A failing that will plague Modi forever

But take the contentious Land Bill and MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) and examine how Modi steered the debate in parliament. He made uncharitable remarks to deride MNREGA, an outstanding example of affirmative action to tackle rural poverty. He virtually mocked at the whole programme by saying digging unwanted holes in the ground — that is how he characterised digging for underground water and rain water harvesting — was a testimony to the Congress party’s folly: Fritting away the nation’s hard-earned money on wasteful social programmes. Juxtapose this with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) amended Land Bill, which is now being labelled as anti–farmer and twisting in the wind for a broader consensus. Surely, this is no way to win friends to help clear a landmark legislation with far-reaching implications?

It is this same unwanted aggression — needlessly taunting the Left and other parties — by Modi in the Upper House of parliament that saw an avoidable embarrassment, his speech uniting the entire opposition to force an amendment to the motion of thanks to the president of India. It left him and his government red-faced and exposed the poor floor management skills of his party. Rhetoric in the Lower House is one thing, but in the Upper House it is best avoided for it lacks the numbers; indeed it brutally exposes the prime minister’s lack of parliamentary experience.

On the toxic Hindu-Muslim issue, while the prime minister made exemplary speeches inside and outside the parliament, extolling India’s exceptional diversity, an increasing number of questions are being raised as to whether he can walk the talk. It did appear at one stage he was willing to even take on the extremist RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) on these matters, but now it seems a far cry. His favourite bete noir, Congress leader Mani Shankar Iyer, castigated him saying religious tolerance should not be reduced to empty words.

Next, the sheer ineptitude of his Pakistan policy is staggering and so is his attempt to run a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-BJP coalition in Jammu and Kashmir. He acts tough with Pakistan only to capitulate shortly thereafter; he cancels the foreign secretary talks in January only to go back on track in March.

But despite all these failings, who can deny Modi has the makings of a potentially great prime minister? He is a risk-taker and willing to break from the mould, but his Achilles heel is that he is not a consensus-builder. His persona is such that he must dominate and even his own allies are complaining. This is a failing that will plague him forever.

India’s problems are too gargantuan even for a man with a 56-inch chest to resolve!