External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar said : “Today our relations with Pakistan are at a very formal level, very minimal. This has occurred for two reasons - we have placed terrorism squarely at the centre of the relationship, and Pakistan has reacted strongly to the abrogation of Article 370.”
Jaishankar, when asked about his views on News18’s opinion poll, said, “To be honest, the opinion poll results don’t surprise me. There is a greater sense of pride in the nation. People know that electricity, healthcare, and roads will improve.”
The minister also highlighted the BJP’s growing influence in southern states, pointing to the large crowds at PM’s roadshows in Coimbatore and Palakkad as evidence. When asked about the BJP’s response to criticism from southern states, he said, “My sense is that political opinion in those states is changing…”.
"People today have seen the benefits of good governance....many of the changes of the last decade. The Mudra scheme, Awas Yojana....vendors economy getting (digitialised), Jal Jeevan, power connection, the road building.....if you put all these together; they today realise that because today you are getting good governance, these schemes have been pushed by the centre....they look at a very very different way both at the centre and also at the BJP".
"I will also say that our sense as a society and as a nation is also changing.....I would argue the people are taking interest in foreign policy is because they have a strong sense of what this nation is about", Dr Jaishankar said adding, ".... something is changing up there. I can tell you that there is a fair degree of confidence about how this will work out electorally".
ON BJP being anti-South India and pro-Hindi and pro-North India:
Dr Jaishankar says : "Look, by now Prime Minister Narendra Modi has put that kind of propaganda to rest. He has contested it very effectively. I mean, you have not had a Prime Minister of this country who was so visibly associated with anything national with what you will call regional issues....
It could be Sengol issue, the fact that he dd Kashi-Tamil sanghamam or also Tamil Saurashtra. He (PM modi) has taken enormous pains to actually counter that kind of propaganda which has vitiated the politics for many many decades".
(The fact is the Sengol remained largely forgotten until it was used in the inauguration of New Parliament House, New Delhi, in 2023. At the inauguration, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was accompanied by Hindu priests heading the 20 Adheenams in Tamil Nadu, installed the Sengol near the chair of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.)
(...The Opposition has to "recreate the appetite" for good old secularism)
New Delhi
“We will take democracy to every corner of the country,” India's Chief Election Commissioner, Rajiv Kumar, said last week as he announced the six weeks long voting dates in the world's largest democracy.
There is a bit of irony in that declaration as the detractors of Prime Minister Narendra Modi say if he returns to power after June 4 (when votes will be counted nationwide); the biggest casualty could be India's parliamentary democracy.
According to the Aam Aadmi Party, which rules in Delhi's local administration and agri-rich Punjab, the Prime Minister has already started taking steps to transform India's parliamentary democracy to Presidential form. This is in reference to BJP's hyped campaign for One Nation, One Election by 2029 if not earlier.
Stage is set for a marathon electoral contest amid heat and dust in the noisy but world's largest democracy.
This is certainly going to be keenly watched affair at the global stage as Prime Minister
Modi, India's hardline radical Hindu leader who doubles himself as a catalyst of
development, is expected to return to power for a record third term.
Prior to him only India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had attained this feat in the 1960s.
Many also say his opponents including the Congress and provincial parties do not have a
'level playing field'. "Well there are several politically motivated legal investigations aimed at opposition
leaders on charges of corruption and money laundering. India's Enforcement Directorate that probes
financial defalcation and alleged money laundering are hyper active against Opposition leaders,"
says Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
"Many Congress leaders have in the past quit our party and also some other provincial parties only
to escape these harassment by probe agencies," he says.
On the other hand, a recent data released by country's Election Commission at the directives of
the Supreme Court says Modi's BJP had received 48 percent of all election bonds cashed by parties (donation to political
parties) up to March 2023, amounting to around $730 million.
The Congress, India's main opposition party, had by contrast received only $171 million making just 11 percent of the total.
Another provincial party, the Trinamool Congress received around 12 percent.
Some of India's top companies figure on the list of donors including numerous bonds bought in the name of Indian magnate Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, the UK-based executive chairman of steel manufacturer ArcelorMittal.
Political analyst Ramakanto Shanyal explains, "The percentage of donation break up suggests the political
popularity of the parties. If BJP is far ahead, it is because it's in power in the centre able to influence
decision making and giving clearance to infra projects, roads, airports etc. Indian business houses make
donations only expecting something in return. The fact that Trinamool Congress
of Mamata Banerjee got more than Congress, shows the corporate honchos also had more faith in Ms Banerjee
the Chief Minister of West Bengal and her ability to fight Narendra Modi".
This could be one version of the story. But the Opposition alliance is marred by infighting and inability to
take on the Prime Minister. In West Bengal itself, Mamata Banerjee unilaterally dumped her alliance
with the communists and Congress party and fielded candidates in all 42 assembly segments.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury says, "Mamata Banerjee is herself scared of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and his probe agency Enforcement Directorate. Some of her former ministers were raided
and also jailed as huge currency notes surfaced in their private residences".
Both the BJP and the Trinamool Congress deny the charge. But it is true no single or two leaders have emerged in the last 10 years who can take on Modi.
Varanasi-based Tushar Bhadra says, "The opposition parties banked a lot on Congress to anchor a solid opposition unity and the Congress banked on their leader Rahul Gandhi. Everyone appears callous in the opposition camp today. Rahul has failed to deliver in terms of garnering votes in 2014 and 2019; and so many opposition leaders now say, we better prepare for 2029 when Modi may face the electorate for the fourth term".
Others like Ashutosh Talukdar in Assam says, "Rahul Gandhi is a very poor communicator even to his cadre and party colleagues...Often he talks philosophically, so much away from electoral jargons.
In contrast, Narendra Modi's biggest asset is oratorical skill and ability to give necessary political spin to certain developments".
Even Rahul's nationwide Yatra (foot march) in two phases - that concluded on Sunday, March 17, was seen more as an effort to promote love and unity against the "division fostered by BJP".
But what about votes ....those seem to be going to the BJP.
Ideologically, the Congress which ruled India for long since independence has vacated the 'space' to the right wing, BJP.
The Congress is more often dubbed as being anti-Hindu --- a political facet that suits Modi.
The BJP likes to present India as a Hindu country which for long paid a big price by pushing a politics of Muslim appeasement.
India watcher and French scholar Christophe Jaffrelot says, the opposition has to "recreate the appetite" for good old secular spirit in India.
Today if Modi is able to beat a 10-year-old incumbency, it has also to do with his personal charm.
Modi is not only a macho Hindu leader who delivered Ram temple, he is also seen as a tough Prime
Minister who ordered bombing some parts of Pakistan to destroy terror camps in 2019. "Lately, the
BJP leaders do not forget to tell voters that Modi could prevail upon Russian President Vladimir Putin
and prevent a nuke war, something US President Joe Biden could not," says Shanyal.
In this context, BJP booth worker in Tripura, Soumen Das says - "Modi is today a global leader
and his G20 Mantra of "One Earth, One Family, One Future" has been accepted by Russia, China
and the West".
Without doubt, a Pew survey has found Modi was viewed favourably by nearly 80% of Indians.
However, BJP detractors say in the event Modi returns to power; there would be more 'erosion' of democratic values.
The Hindu-Muslim communal divide is already a "completely normalised" factor in the country today, they say adding, India has already seen dilution of parliamentary scrutiny, consolidation of power, muzzling of critical media and eroding the independence of the judiciary.
But the paradoxical part of the story is that Modi is immensely popular and many faceless Indians feel he
is taking India to the status of a developed India by 2047.
Modi himself said, "I am not going to stop with 2024 or 2029.... I am working for 2047". India will turn
100 in 2047, and Modi (born in 1950) will be 97 -- but that has not stopped him playing dream merchant.
In contrast, Congress "risks" becoming an electoral irrelevance. It controls just three of India’s 28 states
and less than 10% of seats in the lower house of parliament in two consecutive elections - 2014 and 2019.
The BJP has 17 states and about 65 per cent Indians prefer Modi as next PM, only
about half of that pick Rahul Gandhi.
ends
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