He is back

Votes cast and counted, the verdict out, and NarenderDamodar Das Modi re-elected to office in a country notoriously harsh onincumbents. No mean achievement. Forget the aberrations noticed and those thatwent unnoticed, the Modi triumph has been no mean feat and all credit to himand the ruthless unsparing campaign he ran. Yet the country may have been lefta bit polarized, given the divisions, the bruising nature of the contestunleashed by Mr. Modi and his alter ego Amit Shah. Now that the model-II of theModi dispensation for the ensuing term of the BJP government has begun, oneonly hopes and prays that the leadership, meaning Mr. Modi himself, rises abovepetty, partisan considerations, and, hopefully, giving the nation a governmentthat serves all. Having watched the closing phase of the just ended campaignfrom my little perch in troubled Srinagar I somehow feel uneasy even as I hopethat the Modi government will serve all, unmindful of its ultra nationalisticagenda and majoritarian proclivities which in essence means rising above pettyprejudices and thinking in terms of a vast landmass, home to some 1.3 billionwho seek no more than their share of sunshine, their own little bit of space,as it were. Spared the taunts of being of this faith or the other. Mr. Modi hasa great opportunity to give a new, more purposeful direction to the way ourpolity has been allowed to drift.

Good luck to Mr. Modi as he embarks on the second phase ofhis journey as India’s helmsman. Time also to remind him of his promise toKashmiris that the way out in Kashmir was ”Boli” se nahi  ”Goli” se kaam chalana hoga. In the fourweeks I have been in Srinagar half the time has been taken away by Hartals andthe other half in recounting ”encounters” between the security forces and themilitants. I don’t want to get into the number game but the fact is that lifeover here is very taxing and not particularly civil either. I do feel thatwhile the security forces must be complimenting themselves on the hits theyscore each day, the number of fresh Kashmiri young men drawn to the cult of thegun is also steadily rising. As a layman I dare say the hit and run or thecordon and search regime is not bearing the kind of results expected. I haveknown for sometime, thanks to Modi’s Home Minister Mr. Raj Nath Singh, thatKashmir is due to get a not particularly happy gift sooner than many wouldimagine, in respect of abrogation of Article 370 and 35-A of the constitution.That obviously would be for starters with possible breakup of the State intothree regions very much around. Add to this the Jammu report in a nationaldaily suggesting that the Jammu BJP has asked for inclusion of eight additionalassembly seats out of the 24 reserved in the Kashmir constitution for POK (AzadKashmir) and amending rules enabling Kashmiri Pandits easy access to pollingbooths – a back door entry of sorts to enable Jammu to gain advantage in theState Assembly elections, whenever. I am reminded of the promises Mr. Modihimself had made on different occasions in the past of turning Kashmir into aparadise, all with a positive ring when delivered. Sadly all that seems to havebecome just a memory with the New Delhi dispensation probably discardingeverything that may at the time sounded positive. Mr. Modi needs to set therecord straight. His new term should begin on a more sensitive and humane notebest summed up by him with his evocative observation that ”no Goli” only”Boli”. This would be more meaningful if Mr. Modi were to repeat it now if hecontinues to believe what he has said in the past. This would obviously add ahopeful touch to Kashmiri aspirations who at the time seem to be so terriblyisolated. Take his only road link with the rest of the country via Jammu andBanihal, the only viable link that remains closed interminably causing havoc inthe daily routine of a beleaguered people. The Modi government has never tiredof claiming a revolutionary approach to road building in the country. Sad thatit should be beyond its capacity to keep the road link in fine trim and usable,uninterruptedly throughout the year. Curiously the alternate Mughal road too isrendered unusable for the better part of year. Mr. Modi’s government couldshake off its lethargy and restore both the roads to good health. After allroad building in the country as a whole was tom-tommed as a major plus by theModi campaign, with Mr. Nitin Gadkari projected as a real doer.

   

If it reads like a grouse list, so let it be. The 80,000crore rupee package for the valley announce by Mr. Modi to uplift the valleyhas at best been a dream unfulfilled. Srinagar, the summer capital is farremoved from the promise of a smart city which Mr. Modi had made in one ofthose pompous moments during one of his speeches in the valley four years ago.  Instead what you see on a rainy day in, say,Srinagar is a muddy bowl impassable by the human kind there miseries onlyenhanced by motor vehicles competing for space. In summers the city is likelyto turn into a dust bowl thanks mainly to the competition for scarce roadsurface. And think of funds like the Rs. 14,000 crores offered by the WorldBank for the various development projects here were allowed very nearly tolapse. Such lethargy is unbecoming of any State government and particularly soin a State which for political reasons has been under direct Central rule foralmost a year. Instead what we see is V.I.Ps competing with one another inopening a furlong or two of road stretch when the need exists for hundreds ofmiles of such road to rebuild and readied for their ”inauguration” bynarcissist V.I.Ps . I feel funny as I write this drain inspector’s report.

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