India: Testing Time For Modi Government – OpEd

It seems the Modi government is facing an existential crisis though the ruling BJP would not admit openly.

India’s BJP government is trying all tricks of political trade to ensure the support the opposition parties like former ruling party Congress and its allies, other parties, for “smooth” functioning of the parliament “business” despite differences. The BJP never tired of obstructing the parliament before is now as the ruling dispensation has found enthusiasm to see the Parliament function non-stop.

President Pranab Mukherjee, a senior Congress man performing the rubber stamp duties in perfection, including hanging wrongly Kashmir Afzal Guru to defend Hindutva scheming for secular India, and seeking another “historic” full term in office from the Modi’s Hindutva government as well, would readily read out the messages of the government in a joint session of parliament today.

The Modi government, having lost the comfort zone it enjoyed in the beginning after assuming power, goes into its second Budget session of Parliament today in a very uncomfortable situation in political and economic terms. Though the government projected a boosted and false 7.6 per cent growth in economy for 2015-16, it is not picking up any real momentum.

Indian economists blame this “anomaly on the continued sluggishness in the global economy. The sentiment in the private sector, busy promoting cricket matches by sponsorships to boost the image of India, is less than positive, and the economists are emphasizing the need for more public investment in order to draw out private investment and huge profits to be invested abroad.

The BJP and its allies enjoy a majority in the Lok Sabha but not in the Rajya Sabha and the Modi government’s strenuous efforts to get a majority for the BJP in the Upper House have failed. However, BJP is not a party with RSS backing to give up hopes once for all even if the objective situation is not in its favor.

The situation has become so explosive that for the first time since he took over as PM, Narendra Modi has shown signs of being on the defensive. Speaking at a meeting on Odisha, he complained that the opposition parties and the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are trying to destabilize his elected government. The anti-corruption movement and these NGOs were behind the BJP’s rise to power last year.

The corporate lords that control the parliament and many state governments in India have been pushing the mild government to somehow get certain profit making bills passed in the parliament with the backing of Congress and other parties that also get funds from the lords. PM Modi and his government have been unhappy with the fact that it has not been able to push through two important economic reforms — an amended land acquisition bill and the Good and Services Tax (GST) bill to help its financial allies in the market.

The GST is a constitution amendment bill, and it needs the approval of two-thirds of those present and voting in each House. As the RSS-BJP s tires to speed up its national reach including in Kashmir, the political atmosphere has suddenly turned gray for the Modi government.

The incidents at the Central University of Hyderabad in Telengana and at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in the national capital that have vitiated the atmosphere because of student protests and the failure of the university authorities to handle them with tact and sensitivity. The situation became worse when Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani intervened in a clumsy fashion. The bogus threat of “sedition” clause to weaken student movements and silence the protesters has only complicated the crisis. The RSS-BJP seeking to saffronize the university campus by force, rejects the Indian right to protests and uses forces and even lawyers to end protests.

India cannot tolerate any request for ending crimes in Kashmir and giving back sovereignty to Kashmir as Indian forces have already murdered over 100,000 including Kashmiri Muslims and all state crimes are considered lawful. Indian core media lords who steal the resources of the nation and people shamelessly threaten with sedition law anyone who supports Kashmiri cause.

A government which feels that it is under siege and insecure is not a good sign for the government itself; neither it is for the country. When in opposition, the BJP always felt secure and sure of popular support. If the Modi government and Modi himself can turn around and point an accusing finger at the opposition, that would be a short-sighted strategy. The Modi magic is failing.

The government should adopt a conciliatory tone, and it should play down its note of triumphalism that it had adopted in the past year.

As an opposition party for years playing only destructive politics, BJP knows the opposition Congress also has a right to enjoy the “bad” fate of the government today.

After all, Congress and BJP have collaborating on all agendas of Hindutva RSS. As one of most shrewd political duo world over, these two essentially Hindu parties do everything in secrecy so that Hindus enjoy while Muslims are kept under full control by denying what is legitimately theirs. But India also wants Muslims to support everything Indian government is doing in making Hindus and industrialists shine and even against the genuine interests of Muslims.

Those Muslims who stand betrayed by Indian government can testify this strange Hindutva phenomenon of secular India, its wounded ego system funnily echoing in all its actions.