Daily Times

Against the required five grade class, 3700 were PhDs let alone masters and bachelors. Author Kapil Komireddi sees Modi rule devastating for the India “we have more than a glimpse of the “New India” he has spawned. It is a reflection of its progenitor: culturally arid, intellectually vacant, emotionally bruised, vain, bitter, boastful, permanently aggrieved and implacably malevolent; a make-believe land full of fudge and fakery, where bigotry against religious minorities is among the therapeutic options available to members of a self-pitying majority frustrated by the prime minister’s failure to upgrade their economic standard of living”

In last year’s state assembly elections, BJP lost the states of Rajasthan, MP, Chhattisgarh,Telangana, and Mizoram. Mr Modi knew the fate of shining India when BJP had ruled India from 1999 to 2004, only cleared the way for UPA government for the next ten years (2004 to 2014). Though Congress rule of ten years was described by Mr Jaswant Singh as India’s decade of decay. This time Mr Jaswant Singh is in a state of coma, otherwise his findings will be worse than that of UPA government. Unsparing JusticeKatju have had no qualms over the performance of Mr Modi even on the completion of first two years. On June 21, 2016 he lambasted “I accuse the present BJP Govt. of failure on every front, and of resorting to fraudulent manipulation of facts and figures and ‘jumlas’ to cover up its failures, and of stoking the communal fires in many places for its own nefarious ends, while the country is sliding rapidly downhill, like an aircraft which has spun out of control, and is heading nose downwards towards the earth for an inevitable fatal crash”.

India under five more years under Modi will see more low levels of relations with Pakistan and China. India will continue to violate LOC, spur sponsoring of separatism in Baluchistan, lobbying against Pakistan at FATF and OIC

To understand Modi’s rule one needs to know what Khushwant Singh wrote in “The End of India” in 2003 in the aftermath of massacres of Gujrat, Babri Mosque had already been vandalized and demolished with the supervision of BJP leadership. He said “These are dark times for India. The fascist agenda of Hindu fanatics is unlike anything we have experienced in our modern history. After partition I thought we would never again experience a similar holocaust. I may be proved wrong. Far from becoming mahann(great), India is going to the dogs, and unless a miracle saves us, the country will break up. It will not be Pakistan or any other foreign power that will destroy us; we will commit hara-kiri”

From Nehru to Manmohan Singh, none claimed boyishness, except the current 69 years old Mr. Narendra Modi who has a 56-inch chest claim. The claim was soon toyed, ridiculed and measured with a fifty percent reduction by Lalu Prasad. Can we measure Mr Modi’s claims on governance and are they factually come down below fifty percent on the conclusion of his five-year term as prime minister of India? India under five more years under Modi will see more low levels of relations with Pakistan and China. India will continue to violate LOC, spur sponsoring of separatism in Baluchistan, lobbying against Pakistan at FATF and OIC. With China its economic relations may sour. Currently India is having a trade deficit of $ 53 billion with China for 2018-2019. Like USA under Trump, India may impose higher import duty on Chinese exports to gain political gains internationally and calm down local anger against Chinese exports. India may continue to deny entering into OBOR initiative of China till 2024. Even if government is formed by UPA, India’s relationship with Pakistan and China may remain same or worse. A fragile coalition may be more concerned for 2024 election than fostering relationships with both neighbours. Already they are changed from adversary states to hostile ones. Migraine has several treatments but none is effective. Yet the people of Pakistan and India may see a lasting solution or at least wish for it to happen one day!

The writer is an alumnus of Potsdam Centre for Public Management Germany and of Geneva Centre for Security Policy Switzerland