2020: Down, however up
The year 2020 may possibly have been disastrous for India, but not for Narendra Modi’s personal image. The PM’s cautiously cultivated avatar of a pater familias supplied a reassuring presence when our globe turned upside down in the pandemic. The economy may possibly have hit an all-time low and unemployment and inflation a new higher, but Modi, with his hirsute sanyasi-like appears and his air of calm assurance, exudes self-confidence and reassurance in these hard occasions.
Indira parallels
The parallels in between Narendra Modi and an authoritarian Indira Gandhi are unmistakable. The pandemic supplied the best pretext for a additional clampdown on person rights and freedom of expression. No 1 in his celebration dares query the PM. The RSS is an appendage, Modi the driving force. Consensus-developing with the Opposition or meaningful debates in Parliament are uncommon. Whether it was laying the foundation stone for a new Parliament House or a Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, the spotlight was on the PM alone. Those who had been anticipated to share the dais, such as L K Advani, who had been at the vanguard of the Ram temple movement, remained conspicuous by their absence.
Refusal to blink
Modi’s image as a sturdy and resolute leader indicates he resists bending or backtracking. He has been pretty prosperous in handling the fallout of the abrogation of Article 370, introducing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act with an apparent anti-minority agenda, and stigmatising Hindu-Muslim marriages as “love jihad”. Despite the financial meltdown, the government continues with its extravagant and ambitious Central Vista project, which will alter the face of the Capital.
Very seldom has the PM blinked. One occasion was the belated permission to migrant labour to return household immediately after ignoring their heartrending plight for weeks. Initially, concerned citizens and NGOs alone extended support, or the desperate migrants pluckily undertook the lengthy journey household on foot.
Finally officialdom was shamed into arranging transportation for these stranded in the strict, lengthy-stretched-out lockdown. The newest challenge is irrespective of whether Modi can press ahead with lengthy overdue agricultural reforms in the face of a formidable organised protest. The PM does not want to be perceived as anti-farmer. A big setback this year was the stealthy Chinese incursion into eastern Ladakh, major to a continuing standoff at the border.
New energy points
In 2019, Amit Shah was the master strategist, who as Home Minister and earlier as celebration chief, ensured that the PM was normally a step ahead of the rest. But, for some weeks in 2020 Shah vanished from the public space. His absence was attributed to Covid and a lengthy convalescence. But, Modi is not solely dependent on Shah. New faces also gained prominence. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who was on the margins through Modi’s initial tenure, has emerged as a prominent voice through the variations with China. S Jaishankar, Hardeep Puri and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat are other individuals whom the PM has offered essential responsibilities.
After the Bihar win, admittedly with a narrow margin, Modi singled out J P Nadda for specific consideration. The new BJP president had a shaky get started at the finish of 2019, but this year, apart from Bihar, the BJP created impressive gains in Telangana, a state exactly where it had marginal presence. The litmus test will be irrespective of whether Shah’s ambitious strategy for ousting Mamata Banerjee will fructify. Nadda may possibly be officially in charge of the celebration but Shah continues to play an essential function, usually acting via basic secretary Bhupender Yadavs, who has emerged as a energy centre in his personal correct. The BJP is a massive beneficiary of the Congress’s failure to get its act with each other. The celebration drifts along, because Rahul Gandhi neither desires to hand more than duty to other individuals nor take complete charge himself.
Pandemic truths
Perhaps history will largely judge the governments of 2020 on how properly they tackled the pandemic. Despite an early and incredibly harsh lockdown, doomsday predictors from the international media and scientific globe from the US and UK, had been speedy to assume the worst case situation for India. Ironically, India at some point fared far superior in handling the virus than most nations. (India’s mortality price from Covid per one hundred,000 of the population is about eight occasions reduced than that of the UK and US.) Similarly, our infection prices are substantially significantly less, even immediately after generating an allowance for beneath-reporting. Incidentally, our neighbours, Pakistan and Bangladesh, have fared even superior than India.
The largest casualty of the pandemic is the economy. Modi’s challenge in the new year will be to revive an economy which has slipped into deep recession and will need professional handling to spring back to life.