Thank you dear subscribers, we are overwhelmed with your response.
Your Turn is a unique section from ThePrint featuring points of view from its subscribers. If you are a subscriber, have a point of view, please send it to us. If not, do subscribe here: https://theprint.in/
The Narendra Modi-Amit Shah BJP’s grip over politics, narrative and public perception has never been so weak as it is today. The spring of 2021 will go down in India’s contemporary history as the most tumultuous, disorganised and testing phase of the Modi era.
The second wave of the coronavirus pandemic has touched almost every household in India, whether directly or indirectly. The results of elections in five states, most importantly West Bengal, have embarrassed the BJP. Self-goal economic policies since 2016 and muddled response to the pandemic-induced recession have meant any economic recovery and its sustainability is a daydreamer’s fantasy. The obsession and misplaced priority to project India and its Dear Leader as the ‘Vishwaguru’ through slogans like ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ and ‘Vaccineguru’ has unraveled.
A test of wit, gumption and risk appetite awaits the Modi-Shah duo as they embark on a firefighting mission to douse the flames of their own mess.
PANDEMIC CONTROL
After initially dismissing the threat of the novel coronavirus, the Modi government opted for its preferred shock-and-awe-style of policy, imposing the world’s strictest lockdown in four hours’ notice. The subsequent migrant crisis and economic catastrophe didn’t pay off well as the first wave peaked only in September, well into the unlock phase.
The jubilance and hubris that followed India barely averting a total collapse of the system even at extreme costs came as the Modi-Shah duo set their eyes on political expansion.
Now with the unprecedented and harrowing second wave of Covid-19 sweeping the country, the scenes of round-the-clock activity in crematoriums, overflowing patients in hospitals, a disorganized vaccine policy and perilous hunt for oxygen and essential drugs have taken their toll on the Modi-Shah ‘governance’ brand. How to fix a health crisis of such enormity with an ingrained dislike of accountability and talent and lack of humility is the first ‘agnipariksha’ for the duo. So far, they have struggled to even assemble firefighter gear.
POLL FALLOUTS
The underperformance of the BJP in the assembly polls has cost Modi-Shah a vast deposit of political capital. Having spent innumerable resources in Bengal and fetching peanuts relative to expectations mean, in public eyes, the BJP is not invincible. A federalist opposition to take on the Modi-Shah BJP is now forging.
Another catch is Assam. With the high command buckling to his pressure, Himanta Biswa Sarma has got what he so desired, the CM seat.
Now get the optics: HBS, a Congress turncoat, becoming BJP’s most prized asset in India’s northeast now asserting his influence over Modi-Shah to get his way after poll debacle and Covid. What’s next?
Shah’s turncoat-friendly policy may have paid off in the polls and taking down opposition governments, but the HBS episode has shown the flips. What stops a Jyotiraditya Scindia, yet unpaid for his 2020 jump, to push punches in Madhya Pradesh with 2023 nearing. Or a Suvendu Adhikari and his turncoat faction from eating up the ‘Sangh’ wing of Bengal BJP. What stops other turncoats in other states from gaining leverage over the rank and file BJP units.
Not just an energised opposition, Modi-Shah now faces ambitious lieutenants within its rank.
RECESSION HONKS
Amid rising unemployment and poverty, rural anger, federal fighting over revenue sharing, drying investments and savings, inflationary pressures and depleted fiscal resources, Modi-Shah have their work cut out on the economic front.
Though out of a ‘technical recession’, economic despair is spreading as fast as the virus penetrates the heartland. BJP’s core Hindu middle-class voters are now malcontent as they face high fuel prices, loss of income, financial instability, and general insecurity. Even the most generous (unaffordable) welfare doles can’t cool the simmering rage among Indians reeling under stress.
Noticed North Block’s total disappearance from the scene while RBI does the heavy lifting?
‘ATMANIRBHAR’ ANY MORE?
‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ and ‘Vishwaguru’! If anything, India has proved in this pandemic, it has neither to bugle on. The protectionist and poorly-conceived ‘atmanirbhar’ agenda has no USP or sale value. Does one wonder if an aspiring 21st Century power with a messy democratic system and struggling economy can be self-reliant?
The scenes of foreign aid – everything from large oxygen generators to vials of remdesevir – arriving at Indian ports shreds the self-reliance manifesto. The disastrous vaccine rollout and inoculation drive and ‘world’s largest vaccine maker’ now a desperate importer ain’t the very ‘vaccineguru’ image we hoped for.
Slogans like ‘Make in India’, ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, ‘Vishwaguru’ can sound hollow to an impatient electorate.
It thus needs to be seen how Modi-Shah gets their act together and deal with multiple crises afflicting them. How empowered or decimated they emerge will set their legacy and open the front for 2024.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.
COMMENTS