Anil Anand
As the year 2020 folds there is an imperative for everyone particularly the political parties governing India from time to time to pause, introspect, and indulge in course correction while entering the New Year. The year 2021 awaits and beckons irrespective of the fact whether a party is strong or weak, ruling or in the opposition to sit back and introspect in the interest of the nation and its people.
This responsibility falls more on the powerful and at this juncture it is BJP or more explicitly BJP-led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The responsibility becomes more express when the ruling party and the Government were faced with farmers’ agitation since both have been obdurate and blowing hot and cold while dealing with the protesting farmers.
Offering an olive branch in the form of holding talks and at the same time a Minister or a sundry spokesperson deriding the farmers’ at times in most deplorable manner, seems to have become order of the day. Should the Governments in a democracy sit on prestige or give a go by to the path of conciliation? This is a vital question that asks for a pause and introspection on way to entering the New Year, with a new and fresh mindset.
When the farmers camping on Delhi-Haryana border braving biting cold to protest against the three new farm laws brought by the Government, accepted the official offer for another round of talks to break the impasse just at the brink of 2020 folding, it generated hope. But agriculture minister, Mr Narendra Singh Tomar lost no time in giving his piece of mind within hours after fixing the December 30 for talks.
“Pressure will not work on Prime Minister: Tomar”, thundered the Indian Express (December 29-2020) headline. “No power could exert pressure and influence (dabbav or prabhav) on the Prime Minister,” he was quoted having said.
It was neither an off-the-cuff remark nor the Minister was speaking out-of-turn. Ostensibly, it must be part of his brief to counter-balance the talks’ invitation lest it was seen as either the Prime Minister or the Government scaling down. For any Government dealing with situations like this, such counter-posing is least desirable as they are the guardians and well-wishers of every section of the society and more so the farmers. A counter-posing of the Tomar variety as an accompaniment to the talks’ invitation has anything but the potential to be counter-productive.
Why this perception at all that someone was trying to or can pressurise the Prime Minister? Historically speaking whenever there was such agitations or protests the protesting side does build pressure so do the governments. But to perceive it in terms of someone trying to exert pressure on the PM speaks nothing but volumes about the Government’s arrogance.
In the backdrop of a powerful Government tending to exert more powerfully while dealing with people, as an exhibition of its carefully cultivated image, it become more imperative to sit back and mull over before entering into the New Year. It is needed, more so, when a powerful Government is headed by a strong and decisive Prime Minister Narendra Modi. There is not even an iota of scope for cultivating insecurities when a self-assured Government with full electoral backing of the people is in place.
The ongoing farmers’ agitation should provide an opportunity to the current ruling elite to go the drawing board afresh to chart a new course at least from the governance point of view. And the New Year offers a valid excuse to do so. It should be borne in mind that howsoever powerful a Government is but people remain to be supreme in democratic set up. It is not out of place for the powerful Governments to harp on conciliatory approach while dealing with people.
In first-past-the-post system of elections (as India has) the number of seats won scores over the percentage of votes garnered by a particular political party. So, there should not be any complaint if a party wins 300 seats with even 30 plus percentage of votes.
This backdrop is necessary to drive home the necessity for self-introspection for the political parties or their Government. Apart from the attitudinal aspect of introspection, the present ruling set up seriously needs to spare a thought on two other counts as well. Firstly, an electoral victory, howsoever pronounced it is, is certainly not a blank cheque and gives unbridled powers to any Government to act arbitrarily. After all in a democracy the Government is by the people, of the people and for the people. Whenever there is a case such as the current farmers’ agitation, the people’s concerns need to be addressed before either accommodating or rejecting them.
So, this argument that the BJP under the present leadership is securing electoral victory after victory, so the mandate to take any and every decision at will, is fallacious. Yes, it has the mandate, yes it has shown courage to be decisive but that does not entail ignoring the consultative process both within and outside Parliament.
Secondly, it must also be borne in mind that no one not even the mightiest ones are infallible. The strength lies in conciliatory reasoning. A more shining example of this in recent times was that of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government. Course correction or retracting to satisfy an agitated section of the society should be viewed as a sign of strength and not weakness.
There is no doubt that the BJP of Atal-Advani era was different from the Modi era notwithstanding the fact that the latter was a protégé of Mr Advani. Despite having the same ideological umbilical cord, the current BJP under the new leadership is following a different set of rules which are guided more by the needs of rank practical politics than anything else.
The current BJP and its Government have more commonalities with the Indira Gandhi era Congress rather than its earlier avtar of Atal-Advani era. Should not it be another strong reason for indulging in self-introspection as the World enters the New Year?
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