The second term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeing some welcome changes. For one, he has taken exception to a patently unacceptable behaviour from a BJP legislator in Madhya Pradesh, who attacked an official with a cricket bat. He did this in a fit of rage and in full public view. The Prime Minister’s reaction came a couple of days later, by which time the young MLA had been arrested, and later released to a spirited welcome by BJP men. The MLA happens to be the son of a senior BJP leader. The PM’s stand is that the party must take immediate action in such scenarios even if the guilty happens to be the “son of a prominent leader.”
Irrespective of whether or not the official was guilty of wrongdoing, this action on the part of the MLA was condemnable. Equally objectionable was the “welcome” with flower garlands that was accorded to the legislator by BJP activists as he came out of police confinement. Mere words by the PM will alone not help. Action must follow, so that this will be a lesson to the ruling partymen, and others too, across the nation.
It is appreciable that the PM has taken a strong note of the incidents and called for action from the party leadership. In this context, it is noteworthy that PM Modi had not taken a very serious view of situations during his first term, when hapless Muslims were attacked or killed by cow vigilantes of the saffron shade. Dalits were attacked too in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, by the same kind of hoodlums, and the PM was generally silence personified. His failure to speak up or punish such forces in his own party or the Sangh Parivar caused distress to Muslims who were already hurt by the riots in Gujarat when Modi was in his initial years as CM. Notably, during the rest of his long innings as CM, and later as PM, there was hardly any communal riot. Even then, his failure to speak up and defend the hapless communities cannot be condoned.
If the PM desires to be more assertive now to check unacceptable behaviour from his partymen — and others too — this should be seen as a turn for the better. In a democracy, people’s sentiments matter. Those from the ruling party must behave in a more responsible manner. Notably, the PM has also spoken in strong terms in parliament against absenteeism by MPs. So far so good.