Development Needs Harmony
In the run-up to the 2014 elections BJP and Modi claimed to
have campaigned on the development plank, presenting the Gujarat Model as the replicable
development paradigm on the national level. Much has been written on the real
efficacy of Modi’s Gujarat Model as statistics clearly show the lopsided
development that resulted from such a model. Let us only look at the social
development index in Gujarat: The latest Human Development Report of India
places Gujarat at the 9th rank much below States like Kerala, Tamil
Nadu, Maharashtra, Haryana and a few others. Again, Gujarat’s basic health
indicators have been lower than many others States of India – Kerala, Tamil
Nadu for instance. The maternal mortality ratio has been much higher in Gujarat
than that in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra. Even for the Under 5
mortality ratio Gujarat has fared poorly. In nourishment, or rather
undernourishment, the experience of Gujarat has not been encouraging either.
Fifty percent of the children were undernourished in Gujarat in 1992-93 and in
2005-06 even more children (51.7 per cent) were undernourished. Health
indicators of the marginalised groups such as dalits and tribals only
deteriorated. So much for the success of the Modi model.
But businesses and media readily acquiesced to Modi’s brand
of development without much deep reflection and analysis and eventually became
the propagators of the brand themselves (with exception of course). When you
say a lie a few times it might resemble a truth. This is what happened to
Modi’s development model in sections of the Indian public sphere prior to the general
elections, and Modi was able (lucky too) to reap the benefit. In reality it was an ominous union of economic
liberalism and Hindu nationalism masquerading as the grand governance model of
Gujarat.
It is now clear to anyone that Modi came to power not only
on the development plank but by the calculated polarization of votes,
especially in Uttar Pradesh. Years ahead of the elections the Sangh Parivar under
the umbrella organization RSS set up thousands of new shakhas in that State to
execute the divisive plan. Modi’s henchman, protégé and party incharge of UP
Amit Shah was the CEO of this meticulously planned operation. The Muzzafarpur
communal riots and other riots were pre-planned towards the winning of as many
seats as possible in UP so that Modi could ascend the PM’s chair in Delhi. The
71 Loksabha seats that Shah delivered to Modi was the outcome of this polarization.
As everyone knows by now, in Indian politics the path to Delhi is via UP. But
no one expected Modi and his company to do the unsavoury act of religious
polarization in order to gain votes.
Shah’s anointment as the BJP chief (reward for his excellent
performance in UP) is aimed at taking this UP model (not of development) of
polarization to all-India level. In the meantime UP came into focus again as
the by-elections were announced. UP had the largest number of by-election seats
to be won. The Sangh affiliates under the leadership of Shah took the
polarization model to another level – “Love Jihad”. By spreading sheer calumny
against the members of the major minority community in UP and by dividing the
voters on religious basis the Sangh sought to win the by-elections. Alas! Such
a false propaganda was punished by the voters (no doubt by sensible Hindus too,
who refused to buy into the lies of the Sangh) by defeating the saffron cronies
of Shah and his company. The electorate by now sensed the glaring contradiction
in the party’s stand – playing ‘development’ to the general gallery but using
communal passions in selected pockets to win votes. Moreover voters seem to
have realized the great mistake of giving the party a brute majority at the
centre.
Prior to the by-elections the religious venom of hate that
came out of the saffron clad Adityanath was simply despicable. Perhaps under
the sane advice of Rajnath Singh (who would like to be seen more as a moderate in
the Atal Bihari Vajpayee mould) Adityanath was not chosen as the chief
campaigner in the by-elections. But the development poster-boy Modi did nothing
to restrain the hate-monger Adityanath, the five-time BJP MP (party should be
ashamed to flaunt this) from Gorakhpur. “Sadly for Indian democracy, individuals
who should be behind bars flaunt their electoral victories as sanction for
their toxic brand of politics,” says Brinda Karat, Politburo member of the CPI
(M).
Within months of Modi coming to power at the centre, the
Sangh affiliates and its members have become extremely bold to attack the
members of other religions – especially Christians – and their legitimate,
constitutionally valid religious activities. Prime example of this is in Madhya
Pradesh where a BJP government is in power. Precisely under the nose of this
government Gram Sabhas of 50 villages in Bastar and Jagadalpur districts had
the guts to outlaw non-Hindu religions. This was a clear violation of the fundamental
rights of the people of other religions.
Since Modi’s coming to power a few months ago there have
been numerous communal riots and skirmishes in various parts of the country resulting
in disharmony. The social and religious atmosphere in the country is gradually being
vitiated. Modi’s development agenda (for whom the development bell tolls is
quite another question) doesn’t sit well with this climate of disharmony. For,
it unleashes a whole lot of ‘unfreedoms’ to use the words of the famous Nobel Laureate
Economist Amartya Sen: “Development requires the removal of major sources of
unfreedom: poverty as well as tyranny, poor economic opportunities as well as intolerance or over-activity of
repressive states.” The ideological intolerance perpetuated by the Sangh will
be the major hurdle in executing the development plank of Modi government.
Where there is no freedom for pluralistic views to be expressed and shared real
development cannot take place. For, in the words of Sen development is freedom
meaning the end and the means of development is freedom.
In an atmosphere of ‘unfreedom’ resulting in disharmony the
electorate might vote out the Modi government in the next general elections not
for its development plank but for the communal plank.
Dr. Francis Arackal
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