The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government completed four years in office in India early this month, a period long enough to judge its performance and produce a report card.
In a democracy, this job is done mainly by independent media, which subjects prime minister and cabinet ministers to a reasonable degree of scrutiny. Has the mainstream media done its job with full honesty? The answer is a big no and I will elaborate on this later.
First, let’s understand why the present government in New Delhi is unique in many ways — the BJP is the first right-wing party to get a majority on its own in 2014 and the first by any party to get absolute majority in 30 years.
Secondly, the principle of collective responsibility doesn’t apply to this government for a simple reason — there is no collective decision making. There is only one man who calls the shots and who has taken all the major decisions with or without the consent of his Cabinet.
Narendra Modi is an all-powerful prime minister and there is no one either in his Cabinet or party to challenge him. It is no secret that most if not all of the major decisions in the last four years were taken by the Prime Minister’s Office and Modi prefers to deal with top bureaucrats directly, bypassing his Cabinet colleagues. That is why, it would not be unreasonable to judge Modi alone as his ministers are of little consequence.
I will focus on three main areas to judge Modi: how his prime ministership impacted the social fabric of the country; how he utilised his enormous political capital; and the media’s role under his rule.
The elections of May 2014 were dominated by two strong perceptions — that Dr Manmohan Singh’s government was corrupt and inefficient and that his challenger Modi is a divisive figure who must be stopped from occupying the highest office.
The people voted out Singh and handed a huge mandate to Modi, disregarding his controversial track record in Gujarat where Muslims faced violence and persecution under his rule of almost 12 years.
To be fair to Modi, his campaign in 2014 steered clear of emotive issues and promised economic growth, jobs and Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas or ‘together for all, development for all’, a slogan that won the praise of the Obama administration as a “great vision”.
His critics in the mainstream media also hoped Modi would deliver on governance and keep rabid elements of his right-wing party on a tight leash, arguing that a vote on governance would help him reduce dependence on divisive issues.
However, four years later, a large section of the society remains bitter about Modi. Thousands of abusive battles take place online between Modi supporters and opponents on a daily basis.
Outside the virtual space, communal violence grew 28 per cent in the first three years of his rule and violent attacks on Muslims and Dalits have taken place at alarming intervals. It is no secret that rabid elements of his own party or affiliated organisations are behind communal riots and mob lynching incidents.
Today, thanks to Modi’s divisive personality, India is a fractured country and every layer of the society, including bureaucracy, judiciary and media, is either pro or against him.
Political capital
Modi has legislative muscle in the elected house of parliament and his word is final. Moreover, the mainstream media, industrialists and trade lobbies have always stood by him.
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The enormous political capital commanded by Modi has no parallel in recent decades. What has he done with it? Very little to pacify critics or rein in his abusive supporters, openly patronising many by following them on Twitter, a badge of honour seen as Modi’s endorsement of abusive trolling.
He has done nothing to stop his party’s IT cell from launching provocative campaigns on social media to polarise the society. Also, he attacked his predecessor on corruption and yet failed to fulfil the legal obligation of appointing a federal anti-corruption ombudsman.
Modi government argues that the ombudsman cannot be appointed as the selection panel must include the leader of opposition, a position his government denied to Congress citing its reduced numerical strength in parliament.
However, his critics say Modi is delaying the appointment to keep his office away from any scrutiny. Since 2014, however, Modi effectively deployed his popularity and political capital in one area — widening his party’s base, the BJP now rules 21 out of 29 states and has chief ministers in 15.
Modi and media
The prime minister enjoys unprecedented support from the mainstream media — TV, newspapers and digital. His acts of omissions and commissions are conveniently ignored and routine decisions are highlighted with superlatives such as “major milestones” and “game changer”. His events are covered live and even his glaring mistakes are ignored with headline management and false narratives. There is a good reason why media is in love with Modi — his government has spent more than $600 million in print and TV advertising since 2014.
