Tunku Varadarajan: Increasingly, it seems, we were swindled by Narendra Modi

Rashmun wrote:There were clear indications from the more sophisticated sectors of the BJP that once the dirty business of the elections was done — once the campaign bullhorns and dog-whistles were put away — Modi & Co. would get down to the business of finding ways to let India grow. But increasingly, it seems that we were swindled.

The conservatism that we see today is not fiscal but religious. The order we see being imposed on India is not national but Hindu. After campaigning the Amit Shah Way, Modi is now governing the Amit Shah Way. There is no calm, there is no reflection, there is no attention paid to what ails the nation. Instead, we have a Nonstop Campaign. There is scarcely a moment or opportunity when Modi thinks of the nation first, and not of his party and its saffron fellow travellers.

The BJP had to win elections in Bihar, so the issue of the Madhesis in Nepal was stoked up, Indo-Nepalese relations be damned. Indian citizens were lynched on accusations of consuming or transporting beef, and the Prime Minister of India — the Prime Minister of all Indians — found it impossible to utter three plain words: “Lynching is abhorrent.” In both cases, the party’s interests came first.

http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/reverse-swing-narendra-modis-governance-is-a-lost-opportunity/

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:

Here is the ABCD varadarajan's fault line:

***There is scarcely a moment or opportunity when Modi thinks of the nation first, and not of his party and its saffron fellow travellers.***

Really.....can he show proof that he criticized Sonia when she HARDLY thought of the nation (first or not), and not of his son and her own family along with the fellow Corrupt Cong(i) fellas?

Kris wrote:

>>>I would actually have agreed with this position if it had come two years from now and there had been no side-shows and bad-mouthing to throw a monkey wrench into the the attempts to get investments and make something of it. That would have meant this has been all talk and no delivery. There would also have been a valid basis to criticize i.e. 'you have had enough time to show at least a modicum of results, now show me the money'. I don't think the population would have been gullible enough to not see through it, beef- bans and hindu piety notwithstanding. If economic development is what you ran on, you can and should be called on it. Of course, if the partisan drama continues, we will never know.