When Prime Minister Narendra Modi looks back at his speech in parliament yesterday, it will presumably not fill him with pride. When the Prime Minister speaks, citizens expect a statesman’s vision for the country; he is also expected to demonstrate a basic level of respect for all parties and MPs. In a parliamentary democracy, the PM is the leader of the House and not the leader of the party that he represents. The Opposition has the right to criticise him and, along with him, the functioning of his government. Both he and the government are accountable to parliament and to the people through the process of questioning by the Opposition. The Opposition has to respect protocol too, but the Prime Minister is held to a different standard and cannot sound arrogant or be intolerant of criticism. Unfortunately, PM Modi’s speech belies all expectations. He lost his cool, the tone and the tenor of his speech was “how dare you criticise me?” and he treated the Congress i.e. Opposition like filth.
There is no denying the fact that Rahul Gandhi’s speech a few days before this was scathing. He called the Prime Minister a ‘king’ who doesn’t believe in democracy. He also blamed him for undermining constitutional institutions like the judiciary and the Election Commission. Mr. Modi was criticised for disregarding diversity and fraying the tenuous relationship between the Centre and the states which could result in disastrous consequences. Rahul Gandhi was categorical that India can’t be governed only from the Centre and decision-making must involve the sensibilities of the states. He reminded the Prime Minister that constitutionally, India is a union of states, not a nation as viewed by the BJP. He did touch a raw nerve with the Prime Minister when he said that there are two kinds of India, one that is of and for the poor, and the other of the rich and wealthy; in this context, he mentioned Ambani and Adani and said that since Modi took over, extreme centralisation of capital has become a reality.
Rahul Gandhi could have been more polite, but for the Prime Minister to reply in the same coin is not what one expects from the office. Modi is not known for subtlety. His attitude of sparing none and bulldozing all and sundry has been the hallmark of his personality. Unlike his senior Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Modi is not groomed in the parliamentary traditions. He entered the parliament for the very first time in 2014 whereas Atal B Vajpayee built his political career by speaking in parliament and rubbing shoulders with the greats of Indian parliamentary democracy. Vajpayee was a product of the Nehruvian era when the Opposition’s voice, though a minuscule minority, was not only heard but respected, and it was believed that the Opposition was integral to the smooth functioning of the parliamentary system. Vajpayee could criticise Nehru severely but could still steal Nehru’s affection.
Modi is a product of a different era. He started his career as an RSS pracharak and as Chief Minister, he ruled the state with an iron fist; the Opposition had no meaning for him in the Assembly. In his version of things, he is infallible, and he is of the mindset that he should never be criticized – neither in the party nor outside. According to him. he does no wrong. He knows best what is to be done and no one should try to teach him how to run the country and how to conduct himself. Rahul Gandhi’s speech was an attempt to break that image of the Prime Minister in full public glare. It was an attack at the core of his persona. It was too much for the Prime Minister to ignore. Before he spoke, one expected that Rahul Gandhi would get a befitting reply but I had not expected such a personal reply. Initially, the PM tried to be somber, but he lost his cool when interrupted by Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. That is when he said that he had not taken any names yet, but now he would and referred to the Congress by name. This was the lowest point of his speech. One could see that he was seething with anger.
Modi is a politician always in election mode. He never leaves an opportunity to address the voter. Elections in five states are on and polling for the first phase in UP is going to be held in a couple of days. This was an excellent opportunity to address voters, knowing the speech would be streamed live across the country. It is therefore no wonder that in the Lok Sabha, he spent more than 60% of his speech criticising the Congress. He told the voters that the Congress is a dying party. And that it had done no good for the states and the country, and that is why the Congress has been wiped out in many states. But the speech also reveals that Modi feels that the Congress is the only party which can really challenge him at the Centre. Despite Mamata Banerjee’s adventurous political claims of replacing the Congress and emerging as the main anti-BJP front at the Centre, Modi is convinced that the Congress should not be taken lightly; it should be attacked brutally, discredited relentlessly, and dislodged permanently from the Centre as well as the states. It is no coincidence that like in the Lok Sabha, in the Rajya Sabha, the Congress again occupied the majority share of Modi’s speech. But the ferocity with which he blamed the Congress for everything which is wrong with the country – dynastic politics, ’84 riots, Emergency, poverty – reminds us about the method behind his thought process.
Modi’s obsession with the Congress is not simply a reflection of his inner anguish or antipathy towards the Congress or pathological hatred of the Nehru-Gandhi family, it is also part of a bigger political strategy. Nalin Mehta in his book ‘The New BJP’, has given very interesting data about the BJP’s relentless anti-Congress diatribe. He writes that the BJP in its external communication – that is in speeches, articles and press releases – mentions the Congress the most. In fact, the word “Congress” tops the chart in 2019. Words like “Modi”, “BJP” and “development” lagged. Nalin Mehta writes, “This big political communication shift began in 2016 when we started seeing a dramatic upswing in Congress-related talk by the BJP. Over the next three years, the BJP steadily ramped up the volume of anti-Congress talk and the 2019 general elections, this talk had overtaken its communications on all other issues.” He further writes, “As the primary ideological opponent of the Congress, it was natural for the BJP to speak so much about its rival. Yet, the remarkable increase in its anti-Congress discourse points to a key political lesson that the party’s strategic planners drew on: comparing the BJP to the Congress.”
In my opinion, this diatribe by the PM and by his party will increase in the coming future. Because with the rising anti-incumbency towards the BJP at the Centre and in the states, he will feel more vulnerable, and he will want the voters and the citizens of the country to not forget the ills of the Congress and have faith in his leadership. One expects the Prime Minister to set the bar high for civil and polite debate and conversation. It is not too much to ask.
(Ashutosh is author of ‘Hindu Rashtra’ and Editor, satyahindi.com.)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author.