Total Confidence in Modi

WHEN PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi took his seat in Lok Sabha on Thursday (August 10) evening, his relaxed air did not give much away. He barely tuned into a BJP leader who was ending his speech as he chatted with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. But the thick file a Parliament staff placed on his desk gave the script away. Modi had come more than prepared to not only answer the opposition’s chargesheet but to also take the battle to the rival camp and land a few blows of his own. Given his previous interventions in Parliament, there was little doubt that he wasn’t going to call time anytime soon.

It was around 6.40PM, when the opposition began to troop out of the House after having chanted its demands for a while, that Modi turned to the violence in Manipur that many speakers had raised. Home Minister Amit Shah, the prime minister said, had repeatedly invited the opposition to debate the situation in the northeastern border state but to no avail. Such a discussion would have provided an opportunity for the opposition to make its point as well. The advice was not mere semantics. The opposition had missed a trick or two and when it gave up its demand that Modi make a statement, it was too late. And if the objective of moving a no-trust motion was to make the prime minister speak, then his critics got more than they might have anticipated as Modi turned the House into his pulpit.

What happened in Manipur was unforgivable and deeply painful and all would be done to bring the guilty to book, Modi assured the House. But as much as he expressed sadness and pain, he promised that peace will be restored to Manipur and the state will resume its development journey. His references to Shah’s handling of the situation and, as he put it, effort to “educate” the House without taking recourse to political grandstanding was a strong indication that he felt the home minister was competent to work out solutions which might take time. What he did emphasise was the Centre’s concerted efforts to connect the Northeast to the rest of India in every way and cast a spotlight on Congress policies that stoked separatism and led to prolonged civilian distress by way of blockades and strikes.

Modi’s main thrust, however, was to rebut the rebranded UPA, now called I.N.D.I.A, over the charge that his govern­ment had lost the plot due to socially divisive politics and for failing to control the violence in Manipur. With the restoration of his membership, Rahul Gandhi was billed as the opposition’s main attraction and he held the stage at the start of the second day of the no-trust vote proceedings and began by relating how his Bharat Jodo Yatra made him shed pre-conceived notions and conceits. “Jo bhediya tha wo cheeti ban gaya (the wolf became an ant),” he said. Quite apart from the odd nature of the simile (a wolf is not often seen in a benign light), his purported conversations with farmers who came to him with a piece of cotton in their hands, claiming to have been reduced to destitution by big industry, stretched credulity. In his speech, Modi made a passing but telling refer­ence to people unexposed to the country—who have gazed at the poor through the windows of their cars—being wonder-struck at common realities.

In his remarks about Manipur, Rahul Gandhi repeatedly said the Modi government had done Bharat Mata to death in the state. The Lok Sabha secretariat expunged the Congress leader’s exact words but the more experienced hands in the opposition clearly found the articulation problematic. The polemical overreach generated a sense of distaste and Modi picked up the phrase, saying it was saddening to hear of such references to Bharat Mata. The country has had an idea of the state of mind of a certain leader for some time now, he said with charac­teristic sarcasm. Modi turned to past events when raising the Indian flag or singing the national anthem was a challenge in many places in the Northeast and said the situation had turned a corner. Accused by the opposition of having not spoken on Manipur, he offered solidarity and promised to stand by the state.

The prime minister capped several important speeches from the treasury benches and elaborated on the theme that the opposition did not have a constructive idea. He chided them for not doing their homework despite the last no-confidence motion having taken place five years ago. “Maybe you could prepare by 2028,” he said in a deliberate reference to what he said will be NDA’s third term in office. Speaking of his promise that India will be among the top three global economies, Modi expressed surprise at commentary that this was a natural or mathematical inevitability. “Will I also have to teach you how this should have been framed?” he asked. “You could have said please explain how this will happen, or could have pointed out other issues.”

There was a clear pattern and method in the manner in which NDA speakers approached the debate. Nishikant Dubey, BJP MP from Godda, who excels in driving home a point sharp­ly, was the opening speaker and took the opposition benches by surprise by not attacking them as a collective. He made the leaders of regional parties in the opposition alliance squirm when he pointed to their legal troubles and time spent in jail and pointed out that BJP was not responsible for their humili­ations. “What is your grouse with us?” he asked and reminded parties like DMK that the 2G cases and ‘coal gate’ occurred during the tenure of UPA. Shah’s two-hour-plus speech was di­vided between a detailed explanation of the Manipur situation and a robust counterattack on the opposition. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman underlined BJP’s political priorities when she countered DMK on cultural issues, arguing that Tamil Nadu and the rest of the country share a deep dharmic connec­tion beyond the confines of Dravidian politics.

Congress leader from Assam Gaurav Gogoi opened the innings competently for the opposition (instead of Rahul Gandhi as was earlier anticipated) and made his points about the divisions and suffering in Manipur. The political battles were about regionalism, federalism, promises kept and lost, caste and backwardness, and much more. In a churning that Lok Sabha witnessed over three days, each argument was tested and contested. It did seem though that by invit­ing the prime minister to deliver an address that would give him national traction, the trap may have been sprung on the opposition. They were warned though. “Every time he gets an opportunity, he puts Congress through the shredder…there is no logic in this vote,” BJD leader Pinaki Misra warned in his speech. But it was too late by then.

BJPCongressNarendra Modinational politcsno-trust motionOppositionRahul Gandhi