It’s been more than a year that Narendra Modi became India’s Prime Minister after a massive victory purely based on his own charm and charisma!
No mean feat for sure in a country of billions with diverse ideologies and multiple political parties all trying everything in the book and outside of it to grab power or to hold on to it.
Even though his appeal is fading away, which is obvious as nothing is permanent; the way his opponents are ganging up against him is mind-boggling! It may be an ego-boost for him, but for an outsider it does look like an uneven competition.
On one hand you have one party, BJP and its smaller companions forming the government, while on the other hand you have the entire opposition rallying up against him. In the forthcoming Bihar elections, Congress has tied up with Nitish Kumar’s JD (U) and Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD to give stiff competition to Modi. We don’t know who is going to win or lose, but the fact that such stalwarts are not fighting graft, corruption or poverty caused by their own parties in the past few decades of rotten rule and are in fact training their guns at Modi baffles everyone. Is Modi such a huge figure that instead of working on issues for the common man, the political parties are only trying to prevent BJP to come to power?
Every election rally or media interview is aimed at taking pot-shots at Modi or his policies. Agreed, he hasn’t done wonders for the country and many of his ministers and party-people have been in the habit of putting their foot in the mouth. Also, I agree that the promises made before the general Lok Sabha elections were too huge to be fulfilled and were made to catch votes. Still the question is that the parties that are hitting at him, what has been their track record?
For one, Nitish Kumar did bring a change in Bihar. Not only the economy grew, but it became a safer state compared to what it was during Lalu’s rule. So why has Nitish become so desperate for power that he has shook hands with Lalu? What about Congress? Have they all forgotten the multitude of corruption cases piling-up against the party for which there are no satisfactory answers? Lalu’s track record is for all to see and there can’t be any argument!
This does look like just power-struggle instead of any genuine attempt to serve the common man. At least at the centre, Modi is ‘seen’ to be working for the betterment of the country. That perception also does wonders when we compare to UPA 2 when not even a leaf moved from its place! The heartening fact is that whether it is due to UPA’s policies or Modi’s efforts, the country is in a much better place economically than it was a year ago.
Bihar elections might remind everyone whether Modi is still the behemoth he is considered to be or is losing his sheen. But whatever happens, one thing is for sure that even after one year of grabbing power, he is still instilling fear in his opponents for them to lose their sleep and join hands with their enemies to hold on to power at any cost!
India hasn’t seen such a leader in many many years! Let’s hope we get many more of Modi’s kind, of course in an improved and refined manner!
