By S. Sethuraman
For the first time after a full 18 months of political bitterness carried to absurd lengths, the Modi Government has realised, belatedly though, that whatever the power at its command, the path of consensus-building in parliamentary democracy cannot be shunned altogether.
This had become inevitable when the Modi Government’s own vital (reform) interests are at stake, especially at a time of diminishing credibility on his ability to implement the promised key reforms, which are being increasingly viewed as desideratum for investments, domestic or foreign
Apart from the confrontation with opposition over the Congress party’s objections to GST, played down so far as an insuperable obstacle by his Government, the Prime Minister’s political image has also taken a hit in the aftermath of the Modi-led BJP’s defeat in Bihar and reverses in a couple of byelections,
And all this against a wider background of grievance among liberals and writers, many returning awards, over Mr Modi’s enigmatic silence on condemnable actions and killings by bands of Hindutva outfits. Such groups, being not disassociated with RSS ideology to which the Prime Minister himself adheres, made his position invidious.
Nor the deserved denunciations had been forthcoming from any of the senior Ministers who are all the time sedulously protecting the image of their supreme leader, and instead have been rigging the past for indulging in blame game to turn tables against political rivals.
Finally, it caught up with Mr Modi himself as he could come across in his peregrinations how the recent social and political developments in the country have begun to attract undesirable attention in some of the other major democracies as well.
In effect, the law of diminishing returns seems to have set in for Mr Modi to retain the halo with which he made a grand debut on the world stage in 2014. Nevertheless, he retains his charisma and nations still look to him as leader of the largest democracy committed to transform the economy through structural reforms.
While he may still be lionised by the disapora as a new messiah to take on India’s age-old problems of poverty and social backwardness, the tasks of turning India more investor-friendly and easier to do business with, is no less intractable as experience of his first 18 months of office has shown.
This is not to under-rate his government’s efforts in the direction of making business-doing easier and freeing up large areas for foreign direct investment, to the extent of almost making India too dependent on externally financed growth.
But it is in key game-changing reforms, its record has been patchy and in some agreed areas, even halting as in tax policy clarity, despite a lot of verbiage from policy-makers. And, lastly, the Modi Government has found its Achilles heel in GST it had touted as one becoming effective in April 2016.
Finding no other viable options, the Modi Government had to begin making conciliatory approaches to its sworn adversary, the Congress led by Ms. Sonia Gandhi, which has hitherto blocked the GST playing obstruction to perfection. However, Ms/Sonia Gandhi had thrown an olive branch which seems to be working.
The Congress says, GST being originally its own creature, it would vote for it subject to three changes it had been putting across, though till now firmly rejected by Finance Minister Mr Arun Jaitley. Also it is hurted by the “disrespect” by Mr Modi towards the principal opposition, according to vice-president Mr Rahul Gandhi.
Wherever the elections, Mr Modi takes the stage to make his no-holds-barred attacks on Congress, blaming it as the fount of all evils of the post-independence era. Now egged on by developments, he realises discretion seems better part of valour at this stage.
Mr Modi invited the leader of opposition Ms Sonia Gandhi and former PM Dr Manmohan Singh for tea at his residence on November 27.A conciliatory PM sounded them on GST and was told about the party’s known demands. Agreeably he has kept the door open for a further exchange by this weekend, when he is back from Paris Climate Summit. Can a deal get clinched?
A nagging question remains whether all this is only for GST just to get over a jam or a consensus if arrived at would be a pointer for a less confrontational approach in future for the success of our parliamentary democracy.
What has emerged in this ‘cease fire’ holds out some promise for an end to unseemly controversies over ‘secularism’ and certain other misguided perceptions relating to the basic provisions of India’s Constitution.
For once, the Prime Minister Mr Modi, with his strong backing of RSS, has declared that Constitution is a “holy book” and impliedly ruled out any review of it. He also conceded that “consensus is more important than majority rule”.
Mr Modi’s remarks could potentially alter the dynamics of future political discourse and set the stage for a more enlightened approach by both major parties, even as they battle out in the upcoming state elections more on basis of programmes rather than on hateful rhetoric.
In a sense, Mr Modi’s intervention in the two-day debate on the Constitution, focused on the 125th birthday of Dr B R Ambekar, one of the principal makers of the Constitution, helped to clarify where he really stood on serious issues of the Republic, he had always skirted around.
A casual approach had marked Mr Modi’s appearances and interventions in Parliament so far. Nor at any time was he seen to set great store by the precedents and values of parties working together in our Constitutional set-up on major national issues of internal governance and external security.
With all his antipathy for Jawaharlal Nehru, universally acknowledged as the architect of Modern India, Modi had belittled his role in the framing of the Constitution even while Dr Ambekar is rightly acknowledged and celebrated by all parties for his acumen in Constitution-making and setting guidance posts.
In the Lok Sabha speech, Mr Modi preferred to merely note the contributions of previous Prime Ministers and others to the building of India. There were more of bland statements short of firm commitments though the speech was littered with plenty of epithets and platitudes.
Overall, Mr Modi’s remarks seemingly conciliatory tone was also designed to remove any irritants left behind by his Home Minister Rajnath Singh, describing ‘secularism’ in the Constitution as the “most misused”, obviously a remark aimed at the Congress.
It remains to be seen whether a durable change has set in for Modi governance. (IPA Service)