Rhetorics and theatrics are the cornerstones of the politics of Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi. Nearly 42 months in office, Narendra Modi has now mastered the art of winning the elections by creating hype with his unique style of campaigning. The BJP since coming to power at the Centre has won all the elections barring Delhi state and Bihar. BJP lost Punjab in March 2017, but the party as the partner with the Akali Dal was never a contender for power in the border state.
The uncanny ability of the Prime Minister to sell the harshest policy decision like demonetization stunned even his ardent critics conceded that it was the competence of Narendra Modi alone that he singlehandedly shouldered the demonetization and convinced people that it was for their larger good in short as well as long term.
Narendra Modi’s rhetorics and theatrics helped BJP
It was the rhetorics and theatrics of Narendra Modi that his party could easily sail through in assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The people of both the states overwhelmingly supported the party despite undergoing unprecedented pain and difficulties caused by the demonetization of the high-value currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 on November 8, 2016. The opposition not only failed to counter the political narrative woven by Modi around the demonetization, it also debilitated the financial strength of the opposition particularly the Aam Aadmi Party, Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.
A year after the demonetization, India is in desperate need of the repair and reboot of the economy. Even before the government showed any inclination for addressing the wounds inflicted by the note ban, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has disrupted the economy which was never seen before in India since 1947. The unorganised sector of the economy, which employs nearly 93 per cent of the workforce, is reeling under the double whammy of demonetization and the GST. The NDA government seems to be more interested in Tejo Mahal, Gau Raksha and the Prime Minister’s top concern right now is the assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. Over 15 lakh workers lost their jobs after demonetization and industrial towns like Kanpur, Ludhiana, Tirupur, Sivakasi (both in Tamilnadu), Bhiwandi, Malegaon and many other such cities are gasping for breath, yet there is no bailout package for them in sight.
Opposition clueless because of PM Modi’s talent to coin new acronyms
His uncanny talent in coining new acronyms has left the opposition clueless. In his first address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort in Delhi, he coined JAM (Jandhan, Aadhar, Mobile). Earlier, during the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in October 2013, he coined SABKA (Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress) and alleged that the three parties were together in corruption and protecting each other. Without this acronym, he repeated this charge during the campaign for March 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections saying that SP and BSP are covering up the corruption of each other.
UP’s Yogi Govt
Ironically the BJP government headed by Yogi Adityanath is no better as it has ended up in protecting the acts of corruption of both, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.
Yogi government will complete eight months in office and has so far recommended a CBI inquiry into 4 cases but the agency has accepted only one case - the murder of a Karnataka cadre IAS officer Anurag Tewari in Lucknow.
There is no headway in all those cases where Yogi Adityanath had shown haste like Gomti River Front, Jai Prakash International Center, Janeshwar Mishra Park during the Akhilesh Yadav’s regime.
There is no trace of any follow-up action on the announcement of CBI inquiry into the alleged irregularities in the sale of PSU sugar mills during the Mayawati regime (2007-12). There are many more such cases.