The president’s address to the joint session of parliament, the first after the Lok Sabha election, was expected to spell out the vision and priorities of the second Modi government. But President Ram Nath Kovind’s speech was sparse in detail and more went unsaid than said.
It is clear from the speech that the ruling party sees the”New India” as radically different from the India before 2014. The RSS notion of a Hindu nationalist Bharatunderpins their vision of a ‘New India’.
The president refers to the mantra of ‘sab ka saath sab kavikas’ relating to the previous term of the government. This has now beenextended to ‘sab ka saath, sab ka vikas, sab ka vishwas’. Why this was found necessary is notexplained. Was it that the quest for a’New India’ resulted in a section of the people – the minorities – to betargeted and attacked in a manner which made a mockery of the originalslogan? Anyway, the ushering in of thesecond term of the government has been marked by mob attacks on Muslims withthe killing of 22 year-old Tabrez Ansari in Jharkhand being the most horrificincident.
The president’s speech is conspicuously silent about theoverall economic policies that the government aims to pursue. There is no freshthrust on how to overcome the economic slowdown. As far as the agrarian crisis is concerned,the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, providing income support to farmers, isbeing extended to all farmers. Earlier,Rs 6,000 per year was to be given to farmers who hold less than two hectares ofland. Extending this income support to all farmers, irrespective of their sizeof holdings, is a regressive step especially when tenant farmers andagricultural workers cannot avail of this support.
The growing water crisis and the widespread drought in thecountry is being met by the bureaucratic step of creating a new ministry calledjal shakthi.
On the employment front, the emphasis continues to be onself-employment. There is the promise toextend the coverage of the mudra loans to 30 crore people. The plight ofthe educated unemployed is going to become all the more acute as there is alsothe commitment to provide two crore additional seats in higher education by2024. How are they going to be employed?
While various promises are made to empower women and raisetheir status, the single most important measure – one-third reservation forwomen in parliament and state legislatures – is absent. There is no reason whatsoever for avoidingthis commitment at a time when it will receive overwhelming support in the LokSabha.
The foreign policy section is remarkably scanty andparochial. The `Neighbourhood First’ policy is the priority which concernsSouth Asia and adjoining countries which are in BIMSTEC. But what is the worldviewat a time when globally major changes and upheavals are taking place? Protectionism and trade wars, US threats ofaggression in West Asia and Latin America, the perilous impact of climatechange – all these are passed over silently. Even the conventional remarksabout India’s relations with the major powers – the USA, Russia, EU, China –have been skipped. Is this because ofthe Modi government having tied itself to the US bandwagon and now faced withthe vagaries of the Trump administration, that it is unable to state anythingconcrete based on our national interest?
In keeping with its Hindutva outlook, the government, as perthe speech, accords topmost priority to national security. Apart from fighting”terrorism and naxalism”, the government wants to utilise the twin instrumentsof the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and amendment of the Citizenship Actto curb infiltration and to target those who are considered to be ‘aliens’ onthe basis of religion. The NRC will beapplicable on a priority basis in areas affected by infiltration fromBangladesh – West Bengal, Tripura and other north-eastern states. As the NRC experience in Assam shows, thiswill target mainly Muslims, irrespective of whether they have come from acrossthe border or not. The amendment of theCitizenship Act to make illegal migrants of non-Muslim origin eligible to becitizens is another ploy to win over the Hindu refugees and migrants who havecome from across the border.
That these moves will have serious repercussions in thenorth-east and West Bengal, including communal polarisation, is something whichdoes not concern the BJP. Instead ithopes to cash in and benefit from these divisions.
The hypocritical stance of the Modi government, which regardto Jammu & Kashmir is exemplified by the promise to provide a “safe andpeaceful environment for residents of Jammu & Kashmir”. The muscular policies of the government inthe past five years have led to a steady deterioration in the Valley withrising incidents of militancy and counter-militancy operations. There is noword about initiating a political dialogue in the state with concernedparties. With Amit Shah as the homeminister, there will be further pressure to adopt a heavy-handed securityapproach. As against this, the willingness of the moderate Hurriyat leadershipto hold talks must be reciprocated if there is to be any way out of theimpasse.
Though the address pays lip service to “strengthening thesystem and spirit of cooperative federalism”, there is nothing spelt out whichcan sustain any optimism in this regard. Rather one of the measures proposed inthe name of fighting terrorism will further ride roughshod over states’rights. The union cabinet has clearedvarious amendments to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act. One of theamendments empowers the NIA to institute searches in states without the consentof the top police official of the state. Already the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and the NIA Act providesfor the central agency to override the state police in various areas. Theproposed amendment will further undermine the powers of the states.
The BJP’s agenda of Hindutva nationalism buttressed by anational security state comes across as the one dimensional vision of a ‘NewIndia’.
Prakash Karat is member, Polit Bureau of CPI(M)