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Unending list of ‘entertainers’ in Modi’s cabinet

By Soroor Ahmed, TwoCircles.net,

While it took less than a year for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lose his magical touch, electorate of Delhi got disillusioned with the Aam Admi Party (AAP) in less than a month.

From experience of hindsight, it can now be said that perhaps both the BJP and the AAP got more seats than they deserved. If the saffron brigade is losing its sheen and AAP is in turmoil, they are themselves to be blamed, as their common opponent, the Congress, has not yet recovered from the shock it got after the last year’s rout. Though it is also true that the Land Acquisition Bill has, of late, caused a groundswell of support for it.


Giriraj Singh and General (Retd) V K Singh
Giriraj Singh and General (Retd) V K Singh

Though it is still early days, yet it can be said that both the parties – BJP and AAP – are squandering the historic mandate given by the people. While the BJP’s winning spree lasted till the Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections in December 2014, the infighting in AAP started even before it won 67 of the 70 assembly seats in Delhi.

Common citizens are now feeling let down, as they voted Modi and Arvind Kejriwal with great expectations. Now they have started questioning as to what was so wrong with the Manmohan-Sonia team which ruled the country for a decade.

Today, the Union cabinet is packed with ministers known for irresponsible utterances. As if a number of statements on love jehad, ‘ghar wapasi’ etc were not enough a lady minister chose Ramzade-Haramzade expletive to show her true colour. As if that was not enough, Modi himself, on November 9, inducted a few more loose cannons in his cabinet. This included Giriraj Singh, notorious for foot in the mouth remarks.

Suddenly, in last few days, one minister after another came out in flying colours. If one gentleman raised the issue of colour of Sonia Gandhi and in the process invited the displeasure of the Nigerian High Commissioner to India, another lady got embroiled in hidden camera controversy in FabIndia showroom in Goa. As if that was not enough her party leader, Meenakshi Lekhi, saw it as a design planned by the said minister to hijack attention from the national executive of the party in Bangalore.

The Goa CM, incidentally of the same party, too disagreed with Smriti Irani. Another gentleman found no harm in the party. Not only that, he found a place in a Parliamentary panel though he is a ‘bidi’ baron. The Civil Aviation Minister did not lag behind. He said that he had travelled in planes with match boxes in his bag with nobody checking him.

The list continues to grow as former Army chief and now Minister of State for External Affairs, General (Retd) V K Singh used the expression ‘prestitute’ for the Fourth Estate.

In between came the reports in media that Modi may go for another expansion – maybe he wants to out-perform the Manmohan Singh government on this count. With ‘Baap’ accommodated in Srinagar, efforts are now on to induct ‘beti’ in New Delhi.

The moot point is: as to what do these ladies and gentlemen want to achieve with these outlandish remarks? Will they help bring in achche din (good days)?

No doubt the UPA-II in later years lost its will to govern and it was bound to be voted out. But is not it a fact that the Team Manmohan had not so many ministers who can ‘entertain’ country men and women every day. True, its decline started after Anna Hazare-led fasts in Delhi in 2011. The media whole-heatedly supported them. A campaign was launched to paint the Manmohan Singh government in the blackest of colours.

It can now be said that perhaps the public opinion-makers went too far in creating an atmosphere against the UPA-II. Its defeat is one thing, but the way the opposition got decimated is quite different. The overwhelming majority had emboldened many non-serious elements in the present ruling set-up. In the UPA II, there were charges of corruption but the government was slow in taking drastic decisions. The situation was ripe for whipping up anti-incumbency feeling.

Yet this does not mean that the previous government did nothing in 10 years in office. After all India was not hit as hard by the global recession in the manner in which the US and many European countries were. Yet hardly any good words were used for the then government. True the growth rate slowed down in the later years but it had much to do with the global situation too. Besides, the oil prices were more than double than now.

The then government was flayed for adopting weak-kneed approach towards neighbours. But never in post-independence history did the Chinese army intruded with so much impunity during the visit of its President as in September 2014. Never did any US President choose the Indian soil to sermonize Indians on religious tolerance as Barack Obama did in January last. Later in February, he repeated almost the same language in his own country.

We have lost the Afghan plot and Russia, once a close friend, surprisingly signed a defence cooperation deal with Pakistan last November. Its Defence Minister visited Islamabad, the first person to do so in the last several decades.

Change is essential for democracy; but one expects it for better.

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(Soroor Ahmed is a Patna-based freelance journalist. He writes on political, social, national and international issues.)