By Sushil Kutty
Prime Minister Narendra Modi loves to keep people guessing. In fact, he thoroughly enjoys the experience whether all the people like it or not; for, there is always a comfortable majority which votes for him and the quirks of electoral democracy ensure he remains in power. Three decades of never gracing the opposition benches somehow separates him from other politicians. The Opposition has come to learn that this man is special without being special in a comfortable manner.
The Prime Minister of India for nearly a decade, Narendra Modi has surprised once again by calling a special session of Parliament which is a rarity. Since then, there is speculation and people cannot get around guessing what must be his intentions. It cannot be helped that half of India does not trust the Prime Minister from pulling something unexpected and unlikely from his hat and Modi has a collection of scores of hats.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is often considered dangerous by his protagonists. He is not the amiable Atal Behari Vajpayee who happened to be the only other BJP Prime Minister and therefore always ends up being compared to Narendra Modi. But where Prime Minister AB Vajpayee came and went his way without too many opinions squandered on him and his intentions, Prime Minister ND Modi just does not fit Vajpayee’s hat.
The five-day special session of Parliament called by the Modi government came even as there was uncertainty whether Modi will get a third term? The thought of Modi sitting where now Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary sits in the Lok Sabha does not come easy to mind. But the idea is elevating to half of India and that half is picking up passengers faster than time can travel. The special session of Parliament is being tied to Modi finally set to meet his Waterloo.
Perhaps Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sensed that his 10-year tenure will end 2024 and then he will be staring at a Prime Minister from the current set of opposition politicians — Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal, MK Stalin, Uddhav Thackeray; perhaps Sharad Pawar… Any one of them. Like Priyanka Chaturvedi says the Opposition is not spoilt for choice where the NDA has only “one” Modi to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds.
Desperation is driving the Prime Minister as the final days of the second Modi government closes in on him. The voter has had enough of Modi and BJP and the high prices and the rotten system of governance that enriches the rich and impoverishes the poor. It is not surprising that not even news that India’s GDP grew at 7.8 percent in the last quarter has impressed people. The feeling mounts that Narendra Modi should go.
That said, what could be this special session of Parliament all about? Like said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keeping everybody, from the CEO to the chaparasi, guessing and loving it thoroughly. Modi’s Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi is another man who is enjoying the suspense, repeatedly questioned but repeatedly stone-walling — the final gasps of a dying phenomenon kept breathing with suspense.
“What’s the special session’s agenda” is killing millions upon millions of people waiting for the collapse of a dictatorship. For them, this special session is a case of imagination running riot. If Prime Minister Narendra Modi could get into the heads of the electorate, he would be unpleasantly surprised. The BJP IT Cell has in recent days lost its bubbling spirit, failing in its primary duty — protecting the Prime Minister from wild speculation that has more or less pronounced his political end.
The agenda of the special session is shrouded in mystery. What will it be? One nation, one election? Women’s reservation; perhaps freeing the Hindus from the clutches of the Wakf Board? Could be the repeal of the Places of Worship Act… The Narendra Modi dispensation has come to the realization Pasmanda Muslims aren’t going to deliver on promises. The confusion on the agenda is driving the media of all genre nuts.
What is Minister Prahlad Joshi sitting on? What is Prime Minister Narendra Modi banking on to get him another term? Whoever thought the ‘Mood of the Nation’ survey does not count for zilch in these times of wild speculation. The captive media does not know whether to continue championing Prime Minister Narendra Modi or shift fickle allegiance to what one of them calls “Vadra Congress”?
What if Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah’s worst nightmares come true? Certainly, there are things called anti-incumbency and there is voter fatigue. But Modi is facing what looks like electorate allergy. Forget ‘Amrit Kaal’, forget G20, think only of the assembly elections and defeat staring in the face. The five-day special session of Parliament is being seen as the unlikely saviour of a falling regime. That is how desperate Prime Minister Narendra Modi is at the end of years of lording over a billion plus Indians. (IPA Service)
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