Atta Rasool Malik
Indians have a passion for screen-based media/screen entertainment. Therefore, Indian political parties during the current Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament) elections were intensely engaged in producing fun and opera. As expected, the Bharti Janta Party (BJP) leadership seems to have taken a lead role with Prime Minister Narendra Modi being the main actor. In a latest April fool jokes endeavours’ (coincidentally, Lok Sabha elections also started in April) Indian PM’s interview with News Nation, a TV channel funded by BJP, has been attracting more audience than BJP voters.
Mr Modi, during his entire tenure, avoided press conferences/ direct hard questions, and his media appearances were mostly scripted or prepared.
Mr modi, in his epic interview with News Nation, attempted to impress Indian voters by revealing the secret of the “green signal for the Balakot airstrike despite bad weather.” His claims, from “cloudy” war strategies to digital cameras and emails long before they reached India, were miles away from common sense and sobriety.
Interestingly, the BJP in particular, possesses and and nominates a class of leaders who are so illiterate and insensitive by nature that they have little regard for ethics, international law, and science and technology. Communist Party of India leader Sitaram Yechury called Modi’s interview “shameful” and an “insult” to India’s national security institutions. Modi has a grandiose vision of himself. The truth is that he’s weaker than he looks.
Measuring the performance of Modi in the previous term, logically he should be heading for failure. Ordinary Indian voters are not the journalists, economists, college professors, industrialists, party spokesmen, political activists, or NGO types we hear on TV.
India’s average voters are peasants in villages and workers in towns with pale faces worn by anxiety. These are mostly young voters unable to find jobs. The voters figure is over over 900 million people.
Do these voters rejoice over Modi’s new missiles capable of hitting a satellite or happy to get latest Rafael aircraft or marveling at Modi’s colorful Maharaja turbans? No way.
Modi has not delivered on the promise of progress and prosperity for all. Modi’s admirers may ask. Then how come the Indian stock market is boom? Well, stock markets bet on the future. While voters react to present realities.
It would be highly surprising if Modi leads Indian Lok Sabha. He has ideologically Balkanized India. Modi has ruled through fear and heartedness. BJP rule has proved to be a curse for all minorities – Sikhs, Muslims and Christians. The BJP-sponsored Hindutva ; hateful ideology, cow vigilantism squad and related National Register of Citizens (NRC) scandal, the segregating “genuine and fake citizens” in Assam. Modi wants to convert a diverse country into a Hindu nation.
Mr Modi has failed both rural and urban India. In rural India, Modi has hurt farmers in three ways. One, his demonetization dried up to 40% of a farmer income. Farmers derived income from wages through manual labor. Two, Modi deprived every farmer of Rs 10,000-20,000 he earned from selling cows that stopped giving milk to the beef industry. And third, those unproductive cows let loose by farmers, tens of thousands of them, have started eating the farmer’s crops. So Modi has literally turned farmers into chowkidars (watchmen). They stay awake at night to keep stray cows from grazing on their fields.
Urban India, which holds 40% of India’s population. Modi has ended up throtting this part of India too. First by his demonetization, drive which crippled India’s so-called unorganized sector, accounts for 80% of the non-formal economy in the cities. Then Modi punched this sector by introducing the uniformed GST. The promised shining India is nowhere to be seen.
Modi driven war hysteria in his effort to get himself re-elected, remarked about nuclear weapons as “our nuclear weapons is not for Diwali.” Modi’s remarks on the Balakot have also exposed many features of Indian decision making. A politician of such stature over-riding military professionals is detrimental to the national and regional security matrix.
India’s media while exposing Manic Modi (aggressive posturing) also extensively highlighted the idiocies so that a BJP leadership is presented realistically. Despite all these facts, if the Indian public ops for BJP;s leadership, then good luck to India and the region. Exit polls in India also suggest, idiocy might India for another five years.
