When the winter session of parliament 2015 was being put in deep freezer, I was having a rather interesting discussion with a senior congress leader from Delhi. Though very casually, he mentioned what congress did in 10 years of its rule at center, BJP has miraculously managed in 10 months; he was referring to the inability of government to get a functional parliament.
His thought; every government works for development, rather development is something in which government has very little role to play and as long people strive for betterment development is bound to happen. The government can only play a supportive role in it and even if it is not creating any hindrance, the government is doing a pretty good job. Government needs to focus more on welfare of the marginalised and ensure weak are not being exploited for pleasure of few.
The problem with UPA he said, was not that we were not working for country, country did pretty well under UPA rule and few of the flagship schemes have proven to be very effective. No doubt emphasis was more on welfare, which we as a party believe should be primary focus of the elected government as it is not for few but for all. The real problem was the whole environment about UPA government became very negative. Everybody started holding Congress responsible for corruption everywhere. We became poster boy of corruption and were being accused, tried and held guilty everyday, without being given a chance to defend ourselves. All because we failed to take action at the right time, as we were of the opinion there is nothing new about corruption and people accept it as a norm of life; our complacency underestimated corruption to become an issue of the magnitude that could cost us our government, and eventually it did.
No doubt Modi as a Prime Minister is doing good job and compared to Congress standards, nothing this government does will be equated to Congress’s corruption. But corruption is not the only issue that can get nation’s mood against you. With current PM problem is baggage of 2002 and perceived communal image. Whether its beef ban or moral policing; killing of Akhlaq or suicide of Rohit, for everything NDA government is held responsible, PM targeted and expected to apologize. All because the PM failed to take action at the right time, against those fringe elements, which for their 5 minutes of fame would act as lunatics.
Isolated acts of communal hatred; minority-majority clashes are nothing new to country and both sides has suffered equally. No one is saint in this struggle and wherever possible both have tried to ascertain their supremacy. Its not during only BJP rule that Praveen Togadia starts spewing venom, but such incidences get more coverage during BJP rule just as scams got more coverage during UPA. Like earlier, when even a peon taking bribe in any government office, Congress was being held responsible, similarly now for any act of communal or personal hatred, PM is being blamed, because he failed to nip the problem in the bud. For his complacency and to take the problem lightly, today his government is labeled intolerant, communal and what not.
Whether they are or not is a matter of perspective and where the supporters will vociferously defend the government and argue about communal acts of past governments, critics will vocally declare government intolerant. But the fact of matter is, environment about the government has become negative and unless PM doesn’t do anything about it, this environment can single handedly quash his if any dream of re-election in 2019; for it’s the ‘mahaul’ that makes and breaks political careers in India and not policies.
