Three State Election wins and two National Election wins, all with unambiguous majorities can only be termed as a phenomenal democratic franchise most politicians can only dream of. The man has been chastised by the chattering classes and his opponents with the most horrid terms and labelled as an authoritarian and a fascist!
Yet this "fascist" keeps submitting himself to a democratic scrutiny that cannot be matched when some 900 million people take part in it unencumbered. Yet he is not from a privileged ancestry, nor a professional political family, he didn't go to Oxbridge or St Stephen's College. He is a mould breaker and arguably like no-one comparable in India's post independence history.
He has unleashed a warfare on corruption and scams, he has unleashed a battle to cleanse India off dirt and pollution, he has embarked on a journey to make it reliant on green energy, he has launched a scheme to attract foreign investment to bring jobs and technology, build its manufacturing sector and set Indian economy on a trajectory of growth that only can address the poverty of its vast majority and create an entrepreneurial zeal.
While building socio-economic buffers for its disadvantaged he also aims to work towards a mindset that should not encourage his people to live on subsidies but encourages self help by providing tools for that approach. He is working on removing reservation for college places and jobs by virtue of caste or creed and choose to treat people for their socio economic discomfiture rather than their religion or be defined by the insidious caste structure.
For all this Narendra Modi has been called a Divider, Polariser, Authoritarian and self obsessed. This has been the narrative of India's chattering class for nearly two decades and what it feeds to the global audience! But the people of India keep refuting that repeatedly and with louder refrain. The unwashed, semi hungry unprivileged masses see him as their messiah while the aspirational youth and entrepreneurs see him as provider of opportunities in life to achieve their dreams! I am so proud that people of my country of birth have ignored all the calumnies against this man and chosen a leader yet again to lift their lot in life and their nation in the global sphere! It will inevitably take more than 5 years as PM to achieve that and so he gets another term to continue the process! Those who have made their careers and lives on the back of exploitation of religion and caste differences and proliferation of corrupt scams in the name of poverty alleviation, have been dispensed with by the landslide election today!
Vibhaker Baxi
By email
