By Mumtaz Alam, IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, 18 Nov 2014: He has successfully crafted his larger than life image mostly through assertions and rhetoric that got energy from the failure of Congress party and its government at the centre. Narendra Modi’s unmatched impressive campaigns during the Lok Sabha elections early this year gave people of the country much-needed hope to continue having faith in the system. But in 175 days since Modi became Prime Minister, nothing seems to have changed, nor has his ‘mesmerising’ election campaign tone. About six months have passed with little other than grand announcements and declarations to show for. Besides inflation and corruption that seem uncontrollable for a PM or two, he has failed where he could have made history and strengthened his image and people’s hope. Modi has been unable, by so far, to overcome the three C factors of Indian politics, and thus he is set to fail as have six other PMs in the last 25 years.
Crime – ministers with criminal record
As he was talking about clean politics and corruption-free government in his poll speeches, people hoped, when he got landslide victory in Lok Sabha elections on 16 May, his team of ministers will be clean. But the hope shattered on 26 May when he and first batch of his ministers took oath. Out of the 44 ministers, 13 (30%) had declared criminal cases against themselves. It is not that he didn’t know about them. On 20 May, six days before the oath-taking ceremony, National Election Watch (NEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) had sent a letter to Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi, bringing to his notice the disturbing fact that the newly formed 16th Lok Sabha has a sizeable number of MPs (112 i.e. 21%) facing serious criminal charges and requesting him to include only clean representatives in his Cabinet. But he wasn’t moved.
Five months later when PM Modi expanded his Cabinet on 9 Nov, rather than inducting people with clean record, he repeated what he did on 26 May. Of the 21 new ministers he inducted in the Cabinet, 8 (that is around one-third) had declared criminal cases against themselves.
Attempted murder, waging war on the state, criminal intimidation and fraud are some of the charges against the new batch of ministers PM Modi appointed to the cabinet, jarring with his pledge to clean up politics. At least five people in the cabinet have been charged with serious offences such as rape and rioting.
Ram Shankar Katheria has been accused of more than 20 criminal offences including attempted murder and promoting religious or racial hostility while Hansraj Gangaram Ahir is charged with around 20 offences, including intent to wage war against the country, criminal intimidation and abetting a mutiny.
Soon after coming to power, Modi called for courts to fast track cases against politicians in an effort to curb political criminality in the country. Yet his cabinet includes twice as many politicians facing criminal charges as the previous Congress party one.
On this count, how can he say his is different from the previous regime?
Communalism – promotion of hate speakers
Soon after the Bharatiya Janata Party of Narendra Modi took office at the centre, an eruption was witnessed in hate speeches by party leaders in different parts of the country particularly in Uttar Pradesh. While minority groups and opposition parties repeatedly urged the PM to rein in such leaders, he ignored. However, he broke his silence on 15 August while addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort. He sought a moratorium on communalism and casteism for 10 years. “Even after independence we sometimes face the poison of casteism or communalism. How long will it continue and who is going to benefit from it? I appeal to the youth of the country that the poison of casteism, communalism or sectarianism is a hindrance to our country’s progress. Think and try a ten years moratorium to get a society free of all these tensions,” said PM Modi.
But 10 days later, his own government awarded Z-plus category security cover to Sangeet Som, BJP legislator who was an accused in Muzaffarnagar riot case and had spent days behind bars also. The Congress and Samajwadi Party slammed the Modi government for providing security to a riot accused.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President and Vice President with the newly inducted Ministers after a Swearing-in Ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on 9 Nov 2014.
“It is ironical that riot victims are homeless and the accused are being given security,” Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said. Samajwadi Party’s Naresh Agarwal called it an irony as PM Modi called for stopping communal violence in his Independence Day speech.
“The prime minister is talking about stopping communal violence, and on the other hand, a person accused of communal violence is given Z-plus security. It shows the difference in what the BJP says and what it does,” Agarwal said.
But Modi didn’t back down and in the recent cabinet expansion, he inducted Giriraj Singh, a BJP MP from Bihar who had come to limelight by making a provocative statement during the Lok Sabha election campaign. Singh had said that all those who didn’t vote for his leader Narendra Modi would be packed off to Pakistan. While Modi himself had reprimanded him publicly at that time, he chose to make him member of his team despite the fact that Singh is now being investigated for unexplained income following the recovery of one crore rupees from a thief who had burgled his Patna residence a few weeks ago.
Caste – the politics of social engineering
In his maiden Independence Day speech as PM, Modi had said the poison of casteism, communalism or sectarianism is a hindrance to the country’s progress and asked people to think and try a ten years moratorium to get a society free of all these tensions.
But again, he seems to have fallen prey to caste politics – which is very much evident from the composition of his cabinet after recent expansion.
The Bihar Assembly polls of 2015 in eye and with an effort to stabilise the BJP’s internal politics, Modi has inducted Ram Kripal Yadav, a former close aide of Lalu Yadav and a finer version of backward politics in the state. Vijay Sampla, a Dalit who started his career as a plumber, has also found place in his team. He has also inducted another Dalit representative Ram Shankar Katheria, Lok Sabha MP from Agra in Uttar Pradesh. The induction of Giriraj Singh was also to please the Bhumihar community in Bihar which had voted for the BJP in Lok Sabha polls. He has also given representation to Rajputs by inducting Rajiv Pratap Rudhi and Jats in Haryana and Rajasthan in the face of Rajyavardhan Rathore.
By not overcoming the Crime, Communalism and Caste factors of Indian politics, Modi is failing to change the political culture (which he had promised to do during election campaign) of the country where wealthy, tainted politicians sometimes find it easier to win votes.
“It shows scant respect for the rule of law or public sentiment,” said Jagdeep Chhokar, co-founder of ADR which campaigns for better governance. “Including these people in the cabinet is a bad omen for our democracy.”
BJP chief Amit Shah is also an accused in series of fake encounters when he was home minister of Gujarat with Narendra Modi in chief minister’s chair. Shah, though he has denied charges, is facing trial in a Mumbai court.
This all shows that the C factors have overpowered Modi who would talk principles, and thus the system remains unchanged.
“We hear again and again the country’s leaders promise to clean up the system,” said Satish Misra, a political analyst at the Observer Research Foundation. “Self interest prevails over principles. That is why the system never changes.”
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