– Dr. Rahul Kumar, Ph.D.
Having a humble background, Narendra Modi, no doubt, is a great a propagandistic, gadfly, dynamo, scold and swashbuckler. In the history of India, Narendra Modi is the first Prime Minister who leaves no stone unturned to sully and debase the Nehruvian legacy & dynastic family, no matter national or international platform. By doing this eloquently, he is not likely to boost the image of India but smear it with the muck of Maoism & Nazism. Shiv Visanathan, an Indian sociologist has rightly delineated that “Modi`s nationalism is about the elimination of opposites, not accommodation of differences”. Intellectuals, activists, writers, speakers, poets & artists are living in an atmosphere of fear. They are unable to articulate freely. Modi is like Hitler, Mao, Stalin, and Napoleon who crushed all types of opposition to wield power.
The disgusting thing is that all the BJP leaders including Narendra Modi from public platforms project India as it has never existed in the international realm before they took over the reign of the government. It is nothing but simulation & mimetic. Modi and his aides have shut their eyes permanently to the history of Indian Diaspora. Gandhi migrated to South Africa in 1893. Immigration of Indians to Canada followed by in 1906. Hindus & other caste people as indentured laborer migrated to Mauritius, Guiana, Trinidad, and Britain. Indians who migrated to different British colonies during the First World War glorified the name of the country by achieving a medal in sports. Many Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) also including Gandhi launched cultural and socio-political movements in the African countries. Komagata Maru ship was chartered by a Sikh businessman Gurdit Singh carrying 376 South Asian immigrants reached Vancouver (Canada) in 1914. Indian scholars working on Indian diaspora tell us the tales of honor, glory and wealth of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs). Modi needs to read first all these pieces of literature before indulging in the ingratiating cacophony.
Modi as a Prime Minister of 130 million Indians has been touring the world since 2014 till date in the hope that he would attract foreign investment for India to boost up the crippling economy but all in vain. It is also a fact that Modi is neither an economist nor a social scientist to understand the declining socio-economic life standards in America, Canada, Britain, Europe, Hong Kong, African, West Asia, and East Asia because of internal its social, economic & political disturbances. India should not be proud of huge population. The burgeoning population is a big problem for any country. Claude Levi Strauss, a French Sociologist warned: “The only true problem which is posed for civilization today is that the demographic population explosion. All the rest of the evils from which we suffer flow from it”
Let us have a close peep into the current social & economic situation of these nations to which Modi travels proudly in Air India aircraft having 265 passenger capacity. Yellow Vest movement in France has shattered the economy of France. The pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong since June 2019 has made a deep dent in the economic structure of the country. A devastating war killing thousands of civilians is always on in the West Asian countries. A recent drone attack in Saudi Arabia is a pertinent example. Afghanistan is always in trouble due to ISIS fightings. Europe has been struggling with the economy. Britain has bristled with Brexit problems. Unemployment rates in all these nations have been rising. Natural disasters and calamities in the Western countries displaced millions of people. Drug cartels have wreaked the western societies. The resurgence of divisive right-wing politicians promoting nationalism, sovereignty & economic protectionism has further de- Globalized the world. If all these nations are in trouble then where Modi is looking for investment. Let us pose a question to Modi and his aides. It is a common sense that the householder will safeguard first his or her burning house and later he or she can think of doling out some charity.
Modi has no concrete academic credentials and skillfulness except fancy, banal rhetorical as to understand that diplomacy is quid pro quo, not carte blanche. America, Russia, Britain, Canada, China, Japan, all these nations play a level field game to garner maximum profit from the developing world by selling their products. The multinational corporations’ aim is to raise profit by hook or by crook but not ready to share economic benefits with the country from which the corporations draw huge economic resources. It is unfortunate that the majority of the people in India does not know how many bilateral agreements are signed by Modi during his visits to foreign countries. A small but telling example can be drawn from the case of India-UAE partnership. When Modi visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2015 he signed MOUs/ agreements for strategic partnership in several areas. One of the MOU signed is in the field of Skill Development. Since 2015 not a single initiative is taken by Modi & his counterpart to give impetus to Skill Development. Most of the MOUs/ Agreements are paper tigers. All relations, Foucault has argued are relations of power.
In 70 years of independence, The External Ministry, Government of India has never engaged in constructive facilitation to boost up economic contribution to the Homeland. Brain Drain is the biggest problem to face the shortage of skilled manpower. Modi` s new mantra of Brain Gainer as enunciated in Houston, US, is shallow. A study done by Dr. Saroj Rani in the United States on International Labour migration of Indian Diaspora in 2017 concludes that ‘ not a single academicians, businessman, high profile of Indian origin working in the United States expressed willingness to come back to India and serve the homeland’.
International migration is economic migration. Several studies show that children settled abroad come to sell the property of their parents after their death and go back to their respective host countries. On inquiry, we come to know that they do not want to stay back in their ancestral lands. There are reasons but prominent is corruption in bureaucracy & judiciary; political indeterminacy, social unrest, Mandir-Masjid issues, lynching, snatching, killing of elderly people. Lack of proper infrastructure & vicious dirty political atmosphere in the government Ministries & departments also prevents them from coming back to their homeland. Some of the people belonging to the lower castes assert that Brahmins of India practice hierarchical prejudice and exclusion when they return back which they hardly experience in the western countries.
A recent statement made by Santosh Gangwar, BJP Independent State Minister for Labour & Employment stirred the honest nest that North Indians lack skills to acquire jobs. This reflects the truth. Let us ask Modi why he has established Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship if this Ministry can skill youths. Western technology has advanced further. India`s Research and Development (R&D) is in a pathetic condition. Will Modi make India a Super Power by skilling people in hairdressing, beautician, and mason work courses?
As a journalist, I got an opportunity to attend the 46th AIMA National Management Convention 2019 in New Delhi. Ravi Shankar Prasad, current Union Minister holding the Law & Justice, Communications, and Electronics & Information Technology were one of the key speakers at the event. Mr.Prasad in his speech told that “When he went to his dentist recently he enquired from the dentist about the needle and the dental chair. He further asked the dentist who manufactures these items in India. The dentist told Mr. Prasad no sir all these items are imported and we manufacture none of them”. India is still far behind America, China, Japan, and Britain in smart technology. From Metro train to X-rays machines India is importing. This is New India of Modi.
As everyone knows that the colonial British government had left some of the vices of bureaucracy, slavish mentality in the blood of Indians. Modi is a slave ship on which helot, meek, sycophants, flunkey, sheep followers, sacrilegious & contaminated people are on board. The slavish mentality is perceptible in the cabinet Ministers of Modi. Every sensible man will feel ashamed to know that almost all the cabinet Ministers in the Modi government repeats Modi name in their rambling speeches at private or public functions. One can find that every cabinet Minister from the dais will shower praise on Modi`s visionary outlook. They behave as if they have no brain to think. A culture of savage mentality has become a disease, a virus in the Indian government. The majority of the cabinet Ministers in fear are a slave to Modi`s shrewd & wily mind. Such slavish mentality and servility have given unprecedented political power to Modi. The result is that Modi thinks he is the supreme leader and nobody in the government or in the BJP can dare to raise an accusing finger against him. Not a single cabinet minister in the government has thought of stopping Modi from wasting taxpayer money on foreign trips. Not a single cabinet minister in the government has thought of asking Modi how much he has invested and how much he has received from the countries he visited last. What a tragedy for the frigid Indians who are struggling day and night to meet both ends.
Lukewarm Modi is least bothered about trade and industry sinking in India. Fastidious and swagger Modi is least bothered about bestialities being committed on the Dalits, Muslims, Christians in India. The concentration of political power in the hands of a single party tends to crush the opposites. The litany is that the BJP/RSS since 2014 has been shamelessly exploiting the wave of popular disturbance. Modi and his aides have caused severe damage to public institutions. Before Modi came to power all Brahmins of India were clamoring from the scaffold that Merit should be the sole criteria for selection in the government jobs but now almost all appointments are made in public or private institutions by favor through RSS Nagpur headquarters. Saffron clad Brahmins priests (Babas) are committing rapes under the nose of Modi government. In rural India, Saffron clad Brahmins priests are usurping the land of the marginalized farmers under the Modi government to establish their academic institutions & factories. Vermin Brahmins patronized and protected by the elite Brahmins are plundering the treasure of the country and running to the foreign lands. Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi & many small-time plunderers have looted the country and fled. And many more in the pipeline to flee the country.
Creativity & innovation has been hampered by curtailing public funds. Half of the population of the country is fighting court cases in various lower and higher courts. In Modi reign, everything is settled through courts including the results of SSC examination. Modi and his aides have been inflicting egregious brutal castigations on the people in India. See the case of Kashmir. Once paradise Kashmir has been turned into hell by Modi by abrogating articles 370 & 35A. Due to abrogation of 370 & 35A Pakistan has already inflicted a hefty financial loss to India by closing air space for overflights Pakistan airspace. Is this Sab Ka Saat Sab Ka Vikas? Modi and his aides have no respect for the constitution of India. Liberty, Equality, Freedom, the ideals of the Indian constitution are ruthlessly trampled upon by Modi & his aides. Let us not forget unless social peace is preserved in India no foreign investment will come& stay back in the country. We cannot call the business of Franchise a foreign investment for development.
Nowadays it has become de rigueur among the Ministers and leaders of the BJP to glorify the highest eight civilian awards conferred on Modi by some countries. But one thing is clear Modi will never be equal to Dr. Manmohan Singh, a great consummate economist, in terms of intelligence and acumen. Modi having the blood of Gujarat carnage on his palm will never become a Nelson Mandela of India. Today, he is cursing Nehru`s sluggish legacy the day is not far off when the people of India will repeat the same history and curse day and night the reign of Modi.
Dr. Rahul Kumar, Ph.D. Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. India. He is an independent researcher and senior media columnist. He is working currently with the “The Asian Independent UK” newspaper as a Bureau Chief. His book on “Elderly Punjabis in Indian Diaspora” traces trajectories of Elderly Punjabi migration to U.K. He is a member of the Editorial Committee of Global Research Forum for Diaspora and Transnationalism (GRFDT) New Delhi. India. The views expressed by the author in this article are personal and does not necessarily reflect the official policy of the paper.
