With this Opposition, Modi does not need friends

Let me assure you this is not another blog on demonetisation. The fatigue is so pronounced that people would rather stand in ATM queues than read or listen more about 'notebandi'. However, the political circus that is happening around it has all the elements of a tragicomedy that defines a new low in our parliamentary democracy. This shows a frightening level of intellectual deficit in our current political ecosystem (to be fair, not just the Opposition but on both sides of the parliamentary aisle). Even the last Lok Sabha had a few stalwarts such as Pranab Mukherjee on the treasury benches and a host of others in the Opposition, be it Yashwant Sinha, Sushma Swaraj, Jaswant Singh and Arun Jaitley in the Rajya Sabha, who had the gravitas to carry through a sensible debate. It was not until a few days after demonetisation that the Opposition was able to think up of some arguments beyond accusing the Government of political motives and inflicting hardship on the poorer sections of society. Really it was left to academics, mostly either of foreign origin or Indian scholars living abroad, to supply the economic counter-rationale for opposing the move. Now what can we expect from Mallikarjun Kharge and Anand Sharma leading the pack and Naresh Agarwal as the star speaker prompted by Sitaram Yechury on the side? The younger more articulate public school bred princelings cannot afford to steal the limelight from their party’s crown prince, who for all Cambridge credentials could not rise above scripted jibes like “Suit Boot Sarkar” or, now, “TRP Sarkar”. Their attempt to ridicule Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ever since he assumed office, for his foreign trips, pin-striped monogrammed suit, alleged proximity to big industrialists, for being far-removed from the concerns of the “aam janata” had a classical boomerang effect. Modi responded with a 180 degree reverse populist swing that was beyond their imagination. After the Government was forced to withdraw the Land Acquisition Bill, a well-known media baron had told me, “Mark my words, Modi will retaliate by being more Leftist than the Left”. His words have proved to be prophetic. As far as Narendra Modi goes the Opposition (especially Congress) and the so-called Left-liberal media got both their reading and strategy wrong from the word go. They felt Modi could be stopped in his tracks by harping ad infinitum on 2002. The international community shunning him gave them a false fillip and they (including the Marxists) revelled at the United States denying him a visa. Little did they realise that for America, especially, there are no permanent friends or enemies. The only constant for them are US interests. The Opposition also refused to acknowledge the writing on the wall after Modi won four consecutive Assembly elections and industrialists began flocking to  Gujarat, hailing him as a “lambe daud ke ghoda”. They erroneously banked upon the so-called “moderate” axis in the BJP not accepting an “outsider” as a Prime Ministerial candidate. Modi successfully rose above these lobbies to make himself the only viable face of the BJP in the 2014 election. Till the last minute they lived in denial about a Modi wave sweeping the country. Even an astute politician like Nitish Kumar made a massive miscalculation in decoupling his party from the BJP. In Donald Trump’s detractors hoping against hope he would be impeached within a year or two after becoming President, one sees almost a deja vu of how some people felt when Modi became Prime Minister. Half way through his term he has only grown in strength and appears to be working to a plan. By attacking him singularly and relentlessly, the Opposition has only managed to draw further attention towards Modi, giving him a much more larger than life image than even he may have dreamt for himself. The bigger mistake of the Opposition perhaps is, by pouring all their energy on Modi, they are simultaneously weakening the BJP and, one might argue, to some extent also the RSS. Modi too realises that the BJP in its current form may not be able to win him another term and could also be doubtful if the RSS would support him to the same extent as in 2014. Thus, in 2019, it is going to be Modi and a 'Modified BJP' versus the rest. For that he has to build himself as a towering figure much bigger than the party. If Modi manages to outsmart them yet again and gets a second term, his opponents and the intellectual elite will realise that they have been as responsible in creating a Modi cult as Modi himself. Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs and views expressed by the various authors and forum participants on this website are personal and do not reflect the opinions, beliefs and views of ABP News Network Pvt Ltd.