BJP losing its MOJO. The leader is tired. (whatsapp forward)
Today, the BJP rules about 12 to 13 States out of a total of 29 States and 7 Union Territories. This probably shows that the heartland Jana Sangh states are still with the BJP, and the rest of India isn’t. A reputed newspaper, it may be the New York Times, ran a statement that the concept and appeal of “Hindutva” is probably wearing thin, and a total lack of any economic policy has caused even states like Maharashtra, where there was a BJP–participating coalition to decide to throw off the BJP yoke and try out an alternative; any alternative.
Another concept that the BJP has failed to grasp is the value of independent professionals and technocrats as aids to governance. All the so–called experts and advisers that the government has today are cadre-based, and not outside or independent.
The government also lacks a Narasimha Rao or a Manmohan Singh, who can chart economic policy. Right from the time of demonetisation, which even die hard BJP supporters admit was done to win the U.P. state–elections, the economy has been going steadily downhill, and the government has seen a series of Finance Ministers, each one more at sea than the last. We’ve had Arun Jaitley, (May 2014–18), followed by Piyush Goyal, (May to August 2018 and again Jan to February 2019), Arun Jaitley again, (February to May 2019), and now Nirmala Sitharaman, (May 2019 till date). None of these worthies has provided India with any economic policy whatsoever. Forget about turning around the economy; they haven’t even been able to stop the backwards slide of all economic markers.
The RBI has been looted. Nothing came out of that, which is a blindingly childlike solution to a sick economy, where a central bank’s reserves are utilised to re–monetise the economy. Nevertheless, it failed. When Vodafone effectively declared bankruptcy, and international perception of the investment and commercial climate of India was endangered, the government faced a very odd dilemma indeed : If one removes Vodafone, (or allows it to go sick and exit), one is left with Reliance Jio, which enjoys a sort of “tax holiday” granted by the government, and contributes nothing to the economy, in real terms, so it became a “damned if you do and damned if you don’t”, for the government, and lenient terms had to be set, including deferred re–payment of licence fees and spectrum charges, so that the cash cow is not finally killed off, and the last blush on the cheek of the Indian economy vanished.
Speak to any BJP–supporter today, and what will follow is bald denial. There is no economic slowdown. Employment is growing. We shall become a 10 trillion dollar economy in a few short weeks / months. We are just a ferw steps behind China, we’ll soon catch up and overtake them. And it will go on and on. Some even more bizarre extremes are reached when a disbeliever will be asked to “show me unemployed people, because there are none”
States are beginning to realise that the so–called Gujarat Model functioned on micromanagement of the state’s economy. However that isn’t possible on a national level. Delegation is the way to run the country, not by being a control freak and interfering and tinkering endlessly with side issues like beef–ban, mandir–masjid, etc. Even the most blind follower has to feel, in his heart of hearts that construction of mega–sized statues and temples cannot be the kick–start that the economy is in need of. Without the money–generation machine that is industrial India, there is no point in micro–management of issues that aren’t central to the wellbeing and economic health of the country.
Another touchy topic is the labelling of a community as “anti–national” and “undesirable”, and saying repeatedly that “they’ve got it coming”. What the government doesn’t realise is that a “Final Solution” is impossible in today’s connected world. World governments, all of them, not just the powerful ones, will sit up and take notice of economic or political genocide. A realisation is required that “appeasement” is not appeasement, per se, but a requirement to carry all communities along. In one’s family, one doesn’t support one child to the neglect of the other; one has to carry all one’s family members along. All countries have mixed populations. All countries have problems because of this demography. The true mark of statesmanship and maturity is to overcome and find solutions, not slice up the demography and revile someone for the one thing he or she has no control over – the community into which he or she was born. Unless the government has cracked this code as well.
Why do we need to go backwards in time, and into the depths of history, in order to carve an identity for ourselves ? The Chinese have an equally long history as us Indians; and a well recorded and documented one, to boot. China is aggressively trying to mainstream their country, draconian policies, human rights violations, and all. We, on the other hand, keep singing the burden song of oppression and slavery and subjugation; whose fault all that was in the first place, is never, ever examined. So we are so oppressed that we look for astronauts, bicycles, nuclear missiles, aeroplanes and microwave ovens and toasters, not in stores, (because we presently can't afford the expenditure), but in the Vedas and Shastras. We invented everything, and now the world owes India a living.
It’s a sad commentary on a hardworking, intelligent and enterprising population, that we're have to search the remote past, to make an impression on others. We have to quote our forefathers’ achievements to be recognised. That’s like me saying that my identity lies solely in the achievements of my dead ancestors, and even if I've done nothing useful in all my life, I must be honoured and respected and allowed my peculiarist tendencies, because of past achievements, in which I played no role at all. So I don’t have an identity that anyone can respect or even find. So my past glory becomes the armour with which I protect myself from others’ scrutiny. Past glory answers all questions.
Q. Why does India’s economy remain stagnant ? A. Because we invented the decimal system, the question is irrelevant. Q. Why do we need temples instead of factories and jobs ? A. Because of our 5000 year old culture which had only temples, so temples, (presumably), are an engine of economic growth. Q. Why demonetisation ? A. Because we have to teach anti–nationals a lesson. Never mind that our own economic status is sliding into the gutter of history, whilst other nations forge ahead.
The questions are endless. And the answers are mindless.
A naked and brazen purchase of and grab for power worked in Karnataka and Goa. Has anyone at all stopped to ask the question, why swear oneself in without verifying numbers first ? Is a government so mindless, that it failed to take a head count before heading to Raj Bhawan ? Really ?
And one wonders why we are the laughing stock of the very same heads of state and world leaders, who receive us at the foot of the air–stairs, on our incessant foreign trips. If India was indeed so great, the foreign leaders ought to be coming here, not vice versa.
Where does that leave the Indians ?
