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At The Dhaaba:
Assessing Modi’s First Year
CHANDER SUTA DOGRA
Rana Doodh Waala Dhaaba does brisk business in the semi-rural outskirts of Chandigarh, Punjab, in an area that has for long been on the radar of land sharks.
His speciality is doodh waali chai -- a typically Punjab concoction that involves boiling tea leaves with thick milk and sugar. This week, as he hosted a diverse group of thinkers and professionals in his mud-plastered yard, surrounded by fields and a noisy link road busy with farmers taking produce to the markets, Rana listened in to an impromptu assessment on one year of the Narendra Modi government.
Seated in a circle (please see photos on the right) are:
Top photo - Dr Simmi Kaur Waraich, 47, psychiatrist; and Manmohan Singh, 60, hotelier. First photo from bottom - Pushpindar Singh, 70, retired major-general and editor of ‘Nishaan‘ magazine; and Manvinder Singh Sekhon, 68, farmer. Third photo from bottom - Harish Singh, 29, lawyer; Kishie Singh, 72, retired professional; and Utsav Singh Bains, 29, activist-lawyer and Harvard Law School alumnus.
Consensus on anything that Modi does is rare, but as the discussion swirled around the circle, there appeared to emerge a grudging admiration, even from his strongest critics, that the prime minister has got some things right -- for instance, his foreign policy initiatives, designed to enhance India’s position as a regional power, and his economic diplomacy. There is appreciation for campaigns like the ‘Clean India’ campaign and Modi’s avowed stance against corruption.
But some feel such grandiose enterprises are doomed to fail because people fail to walk the line with him on this.
“The question to ask is: How have we, as Indians, responded to these well-meaning initiatives?” says Manmohan Singh, who set up the iconic Aroma, Chandigarh’s first hotel.
“Corruption,” he says, “has merely become more expensive during Modi’s rule.”
Sitting as we are in India’s wheat bowl, it is crucial to listen to the farmer’s voice. Many say agriculture is not on Modi’s agenda.
Manvendra Singh, who manages a 100 acre ancestral farm in Sangrur, says Modi has messed up in handling agriculture.
“During the wheat-growing months of December and January, urea was unavailable -- right when we needed it.”
A black market sprang up: desperate farmers ended up paying double the price for fertiliser. Says Manvinder Singh, as a koel bird sang in the neem tree above, “It makes economic sense to have a low MSP (Minimum Support Price) at a time when you have abundant wheat, but the government was unable to explain all this to the people. That is where it has failed, because the poor farmer is continuing to produce in the hope of selling it at a good price. MSP eventually went up by only Rs 50 -- even that was subject to strict quality control due to damage by unseasonal rains.”
The thread of unease that ran through the discussion could be attributed to the RSS worldview now being increasingly articulated in this part of the country.
“Modi has failed to honour his responsibility to protect everyone. He is good at marketing India abroad, but what is happening back home? The so-called ‘love jihad’ and ‘ghar vaapsi’ have heightened social tension,” said Dr Simmi Kaur, a psychiatrist.
Kishie Singh, a retired professional, now in his 70s, says, “Though as a Sikh I feel safe, yet it is plain that if Muslims and Christians are at the receiving end today. It could be us tomorrow.”
There was near-unanimity in the group that communalism is inimical to our well-being even if we are not being targeted.
“It is a monster that can undo all the development and good work that the Modi government might accomplish and is not tradeable for all the manufacturing that the ‘Make in India’ sloganeering might bring to India,” said an anguished Manmohan Singh.
The Modi government’s controversial land acquisition bill drew much criticism, particularly from young lawyer Harish, who saw in its trajectory a scant regard for democratic norms and constitutional provisions. Haryana saw massive land acquisition during the UPA rule (the former Congress-headed government -- the state is a classic example of private enterprise acquiring more land than they need and making windfall gains by trading in development licences.
“Now, Modi is making it even easier for industries like Reliance -- which, incidentally, is Modi's biggest campaign contributor -- which already has a land bank of 10,000 acres in Haryana, to acquire more. Has anyone thought of the poor farmer who knows nothing else but farming?”
And yet, when Pushpindar Singh, a retired major-general, gave Modi 9/10 for sincerity of purpose and six on overall performance, few differed.
Utsav Singh, a young activist-lawyer, sees Modi as a leader who is learning and changing before our eyes.
“He is a pragmatist who will project whatever is necessary to win elections. His responses have already changed from those of the Modi who began one year ago, and by the end of the second year, and will see an evolved persona.”
The discussion wound up with a consensus that Modi might be a hypocrite but he is not dishonest. He may be an idealist, but is a misfit who is uncomfortable with civil society norms and a normal rule-driven constitution.
Rana, the doodh wala, who came by with a plate of milk barfi, nodded his head in agreement.
[Courtesy: India Today. Edited for sikhchic.com]
May 23, 2015
Conversation about this article
1: Gagan Kaur (Chandigarh, Punjab), May 23, 2015, 7:04 AM.
The journalist reporting this story tries to put his own spin on the assessment. He sums up by saying: "... Modi might be a hypocrite but he is not dishonest ..." Really? And that is the best spin you could put on it? Inadvertently, though, you've hit the nail on the head. It's true ... India is a nation of hypocrites! Led by the best/worst of them all.
2: Jagtar Singh (London, United Kingdom), May 23, 2015, 11:56 AM.
I quote from the article above: "Corruption has merely become more expensive during Modi's rule." This, if anything, means that things have only got worse in India, while the world sings jingles around the Indian politicians in order to get them to buy their trinkets -- which they readily do, because they can then use it as a camouflage to siphon off public money into their private coffers. Same old, same old, if you ask me ... only worse!
3: Sunny Grewal (Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada), May 23, 2015, 11:56 AM.
One of the commentators states that as a Sikh he feels safe. I assume he hasn't heard about the repeated attempts of the Shiv Sena to burn effigies of Bhindranwala in Punjab and humiliate and provoke Sikhs? Perhaps he has not heard about the recent attack in Punjab on a Sikh toll booth operator who had his turban thrown off to the ground and was beaten by Shiv Sena thugs for doing his job?
4: Jagir Singh (New Delhi, India), May 23, 2015, 12:38 PM.
Our 'professionals' and 'intellectuals' here in India have abandoned their integrity. They're always hedging their bets, by constantly "On-the-one-hand .... and-then-on-the-other-hand"ing. They're dishonest and cowardly, always worried about their skin. If you don't have the courage to speak your mind, or the truth, and are constantly looking over your shoulder, you're not an intellectual, and you're not a professional. [Check out the definition of these terms!] Hence, our current predicament. Who's going to call a spade a spade? And have the courage to yell that the emperor has no clothes? These pseudo, weak-kneed, self-important know-nothings are exactly what the corrupt politicians in the majority want to see around them, so that they can comfortably go about their shenanigans without any accountability.
5: Rup Singh (Canada), May 23, 2015, 2:49 PM.
Modi is on a world tour to further enrich the businessmen who funded his campaign. The Land acquisition bill proves this further -- take from the poor to give to the mega rich. No different than any other government India has ever had, this one is just more open about its right wing ideology and what it wants to do to minorities. The Congress just veiled it a little bit.
6: Manbir Banwait (Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada), May 24, 2015, 10:27 AM.
Politicians can't save the world, only people can. We need to ourselves and work hard. Improve the area around us and contribute to the country equally. Indians voted for Modi, if they are not happy with the results, vote for the other guy. It's that simple. Nothing is going to change overnight. The changes that people are expecting will take decades. A generational change we may not even see in our lifetimes.
7: Kaala Singh (Punjab), May 29, 2015, 12:29 AM.
I have serious concerns about this author, not simply because she is a Dogra -- a community which has repeatedly betrayed the Sikhs -- but because she writes a lot about Sikhs and Punjab and always presents a biased view with anti-Sikh undertones.