Modi: The BJP’s Beloved Leader Is Not Without His Faults

In 2014, Narendra Modi and his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, otherwise known as the BJP, rose to power on a wave of nationalism and the promise that Modi would be the architect of a brighter future. His meteoric rise was impressive; he had finally shattered the long-standing inaction of the Indian National Congress. He was carried to victory by the Indian middle class, which was largely dissatisfied with the economic slowdown and widespread corruption that came part and parcel with the rule of the Indian National Congress 

From the start, Narendra Modi was reputed to be business-oriented, with some even going so far as to affectionately call him the “national CEO of India”. The self-prescribed task ahead of him was clear: to clean up India’s wrecked government. Throughout the course of his campaign, he likened himself to historic reformers like Deng Xiaoping and Lee Kuan Yew. This, coupled with the above task, made him an ideal candidate: he was widely considered the man that would save India. 

Given the current reputation and circumstances that surround India and Modi, it’s clear that implementation of the campaign vision for a better India has gone horribly wrong. Retracing the past should yield an answer as to why that is.

Modi’s first major government post came as the chief minister of Gujarat, a position from which he was able to effect major social and political changes. One significant event that impacted Modi’s tenure was Gujarat’s 2002 riots, which occurred only one year after he took power and began when a group of Muslims burned a bus full of 59 Hindus. Infuriated, Hindus retaliated by killing hundreds of Muslims over a three-day period, almost wholly eradicating some local Muslim communities. Modi’s rhetoric was hardly a calming influence, with several reports asserting that the Gujarat police didn’t attempt to prevent the riots, instead opting to help the rioters. If this were true, Modi, who controlled the police, would have been directly responsible for the killing of hundreds of Muslim citizens. While the Supreme Court of India has exonerated Modi, several international investigations by the BBC and the New York Times have directly implicated him in the riots, begging the question of his innocence.

In addition to having potentially contributed to the 2002 riots in his role as Gujarat’s chief minister, he has also made a number of controversial decisions during his tenure as India’s prime minister. While at the helm, Modi has introduced several schemes including demonetisation and GST, all with the intent of fighting off India’s corruption issue. While Modi and his media ecosystem branded the schemes ‘masterstrokes’, in actuality, they were abject failures. Demonetisation, which took place through the sudden cleansing of the highly used 100 and 1,000 Indian rupee notes, harmed the economy greatly and had a negligible effect on corruption. Despite this and several other failures during his initial tenure as India’s Prime Minister, he was re-elected in 2019 by the larger majority. 

It was only after that re-election that Narendra Modi’s most abject failure – his Covid 19 dealings – occurred. His most widely reported blunder was when, due to mass in-person political rallies and lack of enforcement regarding Covid regulations, there was a surge in cases that led to hospitals being overloaded – with many even running out of oxygen to treat patients. 

Shockingly, despite this shameful failure, Modi’s domestic popularity did not wane and he continues to enjoy cultist, nationalistic support resembling that of former President Trump. Nonetheless, Modi’s stock has fallen dramatically internationally, with his former nickname as India’s “great reformer,” having been replaced with the term “the great bungler.”

The Party, National Cabinet and Legislative Bills

Despite the above, It is unfair to place the blame squarely on Modi; his party, the BJP, has also helped cause India’s ongoing turmoil. 

Unbelievably, the BJP – India’s undisputed ruling party – has extremely close ties with a Hindu extremist organisation called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). In fact, Narendra Modi himself was a member of the RSS and it is even considered the official parent organisation of the BJP. This has meant that a number of current ministers – both local and national – have served while part of the organisation or having previously been a member. 

In addition to its close ties with the RSS, the set-up of both the party and India’s political scene as a whole is partly to blame for the country’s current state of affairs. Essentially, the BJP leads an alliance called the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which is made up of several smaller and regional parties represented in India’s parliament (named the Lok Sabha). In this sense, India follows a Westminster-style parliamentary democracy, in which the prime minister is selected after his/her party gains a majority in Lok Sabha seats. However, this alliance system coupled with the parliamentary democracy India has in place has meant that the government is allowed to operate without any checks or balances. Obviously, this is a significant issue that has resulted in the unmonitored mismanagement of both states and the country as a whole. 

Another related issue pertains to the party cabinet, which consists of many long-time party members including Raj Nath Singh (Minister of Defense), Amit Shah (Minister of Home Affairs), Nirmala Sitharaman (Minister of Finance), Ravi Shankar Prasad (Foreign Minister) and Nitin Gadkari (Transport minister). This cabinet aided the legislative majority in India’s lower and upper house, allowing the BJP to pass several controversial laws, the most notable of which are the CAA and the Farmers bill – both of which faced severe backlash. The response once again exemplified the lack of checks and balances in India’s governing system while also displaying the BJP’s unprofessionalism. In a brutal crackdown on freedom of expression, the BJP government aggressively quashed such protests, arresting a number of activists under the national security law of UAPA (unlawful activities prevention act). While already damning enough, the activists were bewilderingly branded ‘anti-nationals’ and were charged under the guise of planning terror attacks. Moreover, the activists, who many say were raising valid questions against the inept BJP government, were put in custody for months without any sort of trial or hearing. This shows the dictatorial tendencies of the BJP and its penchant for protecting its image at all costs. The BJP government has taken pseudo control over mainstream media and threatens to eradicate any notion of freedom of speech. 

In conclusion, the BJP and Modi have greatly harmed freedom of speech in India, eroded independent institutions, and destroyed the economy. Yet, the popularity of the BJP has not yet waned. This is in large part due to the fact that the BJP supports and panders to Hindu nationalists. Modi is an accurate microcosm of the party, actively inviting right-wing extremists to vote for him. And, like sheep blindly following a shepherd, they continue to do so.

Note: This article solely reflects the opinion of the author, and in no way represents the thoughts or feelings of the editors. This article has been edited for clarity and brevity – nothing more.