India’s Prime Minister (PM), Narendra Modi, is championed around the world as an economically progressive maestro for his so-called efforts in leading India towards ‘unparalleled’ progress, which apparently has never before been seen in the ‘world’s biggest democracy’. Despite his claims though, India is anything but stable, progressive or secular today. Be it the northern states of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat in the west or south-western Maharashtra, India’s claims of being a secular and democratic state are under intense scrutiny and rising extremism has left India far worse off than it was under preceding PMs.
It seems as if Modi has given less importance to his own people and the domestic politics of his own country, focusing instead on garnering international acclaim. He has visited more than 25 countries since June last year, including Ireland, the UAE, Canada and Australia, furthering his repertoire as the first Indian PM to visit these nations in at least the last 30 years. Additionally, he is expected to visit another six countries in November alone, including the UK, Israel and Turkey. He also made a quick stop in Silicon Valley and met celebrity entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerburg.
Moreover, his travels have enabled him to do what he does best: goodwill performances for the international public, especially in front of the media (a ploy I have also witnessed during the G20 summit in Brisbane last year). These actions seem to have, however, wooed a large number of non resident Indians (NRIs) around the world, and enabled Modi to tap into their pockets by promising them a safer, less-corrupt and less-bureaucratic India, yet realistically failing to deliver on any of these promises (notoriously being called feku for this very reason).
As mentioned above, it is not all fun and games for Indians living at home. As we all know, the state of Punjab has a history of political turmoil, insurgencies and oppression. Once again, religiously motivated incidents have resulted in the escalation of violence in the region. Police have opened fire, sanctioned the use of water canons and used brute force on protestors, leading to the deaths of two Sikhs and leaving over 75 injured during peaceful protests taking place over the desecration of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib in Faridkot.
Meanwhile, the beef ban, also a religiously motivated policy implemented by Modi’s government, has significantly increased violence across the country as well. For example, lynching is becoming commonplace with incidents occurring recently in Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, leading to the murders of innocents. Similarly, Jammu and Kashmir is another region filled with instability and insurgency where the beef ban has resulted in the killing of a trucker, Zahid Rasool Bhatt, over a cow slaughter rumour.
Additionally, in Modi’s own state of Gujarat (infamous for riots that left over 1,000 people dead in 2002) thousands of people have taken to protesting once again, mainly from the Patel caste, which in turn has also led to several deaths. Again, it is because of the lack of opportunities available to a particular group of people in the country but in this instance it is the caste and quota systems that disallow them from gaining admissions into universities and colleges.
Furthermore, leaving aside the attempts to ban dance clubs, an additional smorgasbord of issues is prevalent in the state of Maharashtra. This ranges from beef ban motivated attacks to the resurgence of Shiv Sena related incidents. In fact, over the last year and half, seven incidents related to the right-wing organisation have taken place in the state. Shiv Sena, known for its hard-line policy against anything Pakistan or ‘anti-Maharashtra’, has gone ahead and continued to take up the mantle in stopping any form of Pakistan-India relations. Its supporters have inked Engineer Rashid, who was protesting against the above-mentioned killing in Kashmir, and also Sudheendra Kulkarni, in protest of Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri’s (an ex-foreign minister of Pakistan) book launch. Furthermore, they have forced organisers to stop Ghulam Ali’s (a Pakistani singer) tribute concert and have stormed the BCCI headquarters to disallow Shahryar Khan (chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board) from meeting with Shashank Manohar (chairman of the Board of Cricket Control India), resulting in the cancellation of cricketing ties between the two countries once again.
Hence, one only needs to glance across this list of aforementioned issues to know that Modi, a man of many words, has either kept mum or made passing comments on each matter. For example, with regards to the Sikh protests, he has called the Chief Minister (CM) of Punjab ‘India’s Nelson Mandela’, resulting in social media ridicule. Similarly, he has referred to the lynching and Shiv Sena incidents as unwarranted, unfortunate and unnecessary.
Yet for a man who always seems to have so much to say, it seems as if Modi’s silence is indeed a form of support or apathy for what is happening within the country. Therefore, it may in fact be that Narendra’s ‘Modi-fication’ of India is all about tapping into NRI money trees on the basis of false promises with the intention of short-term gains while nurturing a radical nationalist policy at home.
The writer is the research coordinator for the South Asia Study Group. He tweets @Zushanhashmi