Bharat Bhushan: As Narendra Modi's image takes a global beating, even India gets singed / Nitin Sethi: Modi PMO Ordered Illegal Electoral Bond Sale Before Vital State Polls
The rule of law and impartial judiciary that India prided itself on have also come under question. In a stinging indictment, The Washington Post remarked that 'BJP partisans increasingly dominate the courts.' This has been evident to Indians for quite some time. One only has to glance at the global headlines on the Ayodhya verdict to fathom how the Indian judiciary is being viewed.
Hugging world leaders,
taking ‘selfies’ with them and organising mega-events in foreign cities to
burnish Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image, have started bringing diminishing
returns. The world is waking up to recognising the Modi regime for what it
always was – illiberal and majoritarian. The domestic media is far too
domesticated to point to the emperor’s new clothes. It has been left,
therefore, to the western media to point out that he runs an autocratic,
authoritarian, Hindu majoritarian government. And that must hurt.
Why else would the
government begin by punishing an easy target like Aatish
Taseer whose Time magazine article on the eve of the last general
election had dubbed Prime Minister Modi, “India’s Divider in Chief”?
Withdrawing the OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) status of Aatish
Taseer is not going to stop others from pointing fingers. And should
his government act against them as well, the prime minister’s image problem may
worsen.
Nitin Sethi: Modi PMO Ordered Illegal Electoral Bond Sale Before Vital State Polls
Modi's office directed the finance ministry to break its own rules to approve the special and illegal sale of electoral bonds just before state assembly elections. The scheme, implemented over the objections of the Reserve Bank of India, the Election Commission of India and opposition political parties, legalised the influence of big business in India’s elections by providing them and others a route to secretly donate to parties and opened the doors for offshore money to pour into politics.
Unlike in India, the
Modi regime cannot manage headlines globally. This has become increasingly
evident. Headlines such as “India’s Narendra
Modi has had a free pass from West for too long” (Financial Times), India’s Narendra Modi isn’t a game changer (Foreign Policy),
Howdy
Modi and goodbye growth (Wall Street Journal), Narendra
Modi is damaging India’s economy as well its democracy (The
Economist) and Punitive populism is fully operational in Modi’s new India (The Conversation) are but an indicative sample of a global reality check on
Prime Minister Modi and his government.
Unlike some of his
illustrious predecessors, Prime Minister Modi never occupied any high moral
ground – either because of personal sacrifice or by having elevated governance
to new ethical standards. His record till his spectacular victory in 2014 had
been dismal. Many Western countries did not want him to set foot on their soil.
He became acceptable only after he was elected the leader of the world’s
largest democracy – one which prided itself on the rule of law and the equality
of its citizens before law.
Even if it may be
anathema to the Indian media to recall his role in the 2002 Gujarat riots, the
western media is once again referring to those horrific events which took place
when he was the Gujarat Chief Minister. Underlining his sectarian outlook, they
have also accused him of trying to “transform India from a secular democracy
into a Hindu theocracy.” Those in the West who
tried to see in him a bold conservative reformer who could lead India’s growth
story and open its markets, are having a rethink. The Economist has declared,
“India’s economy is incompetently managed and doing badly”. It predicts
that PM Modi could “stop posing as reformer and fully
embrace his alter-ego, as a chest-thumping Hindu nationalist.” Similarly, The
Washington Post also notes regretfully that Modi’s “economic reforms have been
a bust” and that he had “transitioned form an economic to a nationalist
message” turning voter anger against “elites and minorities”.
The international
community is aghast that in this day and age any government can contemplate
setting up detention centres, virtual gulags, for Muslims in Assam designated
as illegal immigrants. What is worse is that the process is sought to be
extended across the country. The Modi government also intends to re-introduce
the Citizenship Amendment Bill, which has earlier failed to pass parliamentary
muster. The proposed legislation will change the criteria for citizenship for
illegal immigrants, making it faith based. The principle of equality of
citizens before law could thus be jettisoned.
The revocation of the
special status of Jammu and Kashmir, dividing it into two centrally governed
provinces and the military clamp down have tipped the balance against the Modi
regime. The world can see that the asymmetric federalism which was the basis of
the Indian Union’s strength has been junked for a unitary vision. The
government’s and pliant media’s celebration of “normalcy” in Kashmir Valley is
nothing but self-deluding propaganda. The fact is that the international
community is perturbed with the developments in Kashmir, especially the
communication restrictions and the continued incarceration of the state’s
political leadership. American and European
lawmakers increasingly see Prime Minister Modi as the moving force behind a
majoritarian project to undermine India’s secularism. The kind of resentment
against India in the US Congress today, according to press reports from
Washington DC, is as visceral as it was in 1998 after the nuclear tests.
The rule of law and
impartial judiciary that India prided itself on have also come under question.
In a stinging indictment, The Washington Post in a recent report remarked that
“BJP partisans increasingly dominate the courts.” This has been evident to
Indians for quite some time. One only has to glance at the global media
headlines on the Supreme Court’s Ayodhya verdict to fathom how the Indian
judiciary is being viewed.
Prime Minister Modi’s
image is on a slippery slope and things may get much worse. He is reshaping to
his advantage the institutions that could have been a check on the Executive.
The Election Commission’s neutrality is being destroyed by targeting the lone
Election Commissioner who had the courage of his convictions. The Right to Information Act has been weakened and
Information Commissioners have been reduced in stature and their tenure
subjected to the government’s discretion. Political funding has been made
opaque to benefit the ruling party. The regime’s political rivals are routinely
ridiculed and deprecated by a captive media. In short, the government is
rewriting the rules of the game to suit itself.
In today’s connected
world, none of this will go unnoticed. In fact, social scientists are already
using analytical categories from criminology, like “punitive populism”, to
describe his mode of governance. It seems doubtful
whether global opinion about Prime Minister Modi will change in the
near future. However, it is not only his reputation that has taken a knock. The
image of India as a seriously flawed democracy is also likely to get deeply
etched in international psyche. And that may take a very long time to undo.
