its hands off. Except intervening in the impending disaster in Delhi, the Modi government has stepped back from proactive action, planning or even information sharing. Yet, the opposition has not been able to corner the government, not the least because, with the singular exception of Kerala, the opposition parties don’t have much to show in the states they rule. No one can force a political consensus around something as elementary as “test, trace, isolate”. There is no public campaign for a simple and minimalist demand: universal, comprehensive and free healthcare for all Covid patients.

Take the economic front. All the claims of V-shaped recovery have made a U-turn. The 21-lakh crore package has come to be seen as the PR stunt that it always was. We are staring at a negative GDP this fiscal year.

Manufacturing has not picked up because demand refuses to pick up. Despite expanded liquidity, banks are unwilling to lend and entrepreneurs are unwilling to borrow. Unemployment figures have come down, thanks to massive expansion of MNREGS and drop in wages. But these cannot continue for long. There are reports of hunger, malnutrition.

Yet, Modi’s speech made it clear that the government is going to stick to its myopic economic policy that defies every expert opinion that should matter. The fan-fare about the PM personally extending additional and free ration for another five months, a desperately needed move to save the poorest from hunger during the rainy months, only served to remind what the government was not going to extend beyond June: ex-gratia for most vulnerable sections, cash transfer to Jan Dhan accounts, free gas cylinders and special ration for migrant labourers. It also signalled that the government was not going to consider any more relief measures: no compensation to farmers, no cash transfer for needy families, no ex-gratia to hawkers and vendors, etc, no interest subvention on housing loans, no rollback of predatory taxing of diesel and petrol. Yet, the opposition has not succeeded in mobilising any of this resentment, largely because it has not offered a coherent alternative policy package.

And, finally, take the border situation. The latest satellite pictures, credible reports and the statements by the government’s own officials leave no room for denial. China has occupied a substantial chunk of strategic land on the Indian side of LAC and it won’t budge. Instead of taking the nation into confidence, the PM resorted to bluff (“koi nahin ghusa”) in the recent all-party meet, then bluster (“munh tod jawab”) in his Maan Ki Baat, followed by complete silence in the address to the nation. Seems we have to wait till the PM has some TV-worthy action, perhaps some kind of virtual strike, to report to hear anything resembling the truth from the PM.  Yet, such is the lack of credibility of the opposition on this issue, that the Congress’ justified questioning could be brushed aside, for it seemed to be enjoying the ruling party’s discomfiture more than the national loss.


Also read: Who is India fighting – PTI, Congress or its own ambassador in China? Xi knows the answer


Rajniti to Lokniti

This moment calls for a new initiative, a national mission, beyond the pale of mainstream rajniti. The Modi government’s failure on the governance front and yet its hold over state institutions combined with the failure of the opposition to offer a credible alternative is a perfect recipe for the assassination of democracy.

World over, authoritarian rulers have used natural disasters, economic and national security crises for strangulating civil liberties and extinguishing democratic routines. This is a real threat to whatever remains of constitutional democracy in India.

The answer must come from outside mainstream political parties. The opposition to the current dispensation must focus outside the electoral arena. What we need today is nothing short of a national movement to tackle the triple catastrophe that India faces. On the health front, we need a volunteer force to go from village to village, from basti to basti, to help survey the population and track the spread of Covid, beside helping the people access public health infrastructure. On the economic front, we need a team of action-researchers to be on the ground to assess the economic condition of the people, while monitoring the availability of ration and MNREGS jobs. On the security front, we need a group of patriotic people to take the truth to the people without jingoist war-mongering. We do not need a separate save democracy movement; a people’s movement that attends to these three tasks will by itself work towards saving democracy.

Jayaprakash Narayan had called this kind of politics lokniti. It does not shun rajniti; it subsumes power politics in a wider and meaningful activity that includes struggle (sangharsh) and constructive work (nirman). This is a moment of truth for India, a turning point that will shape the country’s future. The nation waits for a nation-wide lokniti initiative to face this unprecedented crisis and reclaim our republic.

The author is the national president of Swaraj India. Views are personal.

 

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22 COMMENTS

  1. Modi will keep winning the heart of Indians, no matter what, as long as he is handsome (good looks, yes I mean it: after years of bheja fry and countless arguments with real-world people I finally got it). All types of argument with bhakts or even a simple Modi supporter is complete vanity.

    Even if India’s GDP decline to 1-2% he will keep winning. Because GDP was always something equivalent to bullshit for normal Indians. Modi started his career (2002) from hardcore hindutva, but now hindutva is only a distraction, his handsomeness with the help of his film director’s (godi tadka-masala exploiters also called dalla media) skills is more than enough to entertain 90% of the nation. His handsomeness is able to romanticise even an 80 year grumpy fool, leave aside the tiktok generation.

    The only thing that can stop this creature to ruin this country is an even more handsome (good looking) masculine Man. That too without having the lethal weapon called dalla Godi media. Only an individual, who has more entertaining and romanticising capability, can beat this menace.

  2. PM Modi has great soft skills – self-management. calmness, self-confidence, self-motivation, goal setting, self-starter, persuasion. These are excellent soft-skills for a salesman or politician. But he doesn’t have any hard skills when it comes to managing peoples issues like education & health care or running economy or foreign policy.

    PM Modi also does not delegates to experts the tasks & required authority related to hard skills. As a result no project is executed properly. By the way no one also doesn’t know what is happening as Modi believes is convenient truth like pre-truth, post-truth, half-truth, multiple truths, changing truths and many a times truth is hidden.

    Quote by “Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes” India doesn’t need TalkTok leaders or sizzle salesman.

    • Effective leadership to serve people : examples Jacinda Ardern of NZ, Merkel of Germany, Pinarayan CM of Kerala.

      Effective leadership (or rather cynical leadership) to win elections and gain power : Modi, Shah.

    • ‘PM Modi has great soft skills – self-management. calmness, self-confidence, self-motivation, goal setting, self-starter, persuasion. ‘

      That is a very Hindu view. The minorities did not see his soft skills yet. He gets them lynched.

      ‘PM Modi also does not delegates to experts the tasks & required authority related to hard skills. ‘

      Fascists concentrate power in themselves and run a personality cult. So he is surrounded by sycophants. Hindus are in love with fascists, so they do not see fascism and RSS training is the problem. You certainly did not figure it out, otherwise you would not have written drivel on Modi’s soft skills.

  3. how do we go about it ? History will tell you that you need a voice that cuts through confusion, to define a goal that has universal appeal, that offers hope that induces a passion….and of course you need a man of oratory to put these forward to the people, Think Lincoln, think Obama, think Churchill. Can you find, and then more importantly back such man or woman? Can you put your considerable erudition to work for such a man , or do you think you are that one?

  4. The writer may be right about all his views but the blame must be pointed toward opposition leaders. Can the writer suggest a single leader in the country who can solve the crises? We need strong leaders like Mrs Indira Gandhi.
    No one can improve the economy because we have destroyed all public undertakings. Unless we copy China, we cannot achieve growth.

    • Modi does not need to look in the mirror. The Hindus who support him need to come to terms with his failures. They have elevated him to a godman, so it is difficult for Hindus to change.

  5. Yogendra Yadav has never held any public office and is asking answers off someone who has been elected twice with an increased majority.
    This is like the person who has never been to school asking explanations for complex scientific questions!
    Try and get elected to some Panchayat first Mr Yadav

    • Having a mandate does not mean we have forfeited permanently the right to question. Fascists obviously interpret it that way.

  6. Undereducated jhollawallas who wrote fake INDIAN history to please congrass bosses and keep HINDUS divided are finding loss of their relevance getting a permanent shape. And would rather parrot pakistan or Chinese version of news than that of INDIA.

    • What is the Indian version of news ? India is the vishwa guru for Covid, the right place for investment, and India crossed the LAC and killed 43 Chinese and lost 20. There are lot of Hindus who believe that.

  7. Why is Print allowing space to people like Yogendra Yadav? He is talking about Lokniti. During UPA 2 he along with Harsh Mandar were members of NAC which drove away MSMEs from India to China and now he is preaching on economy. If print is short of writers I would suggest they should approach people who are sincere and not People like Yogendra Yadav. I hope Print would value my opinion.

  8. Stupid Just Dont Imagine Of Your Own And Write Horrible About Indian Getting Money From Congress & China. We Very well Know Your Media Is Paid.

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