by A. G. NOORANI
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks at the foundation-laying ceremony for a greenfield airport at Mopa in Goa on November 13, 2017 PHOTO/Press Trust of India
“I took up office equipped with a great fund of royalist sentiments and veneration for the king. To my sorrow, I find that this fund is ever more and more depleted! … I have seen three kings naked, and the sight was not always a pleasant one,” Bismarck said to a friend after he was dismissed by an impetuous German Kaiser Emperor Wilhelm II shortly after he ascended the throne. “He fancied himself greatly as a strong man and soon fell out with Bismarck,” Jawaharlal Nehru remarked (Glimpses of World History, Lindsey Drummon, 1949, page 516).
Just half-way through his term in office as Prime Minister, Narendra Modi faces disenchantment to a high degree. Demonetisation only served to remind the people of lapses they had overlooked. He hugely personalised demonetisation. The gamble failed. The slide downwards has begun. The Emperor has no clothes on him.
Modi’s hysterical performances reveal his panic at the wide public disenchantment in the wake of his quixotic decision on demonetisation of Rs.1,000 and Rs.500 currency notes on November 8. This was the first major test of his mettle and he has been found wanting. Slogans, his favourite ploy, do not help (vikas, vishwas, et al). People want answers; they demand accountability for the havoc he created. But the concept is foreign to him.
He has deployed every trick in the book to build himself up as a mass leader, above the party (Bharatiya Janata Party) and even its parent (the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh), and above institutions, Parliament and the judiciary. His technique was continuous electioneering, doling out slogans, impugning the integrity of critics and opponents without a thought for accountability to Parliament. He began by going over the heads of Cabinet colleagues to civil servants (vide the writer’s article “Modifying Democracy”, Frontline, July 11, 2014). He is now reduced to embarking on a course of cheap demagogy. It will not work.
People have seen better Prime Ministers before. There are those who carefully follow his utterances. A reputed daily, Business Standard, published in the issue of December 6, a meticulous survey of Modi’s pronouncements since his telecast to the nation on November 8. It was aptly entitled “How Modi changed the demonetisation narrative”.
It bears quotation in extenso: “The speech (in English) lasted 25 minutes. The Prime Minister uttered the phrase ‘black money’ 18 times in this speech. He mentioned ‘fake currency’ or ‘counterfeit’ five times in the same speech.
“It was unambiguously clear from the Prime Minister’s speech that the primary motivation for the sudden withdrawal of nearly 86 per cent of the country’s currency was the evil of black money….
“So, between November 8 and November 27, the objective for the demonetisation exercise has swung from black money elimination to going cashless, as evident in the Prime Minister’s speeches.
“To be sure, urging citizens to use less cash and resort to digital transactions is a laudable objective and must certainly be encouraged. But when a decision was taken to remove a whopping 86 per cent of the country’s currency overnight with all its attendant costs, one would have hoped there was one strong rationale for it, even if it meant achieving multiple objectives.
“Either the Prime Minister has realised that the original primary objective of eliminating black money may not be met or there was not adequate thought behind the decision.”
The author, Praveen Chakravarty, prepared graphs showing the shift from “black money” to “cashless/digital” economy amidst the war on “fake currency”.
Changing track
In the face of abject defeat, Modi changed track. His speeches tell the tale. So does his conduct. He, who never shed a tear when a pogrom was on in Gujarat in 2002 when he was Chief Minister, “broke down” at Goa on November 13; lips trembling, the throat choked. The content was as revealing as the conduct was amusing. “They will not leave me alive. They will destroy me. Let them do what they want.” He did not identify who “they” were. Was the NIA alerted to the threat?
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