Modi must lead by example on ‘Sabka Vishwas’

On May 25, barely 48 hours after becoming the first prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru to be voted back into office with a clear majority of his own, and completing a full term in office, Narendra Modi was political correctness exemplified.

He was addressing a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance, after he was formally elected their leader. His words carried greater import and solemnity because these were uttered in the Central Hall of Parliament, the proscenium of many historic moments and speeches. Totally against the grain of the polarising and divisive electoral campaign he had steered, Modi amended the credo of his first government, or rather, added a key phrase. He told his coalition's lawmakers to not just limit themselves to the pursuit of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ (togetherness of all, development for all), but said they must now spread the message unambiguously that his regime was also seeking ‘Sabka Vishwas’ (trust of all).

If this was not enough to get the people who were listening to him blink, then Modi had more to say in the same vein. He asked each one of those assembled to not just retain the confidence of those who voted for them, but also to seek the support of those who did not vote for them. "This government belongs as much to those who voted for us, as it does to those who did not vote for us," Modi said.

This was not a Modi who veiled his words. He was direct in saying that however strong a single-party becomes in a coalition, the dharma of collectiveness will be retained in his government. It is a different matter that this stance appeared deceitful when Nitish Kumar stayed out of the government complaining about the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) overbearing attitude.

But in his speech, probably for the first time, Modi had a direct message to the minorities who he had so far referred to as part of the whole or ‘everybody’, specifying that there was no necessity to segregate minorities on the basis of their religious identity.

But on that day, his message to his party cadre was emphatic – albeit shrouded in his political philosophy: It was necessary to reach out to the minorities because they had been deceived by the BJP's opponents who trapped them in a web of lies. This had to be broken and they had to be embraced, Modi asserted.

Coming from a prime minister who had spent decades in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh before being deputed to the BJP in 1987, and had never hidden his ideological commitment – recall his interview to a foreign journalist in 2013 when he confessed, “Yes, I am a Hindu nationalist” – this was indeed paradoxical.

However, it was not the first time Modi was saying something that was either against his political grain or, indeed, uttering the unexpected. In 2014, riding on the image of a challenger of every concept, he had termed the Parliament as the temple of democracy and embarked on a welfarism spree in complete contrast to the impression he projected about himself – a market reformer hell bent on trimming the government machinery while upscaling governance.

Modi's May 25 statement was followed up by several important announcements related to Muslims within days of the appointment of the council of ministers and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi being given charge of the ministry for Minority Affairs once again. He declared the government had decided to initiate a few new schemes for the educational empowerment of minorities, primarily Muslims.

While the proposal for providing scholarships to pre-matric and post-matric students, besides other merit-cum-means aid to more than five crore students, was open for all religious minorities, the proposal to build bridges between the madrassa system and university education would certainly help many madrassa students, all of them Muslims.

This is not the first time that the BJP has taken any step that would eventually empower Muslims and eliminate educational backwardness. The party's manifesto in 2014 too referred to Muslim backwardness as a reason for the community’s alienation from the national mainstream, although the BJP did not articulate it in such precise terms. Between 2014-19 the Modi government also did not roll back any minority-centric programmes started by the United Progressive Alliance or which continued from even earlier.

As mentioned previously, Modi emphasised the egalitarian thrust of the government and argued that the beneficiaries were never selected, or rejected, on the basis of religious identities. The BJP has thus moved towards targeting Muslim backwardness by extending egalitarian schemes to the community too as part of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ motto.

Going beyond mere words

Although economic benefits were made available, the first Modi regime was characterised by silence and inaction whenever Muslims were individually targeted due to latent animosity towards them within large sections of the Hindu community. Individuals, villages, towns and cities became important milestones in the narrative of hate and violence which continued unabated between 2014-19. Certainly, while securing basic amenities are important for basic survival, there are other issues involving security and dignity which must be addressed by the government and attempts to overlook these would not secure trust of the minorities.

When Modi declared that securing ‘Sabka Vishwas’ was his new political objective, it became imperative to take stock if these words were backed by actions or does the gap remain between, as in the Hindi coinage, kathnee (what's said) aur karnee (and the action taken). The issue is the extent to which actions, or their absence, would bolster confidence or trust of the religious minorities in Modi and his regime.

At Parliament House on the day the inaugural session began, Modi also reached out to the political opposition. But his tone and tenor was advisory and not consultative – the prime minister said all political parties need to work in the larger interest of nation without any bias, clearly suggesting that in his eyes their stance was against national objectives.

Modi further said that when "we come to Parliament, we should forget paksh and vipaksh (treasury and opposition). We should think about issues with a nishpaksh (non-partisan) spirit and work in the larger interest of the nation."

Such an approach is flawed and against the spirit of consensual politics because the prime minister is asking the opposition to jettison its perspective on key national, economic and international matters and toe the government line. Modi is politically astute and he would be aware that in a democracy, the concept of a non-partisan Opposition is non-existent. It is up to the government to make space for viewpoints other than their own, and in the cent of failure, accept disagreement on key issues and find ways to overcome parliamentary hurdles in enacting key legislation.

Even on the matter of reaching out to minorities, a not a very good start was made by the members of the BJP on the day they took oath as Lok Sabha members. Insistence on adding religious prefixes or suffixes to their names, chanting slogans that are clearly religious and the presiding officer chosen by the BJP allowing this, certainly does not contribute to the spirit of inclusiveness.

By the end of the day, the House resembled a familiar battle ground. No citizen from the minority community would have turned off the television feeling confident that this time Modi means what he says and that his words shall no longer be hollow as in the first tenure. It is not enough for him to set the standard, he must initiate action against those who default and ensure there are no repeats.

(Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay is a Delhi-based writer and author. His latest book is RSS: Icons Of The Indian Right. He has also written Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times (2013))

The views expressed above are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH