When a powerful leader no longer dominates the headlines even in a sycophantic media as convincingly as before, it is time for a rethink. Since oxygen deaths and the vaccine crisis cost thousands of lives, various opinion polls began to record a decline in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity. But it was on his watch that India produced two vaccines in record time. Modi basked in vishwaguru adulation and exported vaccines to other countries in need because he did not expect the fatal second wave that has become the BJP’s Waterloo—every pet expert and minister told him India has beat the coronavirus. Modi’s flunky ministers and party officials, apple-polishing bureaucrats and servile media are too afraid to tell him he had made a mistake.
Today, the government looks adrift. Where is Modi’s famed digital wisdom that won him the elections? The Pegasus affair and the government’s illogical response raise suspicions that agencies snooped on the government’s critics, and even its own ministers. The economy is about as healthy as a Covid patient in ICU. The Finance Minister blamed the hike in petroleum prices as a UPA legacy—but Manmohan Singh was seven years ago. Modi’s mug shots on vaccination certificates, ration bags and posters offering the taxpayer “free vaccine” are subjects of grim humour. His sneering electioneering style lost the BJP the Bengal elections. The farmers, whom his minister referred to as mawalis (goons), are keeping their agitation alive. Hindu nationalism earned a bad name with lynchings and political partisanship, while the sacred Ram Temple project is mired in corruption allegations. And for every action of the government, ministers and industrialists tweet “thank you, Modiji”.
Narendra Modi is not the monster his critics have made him to be. The most horrific communal riots and police massacres happened during the Congress years. The worst caste conflagration, Mandal, was VP Singh’s creation. There are no mass arrests or torture of opponents even though Amit Shah is lambasted by critics as a cross between Batista and Frankenstein. Various governments have been spying and planting bugs for decades. Judges have given dubious verdicts that have gone the government’s way. Corruption has been around since VK Krishna Menon. Elected governments have been toppled and MLAs have been bought. Business houses have been raided by agencies. The Modi government proved to be no different from its predecessors. Only Modi was different. He was Teflon, morally and politically. He gave no excuses but people always excused his government’s disasters. It seemed that Modi was destined to lead India forever.
Usually the image of a ruler crumbles at a whiff of scandal. But in Modi’s case, the accumulation of disappointment and anger was subcutaneous in the Indian psyche. They erupted after Covid-19 and a failing economy brought India to its knees. There is still time. First, Modi must be more accessible and open—people trust a man who can speak to them directly and not through a radio. Cold-shoulder the servile media that has attached itself like a feeding fungus—people can smell lies a TV screen away. Hire globally experienced economic experts—not everyone knows everything. Narendra Modi is still Narendra Modi. But he is lost in the fug of overall grovelling and fear. Democracy is a dance where you have to pay the piper. C’mon, whistle a tune and shake a leg. All ain’t lost.
Ravi Shankar
ravi@newindianexpress.com