Two J’s have rocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s boat since last week: The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) row and the Jats’ agitation in the northern Indian state of Haryana for reservations in government jobs. The two J’s are the proverbial albatross round the Modi government’s neck.
Both the incidents have sullied the Modi government’s image internationally. In both the cases, the Modi government is on the back foot but the treatment from the government for the two troublesome episodes is drastically different.
While in the case of the Jats’ agitation, Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is adopting a kids’ glove approach, in case of the JNU row it has decided to take the opposition head on. In the latter case the signal for sticking to its guns and locking horns with the opposition has come from none other than Modi himself.
This is the bottom line as far as Modi’s political strategy after completing 21 months in office is concerned. It is this strategy of Modi, which in many ways is going to determine the course that the Modi government is going to take.
In other words, it means yet another round of political impasse. It means that the already frigid relationship between the government and the opposition will inevitably become even more frigid. This means that while the two ends of the Indian political spectrum slug it out in weeks and months to come, the developmental politics takes a backseat and the divisive, acerbic nature of politics takes the center stage yet again.
The Modi government is understandably playing down the Jats’ agitation in Haryana. Jats is a community, which is no pushover. It is a politically influential and economically powerful community, which has accounted for seven of the 10 chief ministers the state has seen.
Equally important is the fact that at least 40 percent of the state assembly’s 90 seats are dominated by Jats where they enjoy numerical majority. And yet the Modi government has agreed to accede to the Jats’ demands!
On the other hand, the Modi government has decided to take the bull by its horns when it comes to the JNU row. In a nutshell, the JNU controversy erupted a couple of weeks ago when left-leaning leaders of the university’s students’ union allegedly indulged in “seditious” activities and raised anti-India slogans on the death anniversaries of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat who were hanged to death on terrorism and sedition charges.
Heavyweights like the noted American thinker Noam Chomsky and several American universities have thrown their weight behind the persecuted JNU students’ leaders. The JNU controversy has generated headlines internationally and western commentators have criticized the way the JNU episode has been handled.
The Modi government’s strategy is quite clear in the two crises it is up against. It is acting politically correct by handling the agitating Jats community of Haryana, but it is taking a hard-line on the JNU episode and defending its move to slap such harsh measures as a case of sedition against the university’s student leaders.
This strategy is inexplicable. Sedition is an archaic law, which is still present in the Indian statute even though a vast majority of sedition cases have come unstuck in decades. It has been a rarity when the Indian government of the day has been able to defend charges of sedition against the accused.
Just at the time of writing this, the Indian media is full of sources-based news reports suggesting that the Modi government has hardened its stand on the JNU crisis and decided to take the accused students’ leaders head on.
If this is madness, so be it. This seems to be the Modi government’s strategy as far as the JNU case is concerned. Clearly, there is method in this madness. The nationalist BJP government is using the patriotism card to the hilt.
The Modi government clearly wants to send a message to the country, particularly the electorate, that its actions in the JNU case are driven by the larger national interests and not be petty, parochial considerations.
The opposition, particularly the vociferous Congress party, has cried foul. But the Modi government is seemingly indulging in a self goal here.
Forget about the merits or demerits of the JNU case. The big picture is that the already tenuous government-opposition relations have worsened further and that too at a time when the crucial parliamentary budget session has just begun. The Modi government won’t be able to transact much business during the parliamentary session. In other words, the government’s developmental agenda will remain on the back burner. Ultimately, it is the Modi government that is the eventual sufferer — this time on avowedly patriotic reasons. What a pity!
