Albert Thyniang
Joseph-Marie, Comte de Maistre (1753–1821) was a French philosopher and writer who disliked the French Revolution and advocated restoration of hierarchy and monarchy and favoured authority of the Pope over temporal matters. Obviously the 19th century thinker was no democrat. He was an exponent of anti-democratic ideals. But we know that democracy is not a perfect political system. It has its defects. One of the glaring outcomes of democracy is precisely that we get undeserving representatives and governments because the best, the most meritorious are often not elected. The reason is because the electors are not up to the democratic principles and ideals. It can turn out that even the worst are elected thus making a mockery of democracy itself.
Many in the US are of the opinion that they have to bear the consequence for electing Donald Trump as president four year ago. Racist taunts, rants and assaults on religious and coloured minorities and an element of the prevailing white supremacy are by-products of Trump’s ‘political philosophy’. A writer says that Americans may consider themselves a nation of generous, selfless, noble, intellectually and morally superior people but in fact it is a home of small-minded, cruel, racist and completely self-absorbed citizens. The model is the President himself.
In India the return of the Modi government with an even bigger mandate than 2014 was a shock to some and a foregone conclusion to many. The question is what kind of government will the NDA II be? Many fear that India will turn into a totalitarian state. Others think the very soul of India is in grave danger. Still others are apprehensive that democracy itself might not survive. Secularism, inclusiveness, religious pluralism, linguistic diversity might be in dire stress. As the new government has just assumed office, the course it takes will be known but one thing is certain: we have a government we have elected. No gods have gifted us this government.
Some pointers we can safely speculate based on the experience of the last five years. Modi (NDA) has returned for the second term based not on performance. Throughout the campaign the BJP and its unmatched campaigner made no mention of the lofty promises of 2014 – ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’, of uprooting corruption, of returning black money stashed abroad, of ‘Acche Din’, etc. Not once were demonetisation and GST claimed to be successful reforms.The mandate was not based on economics either. Now it is official but it was known before the commencement of the 2019 elections that joblessness was highest in 45 years.
Modi 2.0, as the media calls it, has come back to power much less because of social and religious harmony. We saw some of the ugliest lynching cases, assaults and crimes against minorities. We saw re-conversion to Hinduism. We saw anti- ‘Love Jihad’ operations. We heard statements and sound bites propagating Hindu Rashtra and Hindutva. We saw democratic institutions like the CBI, RBI, ECI and even the judiciary losing their independence. In the next five years if we witness economic, social, religious breakdowns and undermining of democracy it will be no surprise because we have elected a government capable of them.
The BJP, the leader of NDA, has secured a massive majority mainly because of the personal charisma of its Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. Extremely unfortunate, but once again he appealed to the masses on the basis of religious polarisation. Unapologetically, he completely polarised the electorate in the North and extended it to West Bengal and the southern states. It is another matter that the wiser Southern states and Punjab did not fall prey to the dangerous design. Anti-Muslim and anti-minority sentiments were exploited to the extreme to gain maximum political mileage. As we have once again reposed our faith in a divisive, communal and majoritarian government, we have to pay the price if the society is further fragmented on religious lines leading to more insecurity and anxiety, persecution and harassment of the minorities.
Unlike his predecessors, the PM unscrupulously politicised the armed forces too. With telling effect he ruthlessly took advantage of the Pulwama tragedy and the Balakot strike. He masterfully made use of the uniform of the armed forces, figures of ‘dead terrorists’, imagery and other tools to rig the minds of the voters portraying himself the one strong nationalist leader. In spite of the non-envious record during his tenure by allowing Pathankot, Uri and Pulwama terrorist attacks the PM succeeded in imprinting the perception in people’s mind that he is the best man for national security. Anti-Pakistan sentiments were also cunningly made one among the top election issues. The implication is that real issues which dictate the government’s main occupation don’t matter anymore. If the pressing issues of jobs, health, education, communication, social harmony, corruption get side-tracked in the next five years we have only ourselves to blame.
The Indian electorate voted for one man. In a parliamentary government if we vote for one man ignoring the abilities, capabilities, education and experience of candidates who will represent each constituency we are in for serious troubles. With all respect, Modi is not going to be of help if a parliamentarian is inefficient. To a large extent the last election was a Modi election. Each of the 303 BJP MPs won mainly on Modi’s name. A blind choice for the BJP seems to have happened. Side effects are therefore seen and felt. We have 116 MPs (39%) of the saffron party’s winning candidates with criminal cases. The leader of them all is the Bhopal MP, Pragya Singh Thakur who faces terror charges in the 2008 Malegaon blast case. Not that elected law makers from other parties are saints but the focus here is on the ruling party which prides itself as a party with a difference.
One of the effects Modi’s popularity is that his ‘sarkar’ has 22 of the 57 ministers (38.60%) with criminal cases, including 16 ministers who have serious criminal cases like terrorism, treason, arson, murder, rape, robbery, burglary and communal disharmony. One person who is in the media glare is Pratap Sarangi. This man was involved in the murder of Graham Staines. The Sangh Parivar has got its way as the austere man who possesses only a thatched home in white kurta-pyjama, travelling on a bicycle was appointed Minister of State. If we have parliamentarians and ministers with criminal records we don’t expect them to enact laws to punish themselves and implement policies detrimental to themselves. Modi did not send them to Lok Sabha nor did he make them union ministers. You and I did.
One stark deficiency in Modi’s Council of Ministers is talent. There is also an obvious lack of experience in the team of 57. The 24 Cabinet Ministers include only Rajnath Singh (Defence), Nitin Gadkari (Road Transport and Highways), Nirmala Sitharaman (Finance), Ram Vilas Paswan (Consumer Affairs), Ravi Shankar Prasad (Law and Justice), Prakash Javdekar(Environment), Piyush Goyal (Railways) and Smriti Irani (Women and Child Development) as experienced faces. Absence of an economist meant that the technical portfolio of Finance will be maidenly handled by Nirmala Sitharaman, who of course is a Masters in Economics from JNU. As there is no one, the important HRD minister has to be an unknown and alleged fake degree holder, Ramesh Pokhriyal who bizarrely claimed in Lok Sabha that to astrology science is a dwarf and that ancient India had knowledge about nuclear tests and head transplants.
One has to take note of Amit Shah’s elevation as Home Minister. The Modi-Shah team in Gujarat is replicated in the national capital. With little option, the hardliner is made number 2 in the government. His stint as the Home minister of Gujarat was marked by extra-judicial killings and encounters. Jammu and Kashmir and the North East are concerned since Shah himself was vocal on scrapping article 370 and passing the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) in Parliament.
Both the newly constituted Lok Sabha (43 % with criminal cases) and the Modi 2.0 government (38.60 % with criminal cases) do not instil confidence. Moreover, many of the MPs and ministers do not appear to have been elected and appointed on merit. The blame stops at the voters’ doorstep. As the French say, “Toute Nation A Le Gouvernement Qu’elle Mérite.”(We get the government we deserve).