MODI AND THE
IDEA OF INDIA:
2014 general elections have been most
difficult elections. It is a departure from all early elections. The voters have voted not only for a change
and a new government. They have voted
for a new idea of India
Modi has sold to the youth of our nation a
dream larger than the universe. More
than 50% of youth have stood with Modi and voted for him.
The promise Modi has made to all will be
fulfilled through ‘development and good governance’. He will bring about good governance. But the good governance and development will
be brought about through neo liberal path of development. In this respect Modi hass not come out with
any new idea. UPA has been following exactly
the same path, in spite of their slogan of “inclusive growth”.
UPA, however did not enjoy the kind of
luxury that Modi will enjoy in having an absolute majority on his own. UPA allies were opposition within. The prime
minister’s cabinet was formed by the allies and not by his prerogative. When
there was a need to raise railways fares after several years Mamata Banergy
changed the railway minister. UPA’s
attempt to introduce FDI in multi brand retail was opposed even by the congress
government in Kerala, not to speak of TMC and DMK who were their big
allies. At the end Congress lost both
these allies on one pretext and the other.
It was relying on the outside support of BSP and SP. But their outside support functioned as
vehement opposition than anything else. SP
and BSP might have had some vested interests to give the outside support. Good governance needs good numbers in the
parliament.
The development by neo liberal ideology
essentially means mobilizing resources from all parts of the country,
particularly from the remotest tribal areas to promote growth. It will exploit all the mineral wealth from
the tribal areas depriving them of their assets, livelihood and displacing them
to live on wages under contract labour.
The formation of special economic zones through land acquisition will
take away the lands of the dalits, adivasies, farmers handing over to private
industrialists. Another important aspect
of neoliberal ideology is to globalize the national economy to the maximum
extent. This includes inviting foreign
direct investments and opening the market to the international producers. At one level this leads to what is called
growth. More foreign capital flows in
and there will be growth in employment in short run. When growth of any economy depends on the
flow of foreign capital it is a growth on borrowed money. When the tides begin to change the flow of
capital takes reverse direction. Before
this happens the foreign capital would have made huge profits and repatriated
to their base outside our country.
Foreign direct investment will leave our country high and dry at the end
of the story. This would cause crisis in
our economy. This is precisely what
happened towards the latter part of UPA II rule.
A word about private public partnership,
Modi has added one more P to it to run it like people, private public
partnership. This is a formula meant to
make use of public assets to be used by private interest to make more
profits. To add to this Modi will also
involve the people to join the band to be exploited for private profit. The net result of this will be all the common
property and public assets will go under the control of private industrial
interests. This formula fits into the picture of neo liberal policies that aims
at mobilizing public and people’s resources into the hand the private
industries. Neo liberal ideology
believes in privatizing social assets, just opposite to what we would desire,
socializing the wealth for common good.
The good governance that Modi speaks of is governance
that will facilitate growth of capital, foreign investment and industrial
peace. Good governance will give free
hands to all to expand capital and deregulate the market. Liberalization or deregulation is a mantra of
good governance. The private capital
will have unfettered access to the common wealth and free market.
Modi has assured that he will revitalize
agriculture. Given his pro industry
enthusiasm one will have to imagine what kind of attention he will give to
agriculture. One would not be surprised
if by this he means industrialization of agriculture. Contract farming would be
another way out to meet short fall of food production. If agriculture is viewed
only in terms of producing more food then this approach would be found suitable
in the Modi’s frame work of things. In
either case there would be growth in food production but rural population would
have no money to buy food as their livelihood would be usurped by the
industrial agriculture or contract farming.
We will land up with agriculture that will not be sustainable. One does not need to talk about the harm it
will cause to the environment.
Modi wishes to revitalize the economy
through good governance and neo liberal policies. However the extent to which he will succeed
in globalizing our economy to that extent our economy will under the influence
of global economy. The impact of global
crisis and swings in global economies will get reflected in our economy. Will Modi have any control on this
situation? Will his development not come
under the sway of global ups and downs?
What will be the social impact of the Modi
government? Almost every BJP leader has
come to politics through rigorous RSS indoctrination and drill. RSS’ nationalist and Hindutwa agenda is
expected to be part of the mission of every BJP. Under NDA I BJP had a reduced strength and
hence they were constrained in their militant ideology. Now BJP on its own enjoys absolute majority, will
it be constrained in their militancy? BJP did not given ticket to a single
Muslim candidate in the recently concluded elections. The only Muslim who got elected from NDA to
the parliament was a candidate put up by Mr. Paswan LJP.
Many like Mr. Gurucharan claim that majority
of the youth who voted for Modi did not vote for Hindutwa but for
development. Those who voted for Modi
for development may make a distinction between Hindutwa and development. But how will BJP and its militant cadres at the
ground interpret the mandate? Will they
implement Modi’s election promise to send Muslim immigrant back to Bangladesh
and welcome Hindu immigrant? One must
remember that apart from the youth reposing their faith in Modi the RSS cadres
have put immense efforts in ensuring Modi’s victory. How will they act under the absolute majority
of BJP?
Sudheendra Kulkarni has asked Modi, “You
should pledge that your government would work towards the goal of a riot-free
India.” He reposes
responsibility for riot free India in the lap of Modi. We have seen how he conducted Raj Dharma in
Gujarat in 2002. Would he be able to
restrain militant RSS-Hindutwa cadres?
What is even more serious risk we are
facing is gradual safranization of Indian state. There will be a fair chance that more pro
saffron officials, army and police personnel, judges and bureaucrats will be
recruited in to the state machinery. We
have experienced safronization of school curriculum in the past. In this case the state will not be able to
respond to the aspirations of multi racial, multi religious and multi ethnic
population of our country.
Modi and the youth, the first time voters
are looking anxiously to their future.
They would like to carve out their future along the lines of their
aspirations. Modi seems to have struck a
chord in the lives of the youth. These
young people will make their own history.
But these people cannot make their own
history in a historical vacuum. By the
very definition making history is in the context of our past and our vision for
the future. Their efforts, no matter how innovative at finding solution to
their problems in the present and charting out their future, are guided and
circumscribed, moulded and conditioned by their respective histories, their
inherited economic, political and ideological structures.
India set on its path on its own as it were
after independence, i.e., from 1947. But
this path has deep roots in the struggle of the people for independence. The political and ideological features, which
have had a decisive impact on the post independence development, are largely a
legacy of the freedom struggle. It is a
legacy that belongs to all the Indian people, regardless of which party or
group they belong to now, for the party which led this struggle from 1885 to
1947 was not a party but a movement. All
political trends from the Right to the Left were incorporated in this movement.
What are the outstanding features of the
freedom struggle? A major aspect is the values and modern ideals on which the
movement itself was based and the broad socio economic and political vision of
its leadership. This vision was that of a democratic, civil libertarian and
secular India, based on self-reliant, egalitarian social order and an
independent stand as against the rest of the world.
The movement popularized:
- Democratic ideas and institutions in India: The Indian National Congress was organized on a democratic basis and in the form of a parliament.
- From the beginning the nationalists fought against attacks by the state on the freedoms of the press, expression and association and made the struggle for these freedoms an integral part of the national movement. The defense of civil liberties was not narrowly conceived in terms of one political group. It was extended to include the defense of other groups whose views would be politically and ideologically different.
- From the initial stages, the movement adopted a pro-poor orientation which was strengthened with the advent of Gandhi and the rise of the leftists who struggled to make the movement adopt a socialist outlook.
- The national movement was, from its early days, fully committed to secularism. Its leadership fought hard to inculcate secular values among the people and opposed the growth of communalism. Despite the partition of India and the accompanying communal holocaust it did succeed in enshrining secularism in the constitution of free India.
Modi has a herculean task to deliver on the
promise of dream taller than the Mount Everest made to the youth and all the
people of our nation. Any short fall on
this will be very hard for Modi.
