As of now, India is experiencing a unique historical moment. The right-wing Hindu Nationalist, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in a landslide victory in May, 2014 under the leadership of Narendra Modi. The DNA of the country, India has considerably changed in the past five years of Modi’s rule. Soon after he assumed the office, there was a lot of speculation, at home and abroad, about the new regime’s resolve to end the ‘uncertainties’. The expectations were further amplified when BJP came to power in majority of the states after 2014. It is in this regard scholars, and observers’ scholarship chew on how the leadership of Narender Modi mattered for India as a nation. The approaches of all those writers in documenting personal image of the leader (Modi) of ‘world’s largest democracy’ or endeavours to delineate the socio-political landscape of India are praiseworthy initiatives. But at the end of the day, what matters is the prevailing ground reality of contemporary India and people who were promised not only of respite from so-called ‘predominant disorders.’ But also elevation of their state and stature during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections campaign both through affirmative and pro-active articulations of new age BJP leaderships as well as the poll manifestos. The people of India relied on all these, took the promises for granted and naturally expected to achieve and attain Acche Din, the days of prosperity, which remained unaccomplished so far, as per lexicon of BJP’s star campaigner Modi. In this context, new Book entitled “Modi’s Rule and India’s Unbound Opportunities: Narrative of the Substantives and Beyond” by Shibdas Bhattacharjee is a far more pragmatic documentation of Modi-regime.
ThisBook, comprising ten chapters, analyzes, in detail, the ground reality and theoutcome of Modi government’s performance in the fields like India’s SocialSector, Youth Empowerment, Economy, Foreign Policy, Strategic agenda, SecurityScenario and other relevant issues in a pragmatic manner and tries to find outwhat substantives India have achieved or lost during this time. Bhattacharjee’sBook gives an overview and traces the facts, facets and the prevalentatmosphere that provided elevation to Modi’s political career. The journey offormer Gujarat Chief Minister becoming the face of the BJP with his companionAmit Shah and leaving behind the legacy of Vajpayee era and combating thepolitical aspirations of BJP stalwarts like Lal Krishna Advani and MurliManohar Joshi. In fact, this book tries to shed light on the thin line thatdifferentiates rhetoric from reality in this age of post ‘Social MediaRevolution’.
Bhattacharjee raisesmany significant queries throughout his study. While, he argues that India hasbeen credited with having the largest demographic dividend with almost ‘35% ofits population under the age of 35 years he also suggests that the futuregovernment must take benefit of it and utilize this enormous energy in a properways and means. The author has sum-up the existing policy failures andparalysis in these words, “Indians democracy has remained confined in mereparticipation in the electoral process as the existing system has utterlyfailed in ensuring people of this country emerging as the stakeholders of policy-making,implementation and the process of nation building…(p.3)”
Thebook deliberates on diverse themes of Narender Modi’s regime focusing speciallyon the comprehensive discussion about the styleof governance and trajectory in the government’s functioning. The author arguesthat reflections are undoubtedly dismal and the gasping agony of Indian massesand increasing disillusionment among the youths can never be covered up underany ornamental term and hollow slogans. In the similar fashion economic agendaof the Modi government has been analyzed to shed light how far the so-called’Modi-doctrine of Indian economy’ has delivered to uplift the social sector,empowering youth and overall economic health of India. The Book argues thatchest-beating claim of growth-rate, country’s status in global economicstandard, report of IMF do not reflect the economic status of the marginalizedsection who keeps on heaving and staggering to ensure the minimum and basicneeds of life in present India.
Similarly,on foreign policy the book deliberates on foreign visits of Narender Modi anddiscusses both success and failure stories of bilateral, multilateral andsummit levels meetings of last five years of the NDA regime. The author isright in pointing out that security scenario of India has not improved underthe rule of Modi and expresses concern for India’s insecurities both oninternal and external front. The Book in its concluding part highlightspredominance of communal-sectarian agenda, saga of divisive politics and howall these put together derail India’s development engine. The author argues “the worst irony that India despite her liberal image andcommitment approach for global peace and universal fraternity has been one ofthe major victims of fanaticism.” (p. 527). Bhattacharjee urges politicalparties to look beyond and appeals fellow-countrymen to rise so that Indiatruly shines in the days ahead. Moreover, Bhattacharjee also deliberates onKashmir question and argues that “what so-called democratic regimes of thecountry have done so far for the people of Kashmir…fact is: politics is beingplayed on the religious identity of the people of Kashmir…This is tragedy ofIndia. All the political parties must give serious pondering to this”. (p. 489)
Itis in this context the present volume of the author is a welcome addition thatdeals with the contemporary debate in Indian politics and set the trend tointrospect the Modi regime. Nevertheless, the author presents his knowledge andarguments in a clear and candid manner. The book is handsomely produced, withsimple language and sourced from the most relevant documents on the subject andis essential reading for all interested to understand transformation of India’slast five years politics. In fact, the book has the potential to initiate afresh constructive/critically academic debate in India for further analysis andassessment of Modi’s rule. However, what is absent in the book is theoreticalusage. The book would have been more constructive had the author dealt withtheory. Besides, the price of the book is too high amounting Rs 1995 thatobviously is a hindrance to reach out to the larger community of readers.
Title of the Book: Modi’s Rule andIndia’s Unbound Opportunities: Narrative of the Substantives and Beyond
Author: Shibdas Bhattacharjee
Publisher: Overseas Press India, NewDelhi
Year of Publication: 2019
Pages: 530
Price of the Book: 1995
JavidAhmad Ahnager is Doctoral Fellow Department of Political Science, AMU, Aligarh