As arguably the most voluble prime minister ever, Narendra Modi’s speeches have become almost predictable in the past 11 years or so. Even before he starts, we know what he would say — about himself, his government, Amrit Kaal, and the Opposition. You can check with the ‘Joshi-Doshi’ duo in the PMO — OSD (Research & Strategy) Pratik Doshi and OSD (Communications & Information Technology) Hiren Joshi. Between the two of them, they play a role in what the PM says, what’s published/telecast and what’s not.
By the way, whispers in the corridors of power are that Doshi, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s son-in-law, has started playing a more prominent role, given that the PM relies on him for inputs for his speeches; he is sought out even for feedback about bureaucrats. Both Joshi and Doshi have been close aides of PM Modi since his chief ministerial days in Gujarat. It’s not easy to keep building new narratives day after day for so many years.
Doshi-Joshi must be pretty excited nowadays. They have something very new to build on now. It’s early days yet but Prime Minister Modi looks inclined to come out in a new avatar of a bold, not nut-and-bolt, economic reformer à la Narasimha Rao who also ran a minority government. Before the use of ‘also’ triggers some people in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), let me clarify that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) did secure a majority in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. It’s just that the BJP on its own fell short of the majority mark, securing 240 seats (as against the Congress’ 232 in 1991 general election).
An emboldened Modi
The sudden announcement last Friday about operationalising the four labour codes, on the backburner for five years, caught many by surprise. They saw it as a sign of PM Modi getting emboldened by the Bihar poll results. It could be a catalyst for sure but the intent and courage to push contentious economic reforms might have come from the Delhi poll result in February — or, probably even before that. Last year’s Assembly elections gave a big fillip to the BJP but it wasn’t so reassuring for PM Modi. He was the party’s face in Jharkhand but had opted for a rather discreet, supporting role in Haryana and Maharashtra. ‘Modi ki guarantee’ was back as the BJP’s slogan in Delhi election and the result removed whatever doubt that might have crept in his mind after the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
PM Modi used the word ‘reform’ 25 times in his Independence Day speech this year. “We have resolved to accelerate the journey of reform, and we wish to advance rapidly…. Whether it is structural reforms, regulatory reforms, policy reforms, process reforms, or the need for constitutional reforms, we have made every kind of reform our mission today,” said the PM, declaring his decision to set up a task force on the next generation reforms. In September, the government carried out significant structural reform in the goods and services tax (GST).
It was evidently not just another rhetorical speech meant to tickle the impressionable minds. Operationalisation of labour codes is just one of many things he seems to have set his heart and mind on. Look at the list of the government’s legislative agenda in the coming Winter session of Parliament: amendments to the Atomic Energy Act and Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act to enable private sector participation; National Highways (Amendment) Bill for faster land acquisition for highways; and Corporate Laws (Amendment) Bill, among many others.
Also read: India must create more Sarvepalli Radhakrishnans. And move on from Macaulay
Four reasons why
PM Modi looks determined to follow up on his Red Fort speech on reforms, but he is still looking diffident when it concerns farmers. Why faster land acquisition for national highways only? Why not go the whole hog and bring back the land acquisition law, which the government promulgated thrice before giving in to the Opposition’s pressure in 2016? And why not revive the three scrapped farm laws? Renewed push to these reforms would be the strongest signal from the government about its intent and determination and would go a long way in boosting private investment amid global uncertainties. There are four reasons why PM Modi should re-visit the land acquisition and farm laws.
First, into his 12th year in office, PM Modi needs to re-invent himself into a new avatar to stay connected with the aspiration of India. All that he has been known for so far — delivery of goods and services, welfare schemes, strong and decisive leadership, Hindutva, Vishwaguru — is beginning to peak. Social engineering through deftly cobbled alliances and cash assistance to voters during elections are becoming the principal poll-winning strategy, with PM Modi pitched as a guarantor. A new avatar as a bold, daring reformer, who is ready to stake everything for India to unleash animal spirits, will do wonders for PM Modi in terms of rebranding him.
The second reason for PM Modi to push land and farm laws again is the fact that the Opposition is missing, if not dead, nationally. For all we know, post-Bihar poll verdict, Rahul Gandhi may be listening to Bon Jovi to understand why the voters turned away from him: “Should have seen it coming when roses died/ should have seen the end of summer in your eyes….ain’t it funny, how I never ever learn to fall/you’re really on your knees when you think you’re standing tall/ but only fools are ‘know it all’s’ and I played that fool for you.”
Well, if Bon Jovi could, he would only say, “Politics Ain’t a Love Song.” Gandhi is not getting the message, though. Despite the voters categorically rejecting the Congress’ ‘vote chori’ campaign in Bihar, the party has decided to hold ‘vote chor, gaddi chhod’ rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan on December 14. The Opposition party’s constant allegations about institutions being compromised and collapsing, democracy being in peril, etc. seem to have just one objective: to justify Rahul Gandhi’s repeated electoral failures with the argument that he is not failing but it’s the country’s institutions and democratic processes that are failing him.
Let’s look at another national party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The CPI(M) Politburo gave a strong reaction to the labour codes: “Their aim is to lure national and international capital…to snatch away the right to strike and criminalise any collective action by the working class.” What the party didn’t mention was that the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left government in Kerala was one of the first states to notify the draft rules of these codes.
The third reason for PM Modi to push those contentious laws now is the fact that he had become unnecessarily panicked by Rahul Gandhi’s “suit-boot-ki-sarkaar” jibes and farmers gathering at Delhi’s borders for months. Subsequent election results in Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh showed that those fears were hugely exaggerated, if not unfounded, as a large majority of the people didn’t support the agitators. In the 2022 UP Assembly election, the BJP more or less retained its grip in the western region that had witnessed the protests.
In the Punjab Assembly election that year, all self-styled farmers’ leaders lost, with most of them losing their security.
There was no impact of those agitations on the 2024 Haryana election either.
That brings us to the fourth reason why PM Modi should revisit those laws — electoral impact. What happened in states where Assemblies passed resolutions against the farm laws — Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Rajasthan, West Bengal, and Kerala — in 2020-2021? The governments in the first four states, which had sponsored those resolutions, fell in the next elections. It’s not to suggest that they fell because of the resolutions but to say that they didn’t earn farmers’ sympathy due to that. Only the LDF government in Kerala, which had sponsored the resolution in 2020, retained power in the subsequent election. But the Congress-led Opposition alliance in Kerala was more vehemently opposing the land laws.
To cut the long story short, BJP’s political adversaries did manage to organise protests against the now-scrapped land and farm laws, but it was never a mass movement. PM Modi is not known to forget defeats at the hands of political adversaries. He had one too many on land acquisition and farm laws. It’s a good time for him to fight this fight again — if only for his pride and in national interest.
DK Singh is Political Editor at ThePrint. He tweets @dksingh73. Views are personal.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)