Am I afraid to say what I feel in Mr Modi’s India? Not really. Not so far. But I’m afraid I have to say something in Mr Modi’s India; “I’m not afraid to say what I feel in Mr Modi’s India.”Hamara Bajaj is one of India’s favourite brands. So is Hamara Modi. So what is our two-wheeler freewheeler talking about? Perception is what he is talking about. In drawing rooms, malls and market places people who used to toss Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi in public whisper that “Big Brother is watching”.
It’s the Little Brother who is watching, really. Remember the poor blokes who took cracks at Mr Modi on Facebook and found themselves guests of the state after some small-town seekers of five-minute fame complained and FIRs were registered? Just like that nutty professor who did time in a Kolkata jail after taking an online dig at Mamata Banerjee. So there you go, people are afraid to say what they feel in Modi’s India, for isn’t West Bengal in India?
Imaginations are running wild about trumped-up charges and honey traps becoming the inevitable fate of the government critics. Amit Shah is, of course, the bogeyman, though I’m yet to see or read about the home ministry arresting an innocent bystander with a funny bone. In fact, the ‘Tukde tukde gang’ and ‘the Khan Market gang’ sound like cute epithets in a Bollywood romcom—perhaps Bombairiya? So who must really be afraid in Modi’s India?
Crooks who loot India’s banks, pervert the system and the corrupt officials who abet them are scared. Real estate tycoons who swindle hapless buyers while NPAs—over `7 lakh crore worth loans—are restructured with a slap on the wrist and a top up. In the cooler are alleged embezzlers Shivinder Singh and Malvinder Singh of Religare, builder barons such as Amrapali’s Anil Sharma and HDIL’s Wadhawans and bank bosses like PMC MD Joy Thomas who crashed on the rocks for dosh.
But that’s what governments do. Arrest people who break the law. Magnates like Subrata Roy, Sanjay Chandra and Sudipto Sen. Netas like P Chidambaram, Lalu Yadav and Suresh Kalmadi. Bureaucats like Siddharth Behura and RK Chandolia. As corruption cases grabbed headlines and babus refused to sign on licences during UPA-II, ‘policy paralysis’ became the catchword for slowdown. However, it’s not Messrs Modi & Shah who bolster the fear feel.
It is ministers who scream that criticising Modi is against the “national interest”, (you gotta be kidding) and guilty of “a fair dose of indiscipline”. True, the economy is in the bin but Mr Modi doesn’t need a Nishikant Meynard Keynes Dubey who declares that GDP doesn’t matter to economic health. Of course, the blame for ventriloquism goes to Mr Modi and Mr Shah, for can a single neta open their mouth without their signal?Perhaps, those who need to fear to speak out are politicians. They are doing themselves a favour with sycophancy but certainly not the government or the prime minister. What are they scared of? Cabinet reshuffle?