Minimum Governance, Maximum Slogans

In 2012, when Shahrukh Khan was detained at the New York airport for two hours,  he joked about it in his speech at the Yale, saying that whenever he started feeling very arrogant, he traveled to America.  Same is true of our Prime Minister. Whenever there is pressure to perform and criticism for non-performance, he travels abroad to get the 'all is well' feeling. The applause he receives amidst the diaspora keeps him going for one more session of the Parliament, back home.

Narendra Modi is facing immense pressure on account of #Modigate and an overall grim economic scenario. The Prime Minister chose not to sit in the Parliament, when one of the most important ministers in his cabinet was attempting a feeble defence while facing a formidable challenge to her career. The failure to take slogans to the boardroom to translate them into workable schemes is now getting noticed even by his keen admirers. Clean India, Make in India, Start-up India, Stand-up India...... The list is endless.

This hurriedly planned trip to the UAE caught his own government and also the Team Modi (which is responsible for organising cheer crowds), by surprise.

His PR machinery's war preparedness is worth a compliment. His visit to the Grand Mosque of Abu Dhabi was marketed as a conciliatory gesture to Muslims back home. It is like visiting the Taj Mahal in India to prove your secular credentials. Then came the planted colour stories in the media on whether or not the PM will wear a head gear when he visits the Grand Mosque. Little realising that while there is a dress code for women in the Grand Mosque,  following the Rihana controversy, for men the dress code is fairly liberal. So, the selfies tweeted by the PM where he is posing without his head covered, with two men dressed in the traditional thawb, to impress the radical constituency back home, were actually nothing spectacular. This is the accepted code for tourists.

Galleries swooned at the decision of the UAE government to donate land for a temple - supposedly a first in Abu Dhabi.  Firstly, as Prime Minister, Narendra Modi represents the country, the entire country - not just one particular company, community, party or group.  Even if the land for the temple had to be taken, it should not have been a part of the PM's state visit. If the land had to be a part of the visit, it should have been taken for a non-religious purpose, for until the time the Constitution is amended, India is a secular country. Moreover, of the total number of Indians in UAE, 50% are Muslims, 25% Christians and 25% Hindus. The Prime Minister is not heading a religious organisation, he is heading a multi-religious, multi-cultural and multi-dimensional country. Assuming it had to be for religious purposes,  should the land not be used for both Christians and Hindus, assuming Indian Muslims in Abu Dhabi don't really need a separate mosque for themselves?

Secondly, back in 2013 itself a local Muslim had donated five acres of land for the Swaminarayan Temple in Abu Dhabi. Marketing this as an achievement of the Prime Minister is undermining his position. Why call it a first and undermine the contribution of that nameless Muslim who donated his own land for a temple in the past?

Never before has a head of state made it a habit of criticising his predecessors on foreign soil. Narendra Modi is setting a new and unhealthy precedent by subverting this institutional code of conduct. The Indian voter has elected him not to keep criticising the opposition but to do things differently. The Indian tax payer expects him to make these trips beneficial for the country.