When BJP walks with Vajpayee’s laurels, Modi’s opprobrium, at two different times.

Vivekanand Jha, Ranchi. The Indian Parliament, the Sanctum Sanctorum of Indian democracy, was attacked in 2001, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister of India. Whereas Prime Minister had ordered his troops to man the border, mobilising till then, perhaps one of the biggest mobilisations ever. However, to the utter perplexity of the nation, confounding even the best of strategists, Ataljee procrastinated enigmatically. The nation, bewildered by the stupendous dilemma of Ataljee’s indecisiveness, began pondering: Why Ataljee was not going ahead with ordering the troops to cross the boundary into Pakistan, especially when such a massive, historical troops mobilisation had already happened, and the daily expense for stationing troops on border, was colossal. To elicit Ataljee’s response, Shekhar Gupta, the then Editor in chief of Indian Express, had sought an interview with Ataljee. No wonder to break that logjam, to elicit his opinion to the humongous national dilemma, Shekhar sought Ataljee’s response to his own indecisiveness in taking a decision to go ahead with a war against Pakistan. True to his intrinsic character, Ataljee, in his own inimitable style, with a long brooding pause, always contemplative in a state of pensive mood, replied, ‘ I am not concerned about the present; in fact, how history will dub my present decision, is what profoundly concerns me?’ Shekhar, despite being a stalwart journalist, was rendered speechless.

Flight 814 was hijacked to Kandahar, Afghanistan in 1999. A few, terrorists, unleashing tandav on the nation, caused the biggest national ignominy and a collective shame: my research has proved that how K. N. Singh, the then secretary in PMO, the constrained by the physical presence of his brother in- law, an officer of RAW, restrained himself from ordering the storming of the flight 814 in Chandigarh airport when the plane was halted for refuelling. Evidently, when the relatives of the hostages stormed the Prime Minister’s residence, demanding the freeing of terrorists for swapping of the hostages, the cabinet was divided in its response to the national challenge: whereas Lal Krishna Advanijee intended government to exhibit its hardcore stand, by refusing to concede the terrorists’ demand, and sacrifice the hostages at the altar of the national interest, Ataljee and Jaswant Singh, the then external affairs minister, had differed. But then Ataljee, in the exhibition of an unprecedented statesmanship unmatched in the polity till date, with tears streaming from his eyes, said, ‘ Had the hostages been my family members, I would have happily sacrificed them at the altar of the nation, but they are my citizens and I have a special responsibility towards them. I am committed to protect them’.

The birthday of Ataljee was celebrated in Lucknow when BJP, contrary to general perception, had coined a flawed slogan: India Shining. Lalji Tandon, the representative of Ataljee in his constituency in Lucknow, was distributing Sari to the poor women. Evidently, a stampede broke out, resulting in the scores of death, prompting Ataljee to disown his party’s slogan when he refuted it saying, ‘ How could the nation shine when barely for a few Saris, it resulted in a stampede?’ Ataljee never ever shied from calling a spade a spade.

The Union Cabinet Meeting was in progress. The discussion and deliberation on naming the project of building up the road network across India, was in full swing. Whereas all the ministers suggested that it should be named after him; Ataljee, a foresighted leader, reconciled to christen the project as ‘Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yajna, on the ground that if it was designated as such, even his successors would have no objection to continue with it. Ataljee was never individualistic, his life was dedicated to the cause of the nation.

The rise of Narendra Modi in 2014 as a Hindu nationalist face of BJP, was premised on the ground that he would act as a bulwark against the rising Islamist fanaticism, which Hindus felt, spelt an impending danger to them, if not their immediate collective doom. Accompanied by his so -called Gujarati model of development, Modi, embarked on a journey to liberate nation of its secular facade and restore its pristine ancient glory. Significantly, winning a majority of his own, Modi filled with hubris, undertook his first misadventure that spelt a doom for the nation: de-monitisation of Indian currency. Although the Himalayan misstep resulting in the pulverisation of millions of jobs, with GDP too taking an immediate plunge, Modi craftily manipulated the public sentiment as a step towards punishing the rich and empowering the poor. No wonder despite the whole gambit proving itself as a fiasco, Modi, ironically though, sold himself well to the common mass, even though the misery afflicted upon the nation was humongous: apart from the erosion in employment, dip in G. D. P, it resulted in scores of death of people standing in queue in ATM. Small wonder then such a devastating step prompted Mamata to call it a ‘Tughlaqui step’.

Farmers’ bills, which resulted in the nationwide mobilisation of farmers against the rampant interference of corporates in their lives, failed to resonate with the strong Prime Minister. Regrettably, the pitiable sight of scores of farmers dying in the process, failed to enthuse the Prime Minister to rise up to the occasion. Ostensibly, the Prime Minister, overwhelmingly concerned about preserving and cementing the interest of the corporates, contemptuously gave the short shrift to the farmers. Worse still, the collective agony of the farmers, which ought to have moved the Prime Minister into a decisive action, distastefully sent him into the state of utter callousness, speaks a volume about the Prime Ministerial apathy towards the society’s vital stakeholder: the farmers’ community. Who in his right sense would believe that another Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shashtrijee had coined a slogan : Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, to which Ataljee had added ‘Jai Vigyan’. Yet for Modijee it hardly made any difference.

With the advent of Corona, whereas the world thought of boosting of Healthcare facility, India under Modi had a bizarre prescription: bang thalis and light wicks to scare away Corona. What else could the nation expect from the magician of the century whose jugglery would surely insulate the nation from the adverse impacts of the pandemic through such simple prescription? Ironically, this writer’s monumental surprise knew no bounds when even the educated people conveyed their happiness in following Modijee’s prescription. In fact, the entire nation abandoned its wisdom to have fallen casualty to Modi’s magical wand. Alas, Corona could have been scared into submission, was the discovery of an Indian Prime Minister! Far from it, the deadly Return of Corona has caused hitherto the biggest tremor in the country which, if not arrested forthwith, might assume the monstrous form of an apocalypse.

True to his dictatorial attitude, least given to consensual leadership style, Narendra Modi had left the entire nation gasping for its breath when he announced the national lockdown barely with 4 hours notice, inflicting an unprecedented sorrow upon his fellow citizens. The consequential tragic sights that the nation beheld, in the wake of the national lockdown, rent the hearts of the fellow citizens and shrivelled the national consciousness: The pathetic sight of millions of workers trudging along with their families, without any transportation, with police barricading, pushing them back inside the state borders, caused a national revulsion. No wonder the scores of workers among them, making the beeline towards their native states, perishing in transit, hardly moved the leadership, is the living commentary of an impending shadow of fascism engulfing the polity in its octopus like grip, with a purported exhibition of nationalistic male machismo having long eclipsed the individual rights and liberty.

Significantly, the Himalayan blunder that Modi has committed, left India in a phenomenal lurch: inviting pandemic Corona’s ongoing 2nd wave which has caused hitherto the biggest nemesis upon India. And if the situation is not arrested forthwith, it will degenerate into an apocalypse. The callous moves to conduct Kumbh Mela when it was actually scheduled to be held in 2022, astrologically advanced by one year, was the Himalayan tragedy invited upon the nation by its head, especially when WHO had already warned India that the 2nd wave would be a national disaster if not prevented from materialising. Nonetheless, setting aside the forewarning of WHO and other health experts, arbitrary holding of Kumbh Mela-as indicted by the premier world newspapers like New York Times, Le Monde and others-pins down the Prime Minister as the most culpable person for inviting this apocalypse upon the nation. Worse still, the conduct of assembly elections in five states, including that of West Bengal, where Prime Minister himself held 12 rallies, in 15 days, Home Minister holding 62 rallies, including road shows, in 28 days, with hosts of Union ministers commuting between Delhi and Kolkata in last six months, completely paralysed the national governance. Moreover, Prime Minister himself patting his back when he observed seeing the huge gathering in Assansole when he chuckled, ‘Yah, mera Saubhagya hai’, severely indicts the Prime Minister of the charge of a blatant hypocrisy-pontificating upon the nation to wear masks, maintain the distance of 2 gaj, the yet going great guns while addressing mass gatherings in elections where the Covid protocols were virtually put to shreds.

Today the nation is engaged in the battle of its survival. With thousands of death afflicting us on daily basis, with affliction reaching almost nearing four lac everyday, India is undergoing an unprecedented crisis. Importantly, the nation experiences the crippling shortage of oxygen, ventilators, hospital beds, ambulances, the pang of agony reaches its cataclysmic proportion. Added to this is the absence of the semblance of any governance which believes in coordination with all the stakeholders to contain the explosive situation from further escalating. To add fuel to fire, the ministers of Modi government, already being reduced to faceless lackeys, ever serenading their boss, goes on a tweeting spree to appease their master, rather than standing in solidarity with the grieving multitude. With death and destruction visiting almost every door, the nation is yet to see the benign face of the Prime Minister. On the contrary, India has witnessed, time and time again, a Prime Minister whose summum bonum is to lecture the nation, growing beared to look like Gurudev Tagore, seldom as a leader who could have stood by them as their sympathiser. In such desperate times the nation remembers that, how Ataljee, rising to the highest occasion, wept bitterly when his fellow countrymen were taken hostage by the bunch of terrorists in Kandahar. He proved himself to be one of them. India had lost then, but the humanity had won. Today, Prime Minister is going ahead investing thousand of crores in his Central Vista Project in building his own house, New Parliament, instead of channelising the scarce fund for saving the vast multitude from their impending death, yet, India and humanity are severely taking a back seat, Hence in this backdrop, whereas BJP has, unequivocally, given India the best Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, it too has given India its worst Prime Minister too: Narendra Modi. BJP and RSS shall continue to regret for ever: Alas, Modi were Vajpayee in such catastrophic times as this.

Vivekanand Jha