Adjust the sails fast
After a landslide victory in Uttar Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is targeting ‘for 2022 and not for 2019’, by telling us that “we have five years to contribute to change India”. Modi out-dared his opponents when he told a gathering at the headquarters of Bhartiya Janata Party a day after the results that “I don’t live by-election calculations…..I see these results as the foundation for a New India”.
By presenting a road map for 2022, Modi is trying to kill two birds with one stone. First, he wants to make the general elections of 2019 as irrelevant as possible to defuse the process of opposition unity that would take on the BJP. Second, Modi wants to reinforce his Rashtravad Mantra in the minds of the masses by giving them an opportunity to participate in making a new India in next five years. He has very cleverly extended the landing of “Achhe Din”, which he had promised to the country in 2014, to another five years.
Modi wants to build up an argument in the backdrop of 2019 elections that he is trying to change India by the time citizens celebrate the 75th year of Independence in 2022. After declaring himself the messiah of poor, he has now projected himself as the saviour of the middle class too by ridding them of their financial burden. Modi feels that his strategy of addressing the difficulties of the poor and middle class will produce a repeat in 2019.
There cannot be any denying that the BJP has the strongest imprint on India’s political landscape at the moment and it is not easy for the opposition to counter the Modi brigade by erudition only. The BJP’s march can still be checked provided the Congress party breaks its shell, begins meaningful talks with senior leaders of the opposition parties and felicitate the formation of a grand umbrella. But to make it happen, the Congress will have to reinvent it which is possible only if Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi decisively get rid of the rootless wonders surrounding them.
Despite his proclamations to lure the poor and middle classes, Modi will never be able to turn his policies towards the left of Centre. He can talk about socialism, but can never be a socialist. While he speaks about the welfare of poor, he actually believes in reducing the subsidised welfare schemes for them. This is an area which, if communicated correctly, can convince the weaker sections of the society that the Modi government is doing more harm to their interests than any good. Similarly, the middle class could be made aware of the fact that hardly any of more than hundred schemes launched by the current government is designed to benefit them. The opposition also must not let demonetisation go away from the minds of the public because of the recent election results. The real negative effect of the currency exchange measure will be felt in the coming months. The price rise is already at the highest point in past three years. With all this, the opposition will get a chance to carry coals to Newcastle when Modi begins the celebration of the completion of three years in office in May.
The Congress is any day a stronger brand than BJP. Sonia-Rahul combine certainly has more qualitative political strength in a diverse country like India than Modi. But with practically no presence of a party machinery, neither the leadership nor the organisation is in a position to turn the tables. Today’s situation is an outcome of following the bits of advice of those whose exposure in country’s public life has been nil or those who deliberately misguided the final decision makers to protect their vested interests over all these years. Unless Rahul decides to go into every detail of each issue before taking the final view rather than leaving the major decisions to others after giving them an outline of his overall thinking, he will never be able to get the results he wants.
Read more at: http://www.millenniumpost.in/opinion/adjust-the-sails-fast-220693
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