Opinion There will be questions
The shenanigans of last week prove conclusively that the most important issue in the next general election will be Narendra Modi
The shenanigans of last week prove conclusively that the most important issue in the next general election will be Narendra Modi. It is on account of him that a Third Front may come to be. On account of him that the Congress partys many spokesmen struggle tirelessly to prove that he is a myth created by the media. And,on account of him that Shri Lal Krishna Advani threw a petulant fit and remains to this day in a deep sulk. So this is a good week to analyse the appeal and the flaws of the man who casts such a long shadow over the political landscape.
What is it about Mr Modi that has so caught the imagination of young people,captains of industry,ordinary workers in his party and even a handful of political pundits? I believe it is because he is the first political leader since Jawaharlal Nehru who has come up with a new economic vision for India. Everyone else,including Atal Behari Vajpayee when he was prime minister,adhered to the basic tenets of Nehruvian socialism albeit with some reforms that became necessary when India went broke in 1991.
Some chief ministers learned from that bankruptcy and have loosened state controls on the economy. They encourage a degree of private enterprise. But nobody other than Modi has dared say government has no business to be in business. Nobody other than Modi has dared admit that India has lost its way and needs to discover where it wants to go and how it wants to get there. And,nobody other than Modi has talked of the need for India to get beyond poverty alleviation and dream a dream of prosperity.
It is these things that make Narendra Modi seem like the right man to lead India,especially since he comes at the end of a wasted decade. Sonia Gandhis socialist economic policies have ruined what used to be called the India story. The rupee has lost nearly half its value,GDP growth rates have halved,our once vibrant private sector is now nervous and panicky and foreign investors think twice before investing because the Sonia-Manmohan government has taken to changing rules and taxes after huge investments have been made. The Finance Minister has himself publicly admitted that projects worth more than Rs 10 lakh crore remain blocked by some ministry or other.
Against this dismal backdrop,Mr Modi looks like a beacon of hope. But his detractors are right when they say that he has drawbacks that could have been overlooked in Gujarat but cannot be if he wants to lead India. For a man who is articulate to the point of eloquence,his inability to explain why he seems not to regret the horrible violence that continues to blacken his image is inexplicable. I do not believe that you can apologise for pogroms. Congress leaders have apologised for the Sikh massacres of 1984 and those pogroms continue to haunt them. So what is needed from Mr Modi is an explanation.
Those who know him better than I do say that privately he admits he did not know what to do when the violence started and on day one asked the Defence Minister to call out the army. George Fernandes apparently pulled troops back from the Gujarat border to help control the situation in Ahmedabad but it took 48 hours for them to arrive and it was in that time that the worst of the massacres occurred. If this is true,Mr Modi needs to say it publicly and as often as he can. Or he needs to come up with some other reason why so many innocent Muslim men,women and children were killed on his watch. His silence on the matter has created a small army of activists who aggressively spread the lie that what happened in Gujarat in 2002 was the worst ethnic violence in India since Partition. The media has lapped up the lie and perpetuated it,so those Congress leaders who believe that the media is on Mr Modis side need their heads examined.
Another thing that Mr Modi needs to do urgently is explain how much control the RSS would have over the BJP under his leadership. The RSS is led by men who have ideas that are obsolete,obscurantist and dangerous. So if they continue to exert influence over the BJP,there is not a hope that Mr Modi will be allowed to take India forward in the right direction.
The possibility of Narendra Modi becoming Indias next prime minister is real. But he has to deal with his drawbacks if he wants to put the BJP in a position to get the 200 seats needed for it to be able to dictate who becomes prime minister in 2014.
Follow Tavleen Singh on Twitter @ tavleens
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