Have had occasion to listen into some of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speeches delivered in “Shudh” Sanskritised Hindi on his just concluded visit to Japan and must confess my liking for his rhetorical instinct for catchy phrases, even when I may have sought help to understand the significance of a particular gem mouthed by him.
Like he did in Tokyo this week by mentioning the curious antimony in the Asian region; the tension between what he called ‘vistar vaad’ or expansionism and ‘vikas vaad’ or peaceful development. This was a politically loaded statement given the Chinese aggressive pursuit of dominance of the seas extending from the Sea of China to Indian Ocean and Pacific included. The Japanese and the Vietnamese for one are concerned over what they perceive to be Chinese expansionist designs.
In the absence of a fuller enunciation of what the two ‘vaads’ mentioned by him in Tokyo were intended to convey the significance tended to get lost until some wise man finally woke up to tell what Modi exactly meant by raising the issues of vistaar vaad and vikas vaad.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is a hard core nationalist who has not allowed Chinese anger to prevent him from visiting the shrines honouring Japanese soldiers killed in the long drawn out wars between the two countries from before World War II. May be his host Abe would have been more forthcoming on China had Modi elaborated on his reference to vistaar vaad. Chinese expansionism currently happens to be a major concern of countries like Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines and even Australia. Abe obviously is very concerned about Chinese claims in the nearby sea and oceans to tiniest of uninhabited islets, even atolls.
This contrast sharply with what I had personally learnt on one of my visits to Japan nearly three decades ago. I do remember one of Mr. Abe’s predecessors in office, Prime Minister Nakasone bluntly telling us (three visiting Indian journalists) that his country owed a special debt to the Chinese whose country they had vandalised for long before World War II. Mr. Abe, obviously, is not weighed down by any such thoughts and might indeed have earned the visitor extra points for his bluntness. The BJP unfortunately has framed the debate in terms of English vs. Hindi. If Modi feels comfortable with Hindi so be it. The fact however is not everyone in India or the world understands Hindi. In such case it should normally be the responsibility of the PMO and the Foreign Office to make translations instantly available. The significance of vistaar vaad would have made immediate sense to the Japanese who currently loath anything expansionist. This, any way, is a different issue even as one admits that Modi’s Japan visit has been a successful one.
Turn to the 100 day hullabaloo of the Modi government. My ear drums are hurting, given the intensity of the Modi bandwagon’s relentless campaign of glorification of the Modi era. Everything positive that may have happened in the country these past 100 days is because of Modiji’s leadership. Modi’s emergence as the most dominant political figure in the country owes much to his being seen as a modernizer, anxious to make the Government function better. The winner of a big electoral mandate who says he is in a hurry to improve the business climate, open the country to direct investment and to get the economy racing. I for one would have said the task before Modi is to deliver a future that is stable, tolerant welcoming to all diverse groups and more prosperous than it has ever been.
Modi’s poll campaign was intensely personal and in office his rule looks more presidential. Faceless Ministers are indeed always looking towards the Prime Minister’s Office, to avoid being seen as worthless or even stumbling from one error to another. They don’t even have the luxury of choosing their own personal staff. Even the Home Minister of the country, the virtual number two in the government, had to wait almost the whole of the first 100 days for his principal aide to be confirmed by Modi. His admirers see this as a blessing since, it is their belief that it would lead to quicker decisions being made. Many people including the business community in particular cheer him on.
Decisive leadership is what the country needs, it is argued. The first three months have seen his hand heavily directing the country’s foreign policy, the focus remaining on deeper engagement with Asian countries. Pakistan has these past 100 days veered between warmth and hostility. A visit to the U.N. General Assembly in New York and talks with the U.S. President Obama are on the cards later this month. The Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj finds her role far more diminished than many had believed it would be. Indeed, Modi, as stated earlier is acting as his own Foreign Minister. A sad thought for the ambitious Sushma.
While many are willing to give Modi the benefit of the doubt in most regards questions linger about stability and tolerance. Modi’s continued close association with the far right Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh and assorted other rightist Hindu nationalist parties is seen as an indication of social tensions. Equally ominous is his role in tackling Jammu and Kashmir, not the external dimensions of the problem, but his party’s obsession with changing the demographic scene as between the three distinct regions comprising the state, minus the parts under Pakistani occupation and the other parts ceded by the latter to China in POK.
The immediate danger, according to me, is what if a majoritarian leader proves clumsy in his treatment of the minorities, a clear fifth of the population of the country. Are the signs of growing communal violence the start of a trend which the Hindu right is set to exploit to the hilt. Modi, if he is to lead into a new era of growth, peace and prosperity for all Indians will have to step in – and quickly – to stop his foot soldiers, including his handpicked party President, Amit Shah, from spreading their message of hate. The bogus argument that all Indians are Hindus needs to be excised from their thought processes.
Since Narendra Modi has centralised power the buck rests with him. There is no Manmohan Singh or the Congress Party around to blame for his failures. True, these are his early days in power; it may be that the Modi government has assumed that the upcoming State elections and a spate of by-elections around the same time, will bring victories and, in turn, eventually, greater sway in the Rajya Sabha where his party lacks a majority. But his presumption generally is that those who win a landslide electoral victory should accept as a reality that the capital begins to decline from day one after an earlier great win. Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan stormed to victory last year with a mandate comparable to Modi’s. A year later Sharif has been gasping for breath. The recent by-elections to some of our own State Assemblies and even the Lok Sabha have indicated a drift -minimal just now- away from Modi’s party. There is a lesson which political parties could ignore only at their peril.
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