All speculations and claims are over. India’s democracy has given its verdict in no unclear terms. Sri Narendra Modi has indisputably proven to be the hero of Indian hearts. Congratulations Indian voters for they did not succumb to more than a year of lies and misleading reports focused exclusively on dethroning Narendra Modi. All tricks and tactics of opposition parties along with all hopes of anti national elements in India and abroad have been smashed to pieces.
The Indian National Congress is again made to taste a humiliating defeat. The other parties which dreamt of being king-makers post election results have been practically wiped out from India’s political map. Leaders who harbored the hopes of ascending to Prime Minister’s chair by manipulating numbers, and those who contaminated the sanctity of Indian parliament house during the previous term have been ruthlessly shown the doors. Modi wave has turned into Modi tsunami. Not only one or two, the voters have been unsparingly merciless to all opposition parties who attempted to slander their choicest leader, especially during the last few months. Modi’s roaring triumph has left his opponents rattled to the core. His relentless critics have fallen silent seeking introspection. Narendra Modi has won the tag of being invincible and has sworn in as India’s Prime Minister again.
Should you be concerned?
Will Narendra Modi 2.0, as some call it, be different in his second consecutive term? Will he steer success in fulfilling the aspirations of more than a billion Indians, including minorities, who have reinvested their faith in his leadership? Or will he dilute India’s democratic values, destroy top institutions, distort India’s constitution, remove India’s secular nation tag, and create havoc in the world order as accused by his detractors during their biggest ever election campaign?
Before going further, it is important at this point to identify what contributed to Mr Modi’s invincibility, who played what roles and which strategies of Rahul Gandhi et al backfired. While it would take a full book to analyze all the dynamics, here is a quick list:
Contributing factors behind Narendra Modi’s landslide victory
1) Narendra Modi himself: His unquestionable loyalty towards the nation, personal integrity, clean image, non-pseudo allegiance to the religion he follows, openness to other faiths, the righteousness he owns and exhibits, his very strong will-power and commitment to work for and protect the nation, his passion and confidence to make India number one country in the world and many other distinct characteristics of him make him the most popular leader in India today. His dynamic and favorable chemistry with fellow citizens regardless of their age and social status add to this massive popularity.
Banking on negative propaganda, Narendra Modi‘s detractors tried to prove him a pheku (one who boasts a lot but delivers nothing), a friend of the wealthy, enemy of the minorities, a Hindu fundamentalist, an arrogant autocrat and so on, but the voters recognized and acknowledged his good work by handing a crushing defeat to his opponents. His insightful foreign policy earned immense respect from top world leaders and his undeniable success silenced his critics.
2) Mr. Amit Shah: A formidable warrior often needs an expert charioteer. Glorified as the Chanakya of modern days, Mr Amit Shah is a leader with terrific organizational skills and indubitable political competence. His relentless travel across all Indian states to ensure BJP’s popularity and his fearless yet politically correct campaigning played a pivotal role in Narendra Modi’s historic win. One of the most energetic and active president the BJP has ever seen, Mr Amit Shah, along with his able team, expertly scheduled and steered 100s of massive rallies, well organized social media campaigns, effective sloganeering and hectic meetings with party leaders thus materializing the Phir ek bar Modi sarkar wish of crores of Indian hearts.
His new role as India’s Home minister is expected to deliver a no-nonsense treatment to pseudo secularists and anti national forces within India and strengthen Modi’s terrorism-free India mission.
3) Mr Rahul Gandhi and the lies he relied upon: I am not being sarcastic here. It’s a fact that Rahul Gandhi and his blatant lies helped the ruling party. He himself expressed his frustration after losing the election that hardly anyone from his party backed his Rafale theory. They did not because they realized the futility of backing such a worthless theory. But Rahul Gandhi aggressively talked about it hoping it would tarnish Modi’s clean image. He was so convinced it would do the job that he ended up quoting Supreme Court in his support and had to beg unconditional apology for it.
Rafale was not the only lie that Rahul heavily relied upon. The minimum income guarantee, or Nuntam Aay Yojana, flaunted as NYAY, was another lie that people took serious note of. Attempts were also made to allege that Modi had a hand in the Pulwama attack that killed 40 jawans. Making it worse, the Congress and its allies made futile attempts to invoke doubts in people’s mind about IAF’s successful strikes on Pakistan based terrorist camps. These and many other lies backfired as the voters decided to give the Congress a lesson not to take their intelligence for granted.
Many Congress members tolerated Rahul’s ascend to the party president post but hardly anyone was convinced if the party could win the election while presenting him as India’s prime minister. Not that he can never become one but the current situation of his reputation and track record surely went against party interest when they presented him as the prime minister of India post elections despite his proven immaturity and inexperience. Unfortunately, the Congress had nobody else to replace him but even if it did, neither Sonia Gandhi nor her advisers abroad would allow it.
No doubt Rahul worked very hard and fought well but unfortunately he chose lies as his chief weapon, with what has become known as Lutyens media or Khan market gang devoutly backing it in their own style. Instead of confronting Narendra Modi based on facts, or, in absence of any issue that could challenge him, Rahul Gandhi focused on defaming him with his chawkidar chor hai slogan as if the voters did not know Modi’s character. As a result, people took to streets and social medias to defend their hero. Later on Modi himself and many other BJP leaders and supporters “became” chawkidar to BJP’s benefit.
But Rahul Gandhi wasn’t alone. Congress leader like Kamalnath, Digvijay Singh and Navajot Siddhu added to Congress’ misfortune by their very presence in the party while people like Sam Pitroda spiced it up it by insensitive remarks like hua to hua and then trying to fix the damage. The short-lived mahagathabandan along with their myriads of unresolvable issues also gave the BJP a clear upper hand.
4) NDA ministers, campaigners, spokespersons and karyakartas: It cannot go without mention that if the ministers in the NDA government did not work to people’s satisfaction, Narendra Modi would not have received the support he did in election 2019. Cabinet ministers like Sushma Swaraj, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Arun Jaitley, Nirmala Sitharaman and almost all others convinced the voters that BJP can walk the talk. On the other hand, star campaigners like Yogi Adityanath, popular BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra, and friendly as well as outspoken party leaders like Subramanim Swamy and Smriti Irani (also a minister) kept the spirit of crores of BJP karyakartas at all time high despite many unfortunate incidents of violence in the states like Kerala and West Bengal.
5) The RSS and other nationalist organizations: Working at grassroots level, these organizations ensured harmony between various communities and pro-Hindu political parties to BJP’s overall benefit. Without their active support, Narendra Modi, despite his own credibility, could not have possibly seen such a landslide victory. RSS for one is an organization which has been constantly working, since decades, in national interest but is unfortunately targeted by the Congress and left wingers for reasons better known to them.
6) The people of India, the Bharatiyas: One thing Mr Modi kept saying was, this election wasn’t fought by him or his party but by the people of India. It sounded like a political statement but the result shows what he meant. Party karyakartas and other stakeholders are one thing but during this election the people of India were seen working and arguing for Narendra Modi on their own. This in itself was an achievement which reflected in the massive mandate they gave to Mr. Modi.
7) The Divine factor: Like it or not, Narendra Modi carries the blessings of thousands of saintly people around the world due to his good ethics and religious nature. Blessings from elderly people, including his mother Hiraben, are also at his side. At he end of the day, it is the Supreme Lord, who delivers the result. What He delivers is always the best. This remains true even if Modi had lost the election. But for some good reason God has chosen him to be India’s Prime Minister again and so we welcome it.
We need to acknowledge here that the situation was different in 2014 but Modi wave was still there, so he himself is certainly the beggest factor and that is why the party has chosen him to be their leader. Nonetheless, in 2019, the above factors contributed a lot and helped strengthen Narendra Modi’s invincibility. Whether this invincibility is a matter of concern or relief largely depends on how one perceives and prioritizes things. On 14th July, 2014, I had written the following in a blog while contemplating on what could be expected from India’s then new Prime Minister. I was referring to his personality and principles more than his ability as the prime minister of India, which was yet to be tested.
“Mr Modi is visibly proud of being a Bharatiya, an Indian, following Hindu culture. Critics may call it his strategy to appease the Hindus, but how many political leaders of today’s India, who also want to please the Hindus, have offered an eve-inspiring worship to Mother Ganga? How many have banned cow killing in the state they may have ruled? How many have been able to live a life of discipline that Mr Modi has lived? Not only that, he is able to convince others as to why one should be able to stand by their own views and religious conviction. This is not fanaticism nor does it amount to any hatred towards other religions.
All this requires personal integrity, and Mr Modi has shown that he has it. He may have his political agendas but I haven’t seen him sacrificing core ethics for votes. In Gujarat he proved his abilities, not only by development but also by winning the trust of the minorities, and I have reasons to believe that he will do the same at national level too, provided he is given time. One unique feature of his character is, he is able to distinctly define himself– as a person, and as the prime minister of the nation, and deliver accordingly.” – New Prime Minister of India – What to Expect
The only people aggressively trying to create fear in society about Modi’s invincibility is the Congress and its unofficial allies led by left wing communist parties and Christian missionaries. Their interest is not limited to vote banks. Their concern extends to the fact that under Modi rule, people of India and the world are becoming favorable to Sanatana dharma. This is why they keep provoking minority communities against Modi. Their hatred towards Mr Modi is not limited to political rivalry. It springs from their hatred towards Sanatana dharma. This is an unfortunate fact.
For example, ban on cow killing and cow protection is good for the whole world, even from environment and economics point of views, but these people paint it as religious fanaticism and spread unrest in the country. Banning triple tallak is also welcomed by millions around the world including Islamic nations and especially by those who suffer its consequences, but opportunistic politicians from that lobby make it look political. The same with Jan dhan yojana, Make in India and many other project which could help Indians a great deal, but these people oppose it. The question is, even if something is done for political gain, why not accept it when it is good for the nation? But they don’t.
Likewise, if we look at almost all initiatives taken by Modi government in his previous term we can see that it gathered enormous support from the mass and yielded or are moving towards achieving good results but those who are bent on damaging Modi’s image for reasons mentioned above are systematically misleading the society. They spoke the same fear-mongering language before 2014 elections but we saw nothing of it in last five years.
Instead, what has happened after five years is, India is about to become the 5th largest economy of the world, the world has accepted India’s might on all fronts, today Indians are taking pride in being Indians, instead of being ridiculed, India’s ancient Vedic wisdom is getting recognition from top leaders, and Narendra Modi himself is also receiving awards of highest honor around the world. Isn’t this all good for a citizen of India? What more can one expect from a Prime Minister in this age? In fact, frankly I think he has outperformed people’s expectations in his first term.
So if you are looking for such success stories then there is nothing to be concerned about but if your thought process aligns with those who do not like these achievements then it could be a matter of concern for you because Modi seems to be in no mood to take a break from his mission of sabka saath sabka vikas, now with an added goal, sabka vishvas.
That said, there is a lot more left for Mr Modi to accomplish. The reward India has given him is for his good work but the faith it has reinvested in him comes with a slew of expectations.
Challenges for team Narendra Modi in 2nd term
His pro-poor and pro-farmer promises will need tremendous efforts. Clean Ganga and clean India is no small task either. Although he is all for hard work, he will need support from his team and opposition parties. People have overlooked the difficulties they faced during demonetization. They have also welcomed GST with a big heart. In return Modi government has offered tax benefits, business opportunities and free welfare schemes. However, in the next five years the government will have to deliver all of it.
National security amidst hostile neighborhoods is a serious challenge. Enemies operating from within India, who were quietly damaging the country until Modi came, have now been exposed and have come out in open. They will need close watch. Job creation is almost a never ending monstrous task. It is important that the government educates people that taking up jobs is not the only way to survive or build career. Self employment needs to be further promoted to help people become financially independent and confident. There are more areas in which the government will have to perform better. The good thing is, Mr Modi is well aware of this fact.
There are state level issues. Dealing with state autonomy is becoming increasingly troublesome with non-BJP ruling parties expecting greater independence. Status of Kashmir is a burning issue and needs to be resolved at the earliest. NRC and Citizenship bill also need careful handling. Overhauling of education sector is yet another Himalayan task that is crucial to India’s future. Ethics and character building initiatives are equally important. There are many more issues to deal with.
One thing that personally concerns me about Narendra Modi is his passion for opening industries. While industries may be essential for economic growth in today’s world, it certainly is not all and over-industrialization can eventually ruin the core ingredients of national prosperity. The hanging sward on world economy today is largely due to over-industrialization. Industries need oil supply and electricity. In shortage of it, nations are fighting for securing nuclear energy but that also won’t last.
Real wealth is fertile land, lush gardens, mountains, clean and freely flowing rivers, agriculture and cows. During the glorious days of Bharat, there was abundance of wealth and perfect harmony with mother nature. Hoping for a prosperous and peaceful nation without including spiritual education in schools and universities is like running behind mirage in the desert. If the Modi government can ensure preservation and growth of this natural wealth and promote spiritual education, not to speak of concern, his invincibility could become a blessing for the world. Hare Krishna.
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