Ashoka Mody on Narendra Modi's rule

In my previous article (Unforgiving History of Modern India, Prothom Alo, 27 December), I reviewed Ashoka Mody's book, 'India is Broken'. In the course of the review, I wrote on his evaluation of the Congress rule. In today's piece I will highlight his evaluation of the BJP rule, particularly the rule of Narendra Modi.

From the very outset of the nineties, the people of India began to look for alternatives due to Congress' socialism rhetoric, reliance on large industries and plans, failed attempts at land reforms, and overall failure in the areas of education, health, urban development, unemployment and determining the foreign currency exchange rate.

I had mentioned before that it was during the rule of Rajiv Gandhi that the rise of Hindutva took place. BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee came to power twice, as symbol of moderate Hindutva. Ashoka praised Vajpayee's leadership, saying that he had continued with the liberalisation of the economy as introduced by his predecessor Narasimha Rao. He had contribution in local competition, privatisation and infrastructure development. As a result, the sluggish GDP of 1990-91 was overcome and climbed to 8 per cent.

In spite of that, two Indias coexisted side by side -- one plump and prosperous and the other, daunted and deprived. Referring to Ram Gopal Varma 1998 movie 'Satya', Ashoka pointed how on one side there was the rampant unemployment and on the other, the advancement of the elite class, running parallel to each other.

In the same context, Ashoka referred to the 1955 movie 'Sri 420' starring Raj Kapoor, saying that even after four decades, there had been no change in India's unemployment. By these references to movies and contemporary literature, alongside facts and figures, Ashoka has enriched his book further.

While the slum-dwellers of India are in constant fear of eviction, Mukhesh Ambani has his 27 storey palatial residence constructed. Side the side, the destitute farmer commits suicide and Vijay Mallya defaults on a 2 billion dollar loan from a state-owned bank and conducts a legal battle from London, where he resides, against his extradition back to India. Benefits of development projects trickle up rather than trickle down.

As a result, Congress returned to power in 2004. For a long 10 years, Manmohan Singh led the liberalisation of Indian economy.

During this time, a conflict emerged between moderate Hindutva and extreme Hindutva. The hardcore BJP president LK Advani first of all discarded Vajpayee's moderate Hindutva. He led the Ram Janmabhoomi movement and the construction of the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya. Ayodhya became an election issue.

In 2002, in Gujarat's Muslim-populated town Godhra, the bogey of a train was set on fire and 59 Hindu pilgrims died. Reacting to this incident, fanatic Hindus stirred up Hindu-Muslim riots all over India and around 2000 Muslim were killed in this violence. Their homes were set on fire and Muslim women were raped.

Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat at the time, was blamed for this incident. Demands rose for Modi's dismissal, but Vajpayee rejected these demands and told him to contest in the elections. Fired by extremist Hindutva, Modi secured a landslide victory. That is how Modi became the undisputed leader of extremist Hindutva.

Bolstered by the Gujarat model (which Ashoka used facts and figures to term a failure) and leaning on millionaires like Adani and Ambani, in 2014 Narendra Modi finally became the prime minister of India.

In his book, Ashoka Mody gave a detailed account, backed with facts and figures, of how the people of India suffered as a result of Modi’s demonitisation, imposition of VAT, the lockdown during the pandemic and the close friendship he struck up with millionaires like Adani.

In order to cover up these failures, the Modi government blamed the Muslims for the spread of Covid. While there had been 300 million Covid cases, they reported 10 million. There had been 900 thousand Covid deaths, they reported 150 thousand. The government also concealed actual facts and figures while quoting economic data and created a smokescreen.

The Hindutva intellectuals and economists played the role of cheerleaders. They included the well-known economist Jagdish Bhagwati. Dismissing the contentions of critics, he said that India is becoming alive. It is not China, but India that is seeing miraculous development under Modi’s leadership.

Overall, quoting the Sweden-based academic think-tank V-Dem, Mody referred to Modi’s government as an ‘elected autocrat’.

In explaining why this situation had emerged, Ashoka analysed the sector-wise GDP growth from 1984-85 to 2019-20. It was seen that the growth bubble in the banking and construction sectors may have given rise to momentary growth, but could not make the growth sustainable. On the contrary, the worldwide nexus that exists between banking, the construction sector and the Mafia, has spread to India too.

Referring to the work of another economist Partha Dasgupta on the game theory, Ashoka Mody explains the criminalisation of Indian politics and economy, saying that the society is the mirror of politics. When moral values break down, then everyone takes it for granted that others will cheat and so then everyone wants to cheat and go forward. In this ‘me-me-me’ equilibrium, it becomes quite natural for citizens to become involved in political and economic scams, looting, filling rivers, loan default, money laundering, selling sub-standard medicines, etc.

Alongside deliberations on the failures and successes of politicians and economic policies, the book highlights the human stories of Hindu-Muslim relations, the courage of journalists and, in certain cases judges, in the face of repression, and the spirit and labour of the Indian people.

The question may well arise, what exactly does the writer Ashoka Mody want? He wants very little. He wants the ‘me-me-me’ equilibrium of his country’s politics and economy to return to the ‘us-us-us’ equilibrium and for India to advance accordingly.

Coming to the end of the book, a certain limitation in the book may be mentioned. That is the issue of India’s political and economic relations with its neighbours. I had particularly hoped for a discussion on India’s 12th prime minister Gujral’s doctrine. It is absent.

One. Rather than seeking anything in return, India would as far as possible give and accept whatever its neighbouring countries Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka want.

Two. The countries of South Asia will not allow each other’s territory be used against each other’s interests.

Three. They will not interfere in each other’s domestic issues.

Four. The countries will display respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Five. They will resolve all conflict through peaceful bilateral discussions.

Obviously India has moved away from these principles. The proof lies in the imbalanced economic relations with Bangladesh and Bangladesh’s last three election, particularly the last one.

Finally, Shahsi Tharoor wrote about this book, all readers may not agree with all the analyses, observations and conclusion of Ashoka’s book, nor do I. However, Ashoka has certainly written and extremely essential book.

It is not just Indian readers who will benefit from this book, but it will also be helpful to those who think about the future of Bangladesh.  

* Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan is an economist and former secretary

* This column appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English edition by Ayesha Kabir