Will Narendra Modi Make a Good Prime Minister?

India witnessed much havoc after the main opposition party BJP named Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate. Recent surveys predict a narrow upper hand for BJP over the ruling congress led UPA. However, the surveys predict that BJP will fall short of absolute majority and will have to depend on several regional parties to form a government. In this scenario, it will be apt to discuss about the policies and ideas of Modi to find out whether he can be a good Prime Minister.

Narendra Modi

Communalist Tag is Something That Should Be Neglected

Major national parities in India such as Indian National Congress and Lefts call him as a communalist or Hindu extremist. They are alleging that he was behind the Godra riot and various so called fake encounters in which many Muslims lost their life and hard earned property. The incident has happened almost a decade back and even those allegations are remaining unproved with solid evidences. Although a couple of ministers in his ministry and a few police officers have been implicated in some cases related to riots and encounters, so far no investigation agency could name him as a suspect.

A riot has occurred in New Delhi immediately after the murder of Indira Gandhi and when asked about it, her son and Congress leader, late Rajiv Gandhi dismissed it as a natural process. According to him, when a giant tree falls down, many smaller ones will get destroyed automatically. However he could become the Prime Minister of India sooner. Here no court has named Rajiv Gandhi as an accused in any cases and so is the case of Modi too. Unless and until he is proved to be a culprit, there is no point in accusing as the one. Most astonishing thing is that all these years, India was ruled by Congress and all the central investigation agencies were under their control. This deprives them with the opportunity to allege political interference in the investigation. Now the only choices are that either they should admit that there is no evidence against Narendra Modi or they are not capable of running a government which could not complete the investigation for a period of long ten years.  Now there is no point in keep on alleging that Narendra Modi is a communalist.

What his approaches towards development says

Narendra Modi has been declared as the prime ministerial candidate of BJP and since then he had attended many public functions at various parts of the country. While attending the birth day function of Mata Amrithanandamayee, he upheld the Indian philosophy and claimed that building of a strong nation is possible only when we build the same on the robust base of our culture and tradition.

If you take look at Indian culture and heritage, it is clearly evident that it is based on agriculture sector. Various festivals, traditional rituals and beliefs are closely related to agriculture. Festivals have been fixed according to various stages of cultivation such as sowing, harvest etc. In total, if you want to stick to Indian tradition and heritage, you cannot neglect the agricultural sector. 

A scene from Kuttanadu, the rice bowl of Kerala

If you really want to improve this sector, you should concentrate more on the development of villages and on providing necessary infrastructure and facilities to the farmers. The UPA government has neglected this sector totally and was running behind the multinationals and domestic corporate houses begging to invest in various mega projects. The kuttanadu package, a project recommended by Swaminathan Commission to protect the cultivation in Kuttanadu region in Kerala has not been completed so far. But the work of acquiring lands for building IT parks and Special Economic Zones went in full pace. This approach of the government ended up in the shortage of food and in the price rise of essential commodities. Besides corruption, the price rise will be the major issue in the next general election. Can Modi give a satisfactory answer to this problem? It seemed that he can as he completed his speech at Mata Amrithanandamayee Math.

However, his inaugural speech on the National Summit on Inclusive Urban Development held at Gandhinagar brought in a different opinion about Modi. At the function where representatives from 411 districts from 26 states in India participated he said that the urbanization should not be treated as a challenge, instead it is an opportunity.

Rapid urbanization is a fact in India. But it is not a natural process. It is a byproduct of wrong policies taken by different governments in different periods. It all started when the present prime minister was a financial minster. The globalization and liberalization policies started giving emphasis on industrial sector and as a result the agricultural sector started getting neglected. When the different governments were eager to invite foreign investments and busy with establishing IT hubs and special economic zones, they forgot to provide enough irrigation facilities and other supports to the poor farmers. When they started reducing the duties and taxes on import of many commodities in the name of industrial development, the domestic producers suffered a lot. Reduction in the price of commodities and the reduction in the total production due to insufficient facilities turned farming a nightmare and many farmers had to end their lives due to heavy debts.

Thus the rural economy has spoiled leaving people with only one choice to migrate to cities in search of jobs. Thus the rapid urbanization started in India.

Evil Effects of Urbanization

Hectic traffic on city roads

In many developed countries where the population density is less, urbanization will not make much difference. But in countries like India, it is a serious problem which cannot be handled so easily. As the population increases, the cities will turn dirty and unhygienic. Many people who had to migrate to cities in search of jobs have to live in slums in pathetic conditions. Moreover, the increase in migration may result in the increase in crime rates. Thus the life in cities will be horrible if the urbanization continues like this. A country like India with 1.3 Billion people cannot offer jobs for all in cities. Poverty and the miseries then follow will contribute to the destructive tendencies and finally may end up in a rebellion.

When the cities suffer such backdrops from urbanization, villages too will suffer a lot. AS the young generation prefers to migrate, the villages will be left with old and disabled people. This will certainly effect the functioning of villages. Agricultural sector will be finished completely and we will have to depend on other countries for our food. This will make the living cost even higher and life miserable for the lower and middle class people. So, urbanization cannot be seen as an opportunity as Narendra Modi says. If his plan is to give momentum to the urbanization process, there is no doubt that the country will have to suffer more. And going with his history, there is every chance for it to happen as he always favored industrialists and corporate houses.

Will the Gujarat work for India

Narendra Modi brought in several changes in Gujarat and that is the only one reason for him to return to power for the third consecutive time with a huge majority. However, that does not support his ability to run the country as a whole. Gujarat has a population density of 308 people per square kilometer whereas the population density of India is about 383 per square kilometer. Of course there is no much difference in the figures. But the difference is huge when you understand that the population is not uniformly distributed. When Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have a population density of about 300-350 per square kilometer, it is more than 800 in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. It crosses 1000 in Kerala.

You may be wondering what these figures have to do with the development. Yes, it has. The population density gives an idea about the land available for developmental processes. Such lands are not available all over the nation and then the projects will have to get limited for certain area. In other words, if the policy of industrialization and urbanization will be followed, a few states will get benefits out of that while some others will be totally neglected. In a country like India where the states are divided on the basis of the language spoken by the majority, this will create enormous problems. The sons of the soil claims which had come up in various cities a few years back will start coming again and may result in a civil war too.

Conclusion

Now this is high time to think about the next parliament elections. It should not be the personal image or charisma of a person that should lead us. More importance should be given to the policies and plans of political parties and should vote for the best policy and plan. In a democracy, there a lot of limits for individuals as the decision will be taken by the majority.

Second thing is that one should set the priorities rightly. A communal riot which has happened a decade back and some unproven cases related to those riots should not be taken seriously. It is our life and our future that we should take care.