In his seventh year as prime minister of India, Modi continues to be the most popular leader among the masses. Strangely he happens to be the most hated by the opposition and intelligentsia because of his actions which are not to the liking of many sections of elite of Indian society.
In the seventy plus years of post independence India, no doubt it was Congress party that ruled the country for about six decades. The Indian democracy did throw up a few alternatives to Congress from time to time in the shape of many erstwhile Congress leaders. However the first to last a full term was of National Democratic Alliance ( NDA ) led by A B Vajpayee of BJP. Now India has Narendra Modi at the helm of affairs from 2014 onwards in his second term. Though BJP all by itself enjoyed the majority in 2014 as well as in 2019, still the government is that of NDA.
The politics in independent India theoretically evolved around secularism and socialism. This is at least what has been the central idea of manifestoes of all political parties all these years. When it comes to actual politics , it boils down to plain and simple vote arithmetic manipulations through the age old maxim of Divide and Rule on the basis of religion, cast, creed, sex, age, occupation, urban/rural etc. etc.. In essence in Indian politics, there are no permanent friends, no permanent enemies as secularism and socialism are used just to create perception to woo a particular vote bank at a particular point of time.
BJP has been labelled as a non secular party by many. The naked truth of Indian politics is that all political parties, national or regional, excepting Congress party has shared power directly with BJP or in governments where BJP also shared power, though whenever need arose, they labelled it non secular or anti socialism. The Congress party also fell to the greed of being in power in case of Maharashtra recently in coalition with Shiv Sena, essentially a Hindu party, forgetting their being self proclaimed champions of secularism. As it is wooing Muslim voters, one of the largest undividable chunk of Indian vote bank has been the sole effort of all so called secular parties, many a time ignoring the basic principles of equality for all citizens even in the eyes of law. In this race aligning with Muslim League has been a glaring example of Secularism of the Congress.
The second major postulate of Indian politics i.e. Socialism has been even greater sufferer at the altar of Indian politics. Ever growing lust for all baser instincts i.e. money, power, wine and women, led to explosion of corruption and corrupt practices and urge to nurture the model of Philosophy of Corruption Empowerment. The insensitivity of Indian polity to corruption mitigation which is so very important for the prosperity of our millions can be gauged by the following. One prime minister who served for more than 15 years when told about growing corruption casually said that it was a global phenomenon while another prime minister in eighties was candid enough in admitting that out of 1 Re given by Indian union only 15 paise ( Or 15 % only ) reached the target. But did anything change? Were any measures adopted to cure this malaise both from the centre or any state, by any party, national or regional? The answer is an emphatic NO.
The Indian polity dwelled only on vote bank politics all these years in the garb of secularism and socialism through not only creation of Corruption empowered cabals but creation of fake, duplicate and multiple entries in all national lists, be it Voter's List, List of MNREGA workers, List of beneficiaries of government subsidies, List of Permanent Account Holders (PAN) holders, List of citizens etc. etc., List of Bank Account Holders, to enable manipulations in election results and grabbing a big pie of national exchequer through theft, bribes, corruption tax evasion and generation of black money
All political parties have shared fruits of power with BJP and all political parties in their economics profess and work within 10-15% left or right of centre. It is also amply clear that the plank of BJP being non secular, anti Muslim is just a rhetoric. All that BJP stands for is uniformity before law for all citizens in all walks of life without exception. So why is Modi hated so much by opposition and so called intelligentsia? What has he done or is going to do which makes him a political untouchable in the country?
Many politicians of the country are convinced by the fact that Corruption Mitigation and Good Governance can be Biggest Growth Engine of Indian Economy but because of political compulsions and lust for power failed in doing something meaningful in this regard. Mr. Modi , strangely enough for an Indian politician has taken it very seriously and has started hitting the Demons of Indian Economy and Governance one by one. During last six years , he has taken the following decisions which seem to have touched the juggler vein of rest of polity.
- It all started with Demonetization and introduction of GST. Some people particularly tax thieves and evaders, real estate mafia, terror funders, Hundi and Havala operators and the polity which benefitted from activities these started hating Modi.
- Realising the total potential of AADHAAR : The project of unique identification ( UID) number or Aadhaar was initiated by Manmohan Singh's goverment but they developed cold feet when the total scope was understood. In fact UID is the only Aadhaar/base for good governance in India and opposition has been trying to block all linkages of Aadhaar on one pretext or the other.
- Welfare schemes and measures like crop insurance, Ayushman Bharat, PM Kisan Samman Nidhi
Cutting down the possibilities of pilferage, graft and cuts in all government schemes through cashless direct transfers into bank accounts.
- Doing away with bogus, fake and duplicate ration cards
- Direct transfer of government assistance into accounts of beneficiaries, MNREGA payments into individual's accounts
- Muslim women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019
- Dealing with Pakistan and China from a position of equals
- Fighting terrorism in J&K and Naxalite - Maoist terror in 100 odd districts of the so called red corridor with a lot of success for the first time.
- Integration of J&K with India
- Citizenship Amendment Act 2019
- Proposal for National Population Register (NPR)
- Farmer related legislations namely, 1.Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) 2020, 2.Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services 2020 and 3.The Essential Commodities (Amendment) 2020.
All these actions and legislations have
1. Dented the monopoly and strong hold of the opposition parties on the Muslim and extremely poor vote banks of the opposition parties.
2. A major shift in approach to dealing with China and Pakistan has increased Modi's popularity considerably with the masses.
Plus minus in the vote bank along with secularism are not the main reasons of hatred towards Mr. Modi but permanently eroding the credibility of these opposition leaders as The Messiah of protection of Muslims and hapless poor masses by his actions is definitely giving birth to this hatred.
But the major cause of this hatred emanates from the policy and governance actions which are denying them the opportunity of gobbling 85% of the government expenditure, (this fact was mentioned by one of the Indian prime ministers in mid eighties) through direct transfer into the bank account number of real living beneficiaries. During the last five years about Rs 10 lakh crores has been disbursed like this. Now through farmer related legislations, the opposition and so called intelligentsia, bureaucracy etc. etc. has been denied loot share from almost Rs 25 lakh annually. This being the biggest blow and hence the reactions are also equally big and strong.
In fact denying opportunities of manipulations of vote bank politics and a big share in national loot is why Modi is hated so much by the opposition and so called intelligentsia.
