WHAT DOES INDIA EXPECTS FROM THE NEW PRIME MINISTER?

Mukesh Devrari 

There was not much to read in the victory speeches of the man of the moment Narendra Modi. He led BJP to its biggest victory. BJP won staggering 283 seats and Congress has to contend with 43 seats. Even in 1977 general elections, which were held immediately after an emergency, Congress could win 154 seats in Lower House of parliament out of 543. BJP ideologue Balbir Punj said that he had never imagined that in his lifetime BJP would come to power on its own. If BJP leaders could not imagine this spectacular win, how could others? So far, the highest score of BJP was 182 seats in 1999 general elections under the charismatic leadership of A.B Vajpayee.

The Modi is now our Prime Minister. The focus of this article is to highlight an ideological structure, if there was any, in his victory speech. During his campaigns, Modi promised that development will be his priority. The entire corporate world stood behind him because as a Chief Minister of Gujarat he ensured proper physical infrastructure, help, assistance, faster clearance to projects for establishing and encouraging manufacturing. He discouraged unionization. He is undoubtedly a man who represents the interests of neoliberals. A committed right-wing ideologue.  

In his speech in Ahmedabad he claimed, “India could not develop because development became a government scheme. If every citizen takes one step at a time, then this nation will move ahead 1.25 billion steps. Government has opened hospital they are lying dormant at various places like dead bodies, nobody goes there.”  

Modi's speech must be carefully analysed. He suggested, "It is not government’s job to give fuel subsidies, provide employment and run other social welfare schemes. Every individual should aspire for his or her betterment. Once each one of us does it, society will automatically make progress. After the new cabinet takes a proper shape to expect major tweaks in policies to correct the fiscal deficit. As a leader of a right-wing political party, he will first try to reduce unplanned expenditure. He will reduce allocations to social welfare schemes in the government budget.

It is difficult to decipher his real intention about the public health care system. Can he be so cruel to discourage free health care system, which mostly exists for namesake, in a poor country like India? Can he ignore India is home of the largest number of malnourished children and anaemic women of childbearing age in the world?  

Modi may have been pointing the pathetic condition of government hospitals to highlight the failure of the Congress-led UPA alliance government. It is a great development if he has the intention to improvise public healthcare and make it more efficient and effective, but it is difficult to say. Most probably he wants every hospital to look like Apollo Hospital. He may be thinking about dismantling the public health care system by pointing out its futility and pitching for privatizing healthcare totally.   

He ended his speech with Vande Mataram. It was a subtle message to his right-wing friends. Prime Minister's position will not make him any softer. There is no doubt that Indian Muslims are prone to get influenced by extremists, who promote puritanical Islam partly because most of them are poor and uneducated and partly because the structure of religion is such that they can’t escape radicalization. Most of them take the dictates of their religious leaders very seriously.

If ever given a choice to choose one between Islam and India, Muslims would go for their religion. Right-wing ideologues understand this contradiction and use it as a tool to embarrass Muslims by pointing it. Masses don’t understand the importance of tolerance and the creation of liberal society, so the Indian version of red necks win brownie points.  

Anyways there was nothing in his victory speeches. Neither in terms of aesthetic value and nor in terms of content. It would be shameful to compare his oratory with A. B Vajpayee. Whether you like Modi or dislike Modi, but you must admit he is the most successful leader of our times. This election result is the testament of this fact.  

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