Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Popularity Remains Undiminished, But Governance Is Raising Questions
By Syed Ali Mujtaba, New Age Islam
20 June 2023
There are some events happening in India
that need a stocktaking to assess the status of the governance under Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, whose popularity remains undiminished in the country.
These events that are being talked about in
India are; the Manipur situation, Muslim persecution in Uttarakhand, sexual
harassment of internationally awarded female wrestlers Co-Win data leak, the
Adani scam, train accident in Odisha, etc.
The failure to tackle these events reflects
on the governance of the country and the buck stops at the PMO, but equally
shameful is the role of the media in not discussing these issues and telling to
the people what is going on in the country under Modi’s rule. Much worse is the
silence of the judiciary that is watching the developments with folded hands to
the PM, as if condoning the incumbent government for its acts of omission and
commission.
Imphal: People at the site of a fire incident after
violence broke out on Wednesday between tribal and non-tribal during 'Tribal
Solidarity March' called by All Tribal Student Union Manipur (ATSUM). (PTI
Photo)
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Manipur Situation: The situation in Manipur is
appalling. The women of Manipur have
organized themselves in protest and blocked the roads so that the central
forces may not reach areas where mobs are attacking villages of other ethnic
communities. They are, in fact, stopping vehicles of central forces to check
the identity of soldiers to see if any of a particular ethnicity involved in the
conflict is there in the vehicle. Even vehicles carrying food supplies and
other essential commodities for Assam Rifles are not being allowed to move.
Some Assam Rifles units had to receive army supplies by helicopter. This is the
state of affairs in one of the most important states of northeast India
boarding Myanmar the gateway to Act East Policy.
Many efforts are being made like Home
Minister Amit Shah's much-publicized four-day visit to Manipur. His emissary,
Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma also visited Imphal to control the situation but
these efforts were unable to make any difference. Even after holding
negotiations with Kuki militant groups in Guwahati, the Assam CM and BJP’s
coordinator of the northeast have not been able to change the situation on the
ground. The Central government has appointed a new security adviser for
Manipur, a retired police officer, but he too has failed to stop violence, let
alone restore peace. Even the new DGP, who is brought from outside the state,
is watching the dance of death in Manipur with his eyes wide open.
These are unprecedented happenings taking
place in an Indian state and Indians are not being informed by the media about
the government’s inability to tackle the situation which is over 45 days old.
For the Media, the story of Tablighi Jamat
members holding a congregation in Nizamuddin Markaz and spreading Coronavirus
in India was much more important because it lay the hidden agenda to hate
Muslims and dub them as the enemy of the state. Reporting the developments in
Manipur will be an anti-government activity that no media wants to do as they
may be snuffed out of their government’s funding.
The buck certainly stops at the Prime
Minister’s table who has not uttered a word on Manipur where the volatile
situation continues to persist. Modi’s silence is baffling even after more than
135 lives were lost and 60,000 persons were rendered homeless he refuses to
open his mouth. These are the tactics that he regularly uses to deal with
inconvenient issues facing India, the Chinese ingression in Ladakh, Adani’s
crony wrongdoing, wrestlers’ protests of Pegasus Snoopgate, etc. The PM has
avoided talking about these issues to the people of India but he prefers to
talk about 'Man ke Baat' at the All India Radio.
Manipur crisis has become deeply entrenched
and is of a multi-layered genesis. The central government’s security-centric
approach to tackling the situation is making the problem much worse. The people
of Manipur are feeling abandoned by India without seeing any solution in sight. They identify with the people of J&K and
lament why their king merged the kingdom of Manipur in 1949 with the Indian
Union. People in the state feel that it is PM Modi who is responsible for the
Manipur imbroglio.
Muslim Persecution In Uttarakhand:
In Uttarakhand, there is an “alarming rise
of hate speech, vigilantism, and targeted communal violence against the Muslim
community. In Uttarakhand local Hindutva groups are openly inciting religious
hatred and hostility and violence against Muslims. This is to instigate fear
among the Muslims so that they can run away from there. Muslims' homes and
shops are marked with an ‘X’, and residents are forced to vacate the place.
Many very old time residents including BJP and Minority Cell leader Mohammed
Zaid, have fled their homes due to the threat of violence.
Newspapers have reported that a letter has
been sent by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to the Tehri District Magistrate giving
an ultimatum to members of the Muslims Community to leave the Jaunpur valley
and in particular the towns of Nainbagh, Jakhar, Nagtibba, Thatyur, Saklana,
Damta, Purola, Barkot, and Uttarkashi. If they don’t respond to their ultimatum
of leaving the areas themselves, Hindu organizations will go on to forcibly
evict the Muslims. The government, the
judiciary, and the media is not taking any proactive measures to prevent
violent attacks taking place against Muslims in Uttarakhand.
Security personnel detain wrestler Sakshee Malikkh
during wrestlers' protest march towards new Parliament building, in New Delhi,
Sunday. PTI
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Female Wrestlers Protest:
The alleged sexual harassment of female
wrestlers by a BJP MP, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh who hails from UP is a talking
point in the country. The female
wrestlers have come out in the open to protest their molestation at Jantar
Mantar in New Delhi. They sat in protest
since April 23 demanding the arrest of the President of the Wrestling Federation
of India and a BJP MP. Even though these
internationally award-winning wrestlers are talking about how they have been
sexually abused, the government is protecting the accused for his connection
with Hindutva organizations. Even the female wrestlers warming to immerse their
medals in the River Ganga, the government never intervened. Now when the
farmers of Haryana and Punjab when announced to join the wrestler's protest
that the Sports Minister Anurag Thakur on behalf of the central government agreed
to a ‘discussion’ with protesting wrestlers. Notwithstanding the fact, the fact
remains that no action has been taken against the accused MP. It looks like the
government wants to protect the accused even if he has committed national shame
by molesting the daughters of India who have brought pride to their motherland.
Photo: Cyber Peace Foundation
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CoWin Data Leak:
On June 12, 2023, reports emerged that a
bot on the messaging platform Telegram was allegedly returning personal data of
Indian citizens who registered with the COVID-19 vaccine intelligence network
(CoWIN) at the portal for vaccination purposes. The portal was set up in 2021
to administer and manage India’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
The
bot spewed out personal details like name, Aadhaar number, and passport numbers
upon entry of phone numbers. To this, the Health Ministry denied reports of a
data breach, and said the allegations were “mischievous in nature.” He said
that the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) was reviewing the
existing security infrastructure of the portal. Separately, the Minister of
State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar stated that the nodal cyber
security agency had reviewed the alleged breach and found that the CoWIN
platform was not “directly breached.” This is how India is being governed under
PM Narendra Modi.
Train Accident in Odisha:
At least 261 people have been killed and
1,000 are injured in a crash involving three trains at Balasore in Odisha. Here
one passenger train derailed onto the adjacent track and was struck by an
oncoming train also hitting a nearby stationary freight train. The cause of the
accident is blamed on "technical reasons" but the general perception
is this was a man-made tragedy caused due to human negligence. The Prime
Minister did visit the accident site and shed crocodile tears. This accident
has to be assessed in light of the PM‘s announcement of the inauguration of the
‘bullet train’ from Mumbai to Ahmadabad.
Adani Scam:
The Modi government has refused to comment
on the allegations of fraud against Adani Group saying it does not want to
comment on individual company matters.
Some documents have revealed that the Modi government has granted an
extraordinary favor to the Adani group for boosting his coal business. The Modi
government also brought in laws to help the Adani Group 'coal deals’
flourish. Further, it is alleged that
the Adani group is involved in a Rs 10,000 crore scam in the generation and
distribution of electricity in Indian states. The Adani group took money from
the state government for the generation and operation of electricity but
pocketed huge profits. The Modi government is totally silent on this issue,
whose beans were spilled by the Hindenburg report published from the US.
Conclusion:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s failure to
govern India is all-round and all-encompassing. The BJP government has a
disastrous record on paper for ill governance of the country but it still
enjoys the patronage of the people is the most baffling part. Conspicuous in
this is the role of the press which has hardly questioned the Modi government
of its failure. The other startling part is the response from the judiciary
that is toeing the line of the executive. It’s often said that if the government
fails, people go to the judiciary for remedial action, now when the judiciary
also connives with the government, then where the people will go? This is a
state of affairs in India under the Modi rule.
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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based
in Chennai.
URL:
https://newageislam.com/current-affairs/modi-popularity-governance-questions-/d/130034
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