Men, Matters & Memories
M L Kotru
The horn blowers have barely paused, applauded and admired for the splendid job they have earlier done on, this past year and more, and preparing they indeed are for yet another triumphal march which they believe will be far more demonstrative, lots more effusive than anything before – before that is Prime Minister Narendra Modi outdid himself and his resources to conquer New York nearly a year ago on his first foray there as the CEO of India Unlimited
To go by word-of-mouth messenger Service the Modi Show on the American West Coast later next month promises to be something Hollywood and Bollywood together will come envy. Imagine all those big income bracket Indian denizens of the Silicon valley and its affluent neighbourhoods pumping in money to make this version of Modiana an occasion to remember. Look at the wondrous mix of fact and fiction that has gone into make the Modi show a very appetizing prospect with all those glitzy stars sharing the stage, a la Madison Square Garden, with who else but the world’s “tallest” leader of this decade.The harbinger of India’s ‘achhe din” is out there to assure the away-from-home Indians of the joy it has been to see the making of the good days of India.And there can’t be a better way of seeing it through Modi’s multicolored prism.
A miracle to behold, after all those wretches who had bled the nation’s poor,holding out promises,yes, the promising the moon without even taking those first baby steps to usher in the dawn of ache din, swatch Bharat,15 lakh rupees in each Indian farmer’s bank account, bijli,sadak ,pani not to mention the model cities already on his cards. Why, didn’t he promise us a version of a sterlised,smoke-free city,with driverless vehicles on of which he only a few days back travelled in one of the UAE mini cities only the other.His Excellency the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi he crowed had promised to share know-how,Only, problem is that it will take thousands of Abu Dhabis to make an India.
The other fact in this context being that most of the rebuilding of the economy of the Emirates was achieved by millions of Indians who have given their blood and sweat to the making of the emirate – of course, for money and lot and lots of it ; 14 billion dollars annually. Mind you sarcasm if any, is unintended. The fact is that Mr Modi is probably a well-meaning man, a poud Indian, who wants his country, like everyone else of us, to take its due place in the comity of nations. Unfortunately building up of countries as large and as complex as India requires much than the leader of the country giving us a new slogan each morning, as if sloganeering is akin to nation-building, Catchy slogans do win votes at the hustngs, as Mr Modi proved with that unique election campaign of h less than two years ago.
Nice slogans sound uplifting ,particularly when a people’s morale is low, it is a like a balm working on a sore limb. The important thing is to ensure delivery. You can make a crowd shout a thousand times over, and at one sitting too, that “ache din aane wale hein’ But how long am I expected to wait for the promised land.It is no comfort to me to hear someone in authority saying that FDI rate is low, that the Chinese economy is in a state of collapse nor to be told of the reassuring words uttered by Mr Jaitley and the RBI . How does it help a housewife asked to buy onions at Rs. 80 a kg or to be assured that the GDP will be higher than earlier anticipated.
Or, does it really make sense to the average Indian living in our villages or overflowing cities with their teeming slums hearing Mr Modi weaving that rose tinted web of words while addressing the diaspora on his no infrequent foreign jaunts. It doesn’t make a difference whether you call Obama President Obama or the more ridiculous BAA-RR-ACK. The diaspora may see it as a sign of intimacy between Modi and Obama but to the rest of us it is not the done thing. But you can’t change Mr.Modi.He knows best. The Prime Minister,his years as a RSS pracharak must have taught him, should bring some of those traits (not in the RSS sense) back into play. His home state Gujarat served notice during the midweek that all’s not well in his own bailliwack, let alone the rest the country. Winning elections may not always not always be the correct guage.Power very often puts blinkers on you with the result that you often become unidimensional.
Mr. Modi is obviously so carried away by his own rhetoric that he may not perhaps be able to tell what is ovious to others.What has happened in Gujarat is unprecedented .At least for 30 years,including the Modi years as Chief Minister, haven’t seen anything of the sort.In short the lead players have switched saides. In the ’80s and then again in the middle of that decade,it was the Patels or Patidars, who led fierce uprising against reservations for Dalits and OBCS. Now the Patels are leading a campaign demanding reservations for themselves in government job,in colleges. On the face it this may seem comic but there are serious economic implications of the policies pursued so far and except for the prosperous fringe, Patels, or Patidars,holding small bits of land just feel left out. And there problem in part also arises from the fact they have so far been hardcore BJP supporters.The basic problem of the Patel farmer is that the price of his produce is less than the cost of production which is what is causing a major problems forthe Patidars.
That a 22-year-lad has come to be recognized as their leader should bring the message closer home to Modi who keeps thumping his chest whenever he speaks of a nation largely of 35-year-old. The young Patidar leader incidentally is no necessarily wedded to solutions. He is known to have been close to the Hindu Vishwa Parioshad leader Pravin Togadia. As a critic has pointed out Modi’s emphasis is cosmetic.He has banned cow slaughter in BJP ruled States. He has exploited the photo opportunity by performing yoga in public. He is intent on promoting Sanskrit. Such fringe activities do not in fact countin the national discourse. On the face of it a lasting cure for economic and social backwardness lies in rapid diversification of the structures of economy, investing in the capacity of the traditionally subaltern to occupy the new modes of an entirely new globalised division of labour. Mr Modi’s much tom-tommed Gujarat model of development has many lopsided and unfortunate aspects which have been lost sight of in the political hurly burly which Mr. Modi has personified.
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