The Modi Effect: Change in Political Discourse

Abhishek Dwivedi

After and even before, Mr. Narendrabhai Modi was declared as Prime Ministerial candidate of NDA, the heated debate around his personality has been focused on his ambitions and chances of becoming PM. There is no doubt at all that Mr. Modi’s personality gives rise to a lot of conflicting yet powerful emotions among his supporters and detractors. There is no neutral ground when it comes to Modi. He is either loved fiercely or hated badly. His ambitions, which may or may not exist, are irrelevant now after the formal declaration. And what matters is the contribution of Modi towards the political discourse. His political fortunes may have changed dramatically in last three-four years but he has changed the political discourse of the country since last 10 years. His detractors may dismiss him as an arrogant fascist who refuses to come clean to media but they know that, slowly and silently, Modi has come clean to his voters in Gujarat.Before I proceed with my points regarding his role in revolutionizing the political intellectualism present in the country, it is my duty to put the caveat that I do not care and it doesn't matter what his role in Gujarat 2002 was as subsequent petitions against him have been dismissed or have exonerated him. Till Supreme Court declares otherwise, he shall be presumed and taken as innocent.The biggest contribution of Mr. Modi is that he has brought the responsibility to the doors of Gandhi’s. The first family is no more sacred. It’s not protected by the implied censorship of Media. The congress, after 2003, has banked heavily on censorship of Media, generally through allowances but sometimes through force also. With active assistance of media houses, almost every incident which fixed the Gandhi’s was suppressed or was sidelined. To debate serious issues regarding the responsibility of Gandhi, third rung BJP leaders who had no clue to debate, were called to these channels and were pitted against expert and arrogantly smart spokespersons of Congress. Every debate about Gandhi was brought to 2002 riots and the BJP spokespersons were brilliantly forced to concede or portrayed as conceding. Modi, after emerging as a national level leader of BJP, changed this attitude of BJP. The implied understanding of Delhi BJP with Congress was reversed. Aggressive and confident spokespersons of BJP were sent to media houses to debate and attack the Gandhi’s. Just like every issue about BJP was forced to revolve around Modi’s culpability in 2002 riots, every scam, every issue of accountability was brought to the Gandhi’s by BJP. The pressers of BJP were now targeting Gandhi’s and PM rather than individual ministers. Meenakshi lekhi, Smriti Irani and Nirmala Sitaraman took on, not only on Congress and Gandhi's, but on Media Moguls aligned with Gandhi’s also. The media was forced to change its stance vis-à-vis Gandhi's. Today, Gandhi’s are no more sacred. Gandhi’s are not India’s natural choice anymore. They are being questioned about Rahul’s degrees, Sonia’s relationship with Bofors and as Modi said in Jaipur, Daamad ka Karobar.Another point is about addressing the masses. Mr. Modi is known for his calculated and customized speeches. His speech in SRCC was focused on development story and HRD investment in Gujarat. In Hyderabad, he gave the slogan of jai Seemandhra and Jai Telangana. He invited TDP to NDA. In Rewari, he literally shredded the congress for its apathy towards armed forces. He has changed the notion of speeches and has developed the concept of impromptu dialogues with masses. He has taken the initiative of addressing masses rather than communities. He addressed his rallies in 2012 assembly elections to Six Crore Guajaratis’. He has made Rahul’s reading habit took like a sin in politics. He has made Rahul speak about development more than what his father or grandmother did. He has brilliantly stolen the Congress stalwarts, not belong to Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, and have used them brilliantly in his speeches to target the “Parivaarvaad” of congress. His speeches are focused on balancing his achievements in Gujarat and shredding the Congress regime.Third and one of the most interesting points about Modi’s political discourse is that he never ran after the media, especially English media for any coverage. He once said and I quote “it is not my job to run their channel”. He ensured, though, through his effective media management that he remains in news somehow, without directly interacting with the media. He eagerly watched and decided the course of media about his actions. The over negativism of media about Modi and selective journalism regarding Gujarat saturated the people all across the nation. Their shows about communalism in Gujarat was refuted by almost every person who visited Gujarat and did not subscribe to pseudo-secularist self proclaimed intellectuals. The obsession of Media regarding Modi proved to be a boon for Modi. The negative discourse on Modi forced people to understand his side of story. And when people tried to learn about him through internet and social media, they were easily convinced about the paid and selective journalism of Main stream Media. Modi never tried to convince anyone of anything. He just determined the agenda of Media and rest followed.   He was the first, yes the first politician, to identify the potential and power of social media. He started interacting and actively responding to his followers in twitter. Today, he tweets in several different languages. He has forced BJP leaders to come on twitter and interact with people. BJP, with this initiative, has consolidated its base among young and urban class. There is a self-organized organic force of volunteers who sitting from different cities of the country, actively take part in and contribute to his online hangouts, interactive sessions, convincing others and fiercely fighting his detractors. This has forced the congress to adopt this social media or in better words, social media has been pushed down the throat of congress by Modi. And the eNREGA volunteers, as Modi fans call congress workers on internet, are not as tech friendly and experienced as the organic workforce. Every day or two, there is a debacle of Congress on social media. Recently, Rajasthan CM Gehlot was caught buying likes from Istanbul while a trend against Sushma Swaraj was traced to be originating from Bangladesh. This sudden desperation of congress to become or prove its popularity in Social Media is turning out to be a liability on congress rather than a positive step.Modi has given a platform to his detractors and supporters to interact and debate on several issues. With social media, Modi has brought out the argumentative Indian in us. The sanest debates take place on twitter and not in the staged theaters of TV studios. We question everything now; every action has a conspiracy behind it. Rumors don’t hold anymore. I acknowledge that crediting Modi for the triumph and features of social media may be overstating but Mr. Modi has ensured that most of debates on TV now originates on his tweets or trend related to him via twitter.Modi may lose badly in 2014. It may be the last electoral election for him. He may remain the PM-in-waiting for BJP for elections to come. He may be all hype but no substance. But he has done what no other leader could. He has ended the hysteria around brand Gandhi. He has challenged the authority of Gandhi’s as the central theme of Indian politics.

  

Bureaucracy Gone to the Dogs

Akansha Mehta


Why a hue and cry over Durga? Is it the first time that the post of an honest Civil Servant has been subjected to convenient alteration by the state? The answer is in negative. Where were these sentiments when a stone-laden tractor trolley (belonging to the illegal mining mafia )crushed a young IPS officer, Narendra Kumar, posted in Madhya Pradesh's Morena district and when an Additional District Collector (ADM) was burnt alive by the petrol and diesel mafia at Manmad in Nashik district?  It’s unfortunate but the reality, as a part of the system you either play along or let people play according to their own rules. The moment you do anything other than this, you are executed. That’s the state of affairs of the Indian bureaucratic system which for the reader’s knowledge has also been ranked the worst in Asia.

This sort of blatant manipulation and corruption in the Bureaucracy has amounted to the break-down of the very constitutional framework on which our democracy stands. The overreaching power of the legislature over the executive has only made the very reason of its existence frivolous and infructuous. The scope of accountability and answerability of the executive is lost making it the most ineffective organ of the state. In our country, the glaring problems in the society are intelligibly understood by the lawmakers, laws are intricately drafted, schemes are successfully planned but sadly its very purpose is not met as it never reaches its intended end. The loophole here is the large scope of vulnerability attached to the offices of these public servants from the direct influence of the politicians. While such influence has penetrated in almost all sorts of public office today, bureaucracy remains most deeply affected by it where in the cost that the nation pays is too high. This calls for a need of a system of checks and balances, wherein firstly the code of conduct of each public officer is defined and strictly regulated; there is a huge amount of discretion in the hands of such officers which gives them a large scope of taking arbitrary decisions. Secondly, these arbitrary decisions can never be challenged as such officers have no answerability, this in-turn makes their office more corruption friendly. Lastly, the situation worsens as there is no mechanism in place for the protection of the honest officers who deny bending the rules as ordered by the politicians. They are either immediately posted out or killed. While we do have a shaky remedy to bring a case against a public servant for anything that he does as a part of his official duty (provided there is a written permission from his superiors which makes it extremely difficult to ever initiate a case), there is possibly no way to shield a public servant from the pressure that he receives from the people at top to commit fraud.

Let’s look at the brighter perspective for the moment, Durga Shakti Nagpal has indeed been lucky as till now she has been the only public servant who has had such a massive public support, media attention and popularity unlike Ashok Khemka and various other like him. She has been fortunate enough that her life has been spared at least till now. The treatment that she and many others like her have been subjected to is only the tip of the iceberg; the real problem lies deep beneath the system; the system which is in need of dire attention, protection and revival.

In recent Mujaffarnagar riots, officers were first shielded and then transferred like goats. Durga has now been reinstated after she met CM. She may have secured her job, but Akhilesh Yadav ensured that bureaucracy, once again, proves itself to be a class of political servants rather than public servants.

Why AAP is dangerous to Indian politics?

Abhishek Dwivedi 

In reply to AAP is here to stay by Akansha Mehta

With few reservations, I will have to agree with Akansha where she says that Aam Aadmi party is a favorite of hopeful and optimistic idealists. Taking her argument forward, I will state that it is a hallucination for the over optimistic people plagued with utopianism. Expecting solutions from idealists is to move further away from reality. And here, I must confess that I am a realist indeed.

 Any argument or contention in favor of or against AAP cannot be made without establishing two basic facts. First and most important point is that AAP is a Political party in the same political system that it abuses at every opportunity. It is no more a civil society trying to take on the system through social movements. Secondly, there is a difference between India Against Corruption and Aam Aadmi Party. IAC is still in existence under the guidance and patronage of Anna Hazare an has declared that it will not support AAP. Its activists are still trying to use apolitical means to take on the system. While AAP is the breakaway of the movement and consisted of people who had political aspirations, not that it is wrong or immoral.

While Akansha is generous in accepting or at least acknowledging that AAP has half-baked policies, she easily disregards them as “beliefs of intellectuals and rival political parties”. Well I think it is my duty to inform her about the party and its policies she is defending. First of all, AAP has its committees in order to formulate policies on different matters including police reforms, SECULARISM, economic policy, foreign policy and even a committee on external defense. But do we really need these committees to get a glimpse of policies of AAP?  An important name flashes at the top and thus, we must mention here, Mr. Binayak Sen. Mr. Sen has been named by AAP in the Police Reforms Committee and Naxalite issue committee. Now, presence of Mr. Sen- a known Naxal sympathizer, in police reforms committee, is beyond the understanding of any sensible mind.  Even if Mr. Sen was in Health committee or related field, it would have made sense due to his medical expertise, but police reforms is simply absurd. Moving towards the committee on naxalite affairs where presence of Mr. Sen, being a sympathizer of Naxals, people who have taken arms against state, will only undermine the morale of forces and state machinery. [Thank god AAP is not in power.]

Well, do we really need to look upon the composition of the committees to get a glimpse of the policies when Prashant Bhushan has said it on record that Kashmir should be given a chance to get separate from India. With our soldiers dying in Kashmir every day, such statements by “stalwarts” of AAP are enough to show the hollow nationalism of AAP leaders. Presence of Bhushan in AAP has made it one thing certain that we can expect our internal security and affairs to be in shambles, if, god forbid, AAP ever comes to power. Those who say that it is “personal view” of Bhushan should remember that how “batla encounter” case fought by Bhushan was declared as an AAP initiative by Kejriwal in his letter about which we will talk later.

Then there are committees on secularism, minorities and Muslims. I do not understand the need of two different committees in the first place for minorities and Muslims. But then AAP is a political party. And the committee on secularism has already started working overtime. The Letter to Muslims of Delhi by Arvind Kejriwal clearly terms Batla House encounter as fake and assumes or owns the responsibility to defend it. If the AAP bandwagon calls that as secularism, gods save the country. Now with courts judgment pronouncing the lone captured terrorist as guilty, the AAP has a lot to answer.

The biggest problem with AAP is that it cannot come out of the shadow of a protest based movement. Anything happens and the Topiwalahs of AAP are there to protest without understanding or even knowing the problem. All of their exposes have proved to be absolutely worthless. Their crusaders have been found to be corrupt themselves. And the traditional AAP support is another story in itself. Ask them anything regarding economy, foreign policy, internal security, terrorism, police and administrative reforms and they will have a solution ready- JanLokpal. Anything and everything can be solved through JanLokpal.

Protests and Exposes have been the backbone of AAP. But there is another side of this story. Protests have become a weapon of extortion for AAP. The AAP support to Bajaj Auto Strike is one such case. AAP jumped in suddenly to support the contract workers at the Bajaj Auto and tried to tap the largely neglected contract workers base. However, Moneylife brought the real issue out when it disclosed that AK had met Rahul Bajaj for a TV channel for AAP two months back. It will not take a mind storming session to guess that AK was getting back at Bajaj who refused or seemed disinterested in the Channel proposal.

The whole drama of transparency and secularism has brought AAP in the line of political parties whom it was formed to oppose. Like traditional Indian parties, it has all the buzz and no substance. It is making gains in Delhi, but the TIMES NOW- C- VOTER opinion poll did not give any seat to AAP or for that matter any other opinion poll.

Arvind may try to sell hope or dreams but he is no different. He is just another politician. He has become one of those against whom he still claims to fight. The mask of so called political transparency has been removed by Mayank/Anjali and Bajaj episodes; and now Veil of secularism is the last resort of AAP which it has tried through Batla House Encounter issue.

The only conclusion i can end this article with, is that with Kejriwal in arena, the Indian politics is bound to get dirtier.

Aam Aadmi Party is here to stay

Akansha Mehta

For some optimistic and hopeful idealists Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) might be a revolutionary saviour in the eternal game of dirty politics while some realists may beg to differ. In our political arena, till the time one remains a symbol of a holy civil society, the intention, nature and character of the movement or the leader is never doubted by the public. It is only when one takes the real plunge into politics that skepticism follows.

       While Aam Aadmi Party is often ridiculed by intellectuals for its half-baked policies and its political rivals look at it as a meek and inexperienced adversary, the Indian politics however doesn't work on these beliefs. The aam janta care too hoots about how the politics work. The most suitable and current example of this can be seen in the Karnataka State elections. While the self-claimed secular party whose height of corruption record soared higher than inflation and their brazenness lower than the Indian rupee all over the country, the party despite its impeccably blotted image came out victorious in Karnataka. In our country, citizens vote not by their choice but by their preference which they form at the end of a party’s tenure. Their concerns, problems and expectations from their representatives in practicality are very different from the theoretical aspects discussed by intellectuals. In the October elections, AAP stands a decent chance of its success, if not a grand one then at least one that can give it a considerable head start. From a rickshaw puller to a University teacher, AAP has created enough uproar amongst all the members of society to be able to make its substantive and qualitative presence felt. The disgruntled public of Delhi also has enough reasons to prefer AAP. Another USP of AAP is its approachability. Unlike any other party leaders AAP leaders are yet to declare themselves as VIPs, they are perceived by the public as one amongst them. The party portrays to believe in strong representation from the grass root level (as also emphasized in the party’s manifesto “Swaraj” by Arvind Kejriwal). An example of this can be seen in the very first mohalla sabha organised by AAP in Vasundhara Enclave in Delhi where the citizens of the locality could directly interact with their area’s elected representative and other government officers to discuss the problem of their locality and suggest solutions. The party’s approach and strategy towards securing trust and hope from the public seems logical and practical. Delhi being a city of politically informed and alert citizens with a large mass of educated youth may get wooed by this one.

       To suggest that though this party might not be wearing the veil of secularism or the khakhi shorts but has a flimsy foundation and base of Lok Pal will be pessimism on the part of public and usual political strike by the rival parties. We should not forget when the Indian National Congress was formed in 1885, it was perceived as an elitist, then educated and wealthy people's institution. No intellectual could then predict that this party would become the largest national party of the country. Notions and perceptions of critics have always failed to predict the future of a political party. AAP is a rapidly growing institution. To what extent will it stand by its ideology and how effective will its implementation be is something that only time will tell. Till then AAP is a party that has arrived and is here to stay.

The author's view gets more support in form of Times Now- C-Voter opinion poll in which AAP is predicted to make massive gains in Delhi.