The arrogance of PM Narendra Modi and BJP

The last few weeks has seen the naked arrogance of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party BJP is full display. The party expected that the protests will die down soon as they had already shut down their X account. They expected that only a few 100 protestors will turn up and will soon disperse especially after they had taken Sonam Wangchuck forcibly to the hospital. They felt cut the head and the trunk will fall down automatically.

Their digital media was working overtime spreading conspiracy theories saying this was sponsored by AAP, sponsored by the Americans and other Western powers to bring down the Modi government as they were scared that India will soon supersede America and other Western powers under the eminent leadership of Modi. They also had a NEET topper release a video saying that he improved his score by studying harder and staying away from protests. The Modi bhakths were trying their best to malign and tarnish the protestors in all ways they could.

All one has to see X feed of Narendra Modi and BJP to see how much resentment is simmering. Pick up almost any self-congratulatory post of Modi or BJP or for that matter any other BJP bhakth. Every post had more retorts than praises or congratulations on achievement.

If Modi and BJP had a little less arrogance, they should have read the sentiment of the people, but their arrogance blinds them. They have a feeling that they should dictate and control the future of India and drive in a direction where Hindi becomes the preeminent language and Hinduism (hardcore version) be the only religion. It is difficult to fathom why they are driving towards this goal. Even RSS doesn't seems be so stridently demanding this as a goal. Yes its offshoots like VHP and Bajrang Dal will not shy away from such demands.

One hopes that Modi and BJP learn and give up their arrogance and learn to build consensus. Given the past, this looks unlikely. Demonetisation, abolishment of article of 370, farm reforms, the three language policy of CBSE, delimitation, the building of metro depot at Aarey in Mumbai, the cutting of the mangroves for coastal road in Mumbai all goes to show that Modi and his party are unlikely learn and this is a sad for India. Demonatisation, abolishment of article 370, farm reforms were all required. They could have succeeded if the right stakeholders had been included in the decision making and a consensus had been reached before they were brought forward. Instead the government wants to thrust down the throats of the citizens of India.

The opposition is clueless and have no leader, worth their salt, or any plans which gives Indians the confidence to say that they can bring down this government and elect the opposition, but I guess it nevertheless happen in 2029.

For creating this situation, we have to thank the CJI, another sycophant of Modi, for provoking the youth from their slumber by calling them cockroaches (irrespective of how many times he says that people interpreted him wrongly, this will stick). He has only aggravated the situation by saying that the has no time for hearing cases against the atrocities of police against the protestors.

The way it is going, Modi's slogan should be "Iss baar sau paar",

Elections 2024

The Loksabha elections in India culminated and the results took everyone by surprise. The BJP led by the one and only Mr. Narendra Modi had set a target of 370 seats for his own party and 400+ for his coalition. The exit polls predicted that Mr. Modi and his coalition will more or less reach close to the numbers that they had targeted.

When the results were declared on the 4th of June, Mr. Modi's party did not even reach the majority seats of 273. The BJP managed only 240 seats and the coalition ended up with 293 a little above the majority. The INDI Alliance managed to prove everyone wrong. The Indian National Congress ended up with 99 seats and the alliance 200+ seats.

Mr. Modi had to keep up a good bravado to face his party workers during the "victory" meet. Definitely there would have been an introspection within the party about the state in which they find themselves.

Here are some reasons and suggestions for them to ponder over

1. The Ram Mandir was the biggest bet that BJP was going on. But looks like it did not get them the seats they wanted. This shows that the common citizen is more interested in earning a livelihood than visiting temples. There is a only a small set of people who, if at all, are interested in the Mandirs that BJP promises. The consequence would be that Kashi and Mathura will go to the back burner. It is unlikely that more temples will be unearthed.
2. The attack on Muslims during his speeches are unlikely to have gone down well with the common citizen. The common citizen has now quarrel with the Muslims as such. There is definitely an undercurrent and suppressed feeling of major differences with the Muslims among the Hindus (which is rarely highlighted by the local media) and vice versa (which is never highlighted by the foreign media). Attacking the Muslims openly and brazenly will only end up with loss in votes and seats.
3. The usage of Hindi everywhere will definitely alienate the South of India renaming laws, ranks of military in Hindi or Sanskritised words will not win votes except, if at all in the
   
4. Renaming of places to remove any trace of the Mughals and other are things that will appeal to only a few and not the entire population. The worst was trying to rename India to Bharat. It is already called Bharat in many contexts
   
5. Nationalism was lacking in India, but taking nationalism to the extreme is not going to take anyone anywhere. Extreme nationalism is harmful, linking everything to nationalism or anti-nationalism will make things worse.
   

In short BJP proved the cliche "Pride comes before a fall". All the good work done to boost India's image, all the good work to upgrade railway trains, all the "revdis", even when blaming the opposition for the same fault, (some revdis were necessary) all went down the drain.

There are many thing that needs to change in the approach and strategy of BJP if they wish to win the next elections. They need to tone down many of their rhetoric. Hope they realise their mistakes and change in the right direction it will help India and its citizens.

Kamaraj: The Life and Times of K. Kamraj by Bala Jeyaraman

Kamaraj: The Life and Times of K. Kamaraj by Bala Jeyaraman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A nice biography of a man who was not known beyond South India. The book highlights his simplicity and his organizational capabilities.

He is famous for being the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, but the fact that he was a long term Congress party member who was looked up to for solving internal strife is lost on most people. Many do not know or appreciate this facet of his.

One cannot but end up admiring this map after reading this book. It is definitely not a panegyric to the man neither an ode, but a simple description of the facts which lends a lot of credibility to the book.

Do read to get an insight into one of the better politicians in the Indian politics.

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The Pillow Talk Movies by Sashi Warrier

The Pillow Talk Movies by Shashi Warrier
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A satire on the Indian politics. The book describes an extreme underbelly of the Indian politics. While in public, the politicians ban dance bars and firewall pornography sites in the internet they themselves harbour and encourage the existence of high end prostitution establishments which caters to them and the others in power and in the money.

These houses serve as a place where alliances are forged and poll strategies are drawn amidst the orgies that happen around. The owners of these houses are secretly taping the happenings in these dark rooms as a safeguard for their flourishing trade.

The lame duck president who is an yes man to the Party President maintains his distance from these houses. A political broker has papers on the key politicians and has hidden it away. He is old and is losing his mind thanks to a disease that he has contracted early in life, but one which has started manifesting at his late age. The political parties want the doctor who diagnosed him to be bumped off and they use their connections with the underworld don to bump him off.

An OK read, but one will miss nothing if one gives the book a miss.

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