Stock Market Flies Saffron Flag, Opposition Hates Rages

Political audacity combined with a strong organisation storms straight ahead while dominating the flanks. It is the signature action of the saffron forces, now grown familiar. It does not take anything from the style of politics and governance with its constant self-service of the last many decades.

The unequal Opposition, caught flat-footed, thrown out of the citadels of power, plays old drums and flutes - threats, intimidation, murders, booth-capturing, minority appeasement, arson, riots, lies, embezzlement.

It all worked perfectly well once, the public was none the wiser, beguiled by promises that never seemed to reach their maturity. But now there is the sullen dullness that comes with knowing one has been betrayed. It results however in arrests of the old masters under draconian laws, and attachment of their properties for recompense.

As if on another plane altogether, the Sensex, Nifty, Midcap index and even the Bank Nifty are touching new highs despite an ongoing, though reducing, economic contraction.

There is less panic into gold and silver. Less worry about major bank collapse. Some revival in real estate. New reform for the long-neglected farming sector. There is a great deal of infrastructure building. It is probably the principal driver of the Indian economy through the six years of the Modi administration.

Bold reform, obscured sometimes by strident misinformation spread by the disgraced, in the key areas of labour, land, company law, digitisation, electricity, water, social injustice has been undertaken. More and more transformation is in the offing from this determined government. Our foreign affairs and diplomacy have been completely revamped. India’s position in the world has been rebooted.

Old power brokers and middlemen, rent-seeking bureaucrats, extortionists, commission agents, benami wealth hoarders, runaways, are all under pressure. Promises made again and again in the past are being delivered upon by this government.

The North East of the country has been drawn into the mainstream. Foreign investors are pouring money into the Indian bourses and into foreign direct investment (FDI). The foreign exchange reserves are at an all-time high, close to $500 billion. Contrast this with the near bankruptcy of 1991 before the economy was liberalised.

 Now the foreign stock market players are apparently not daunted by steep  stock valuations because they are optimistic about the future. It is a liquidity rush yes, but far from mindless speculation.

There is expectation of a global end to Covid with several vaccines to tame it. And a shift of economic attention away from a very badly behaved China. It has become a predatory China, under a misguided CCP, with attitudes better suited to a long-departed age of imperialism. How much time before this 1949 born Red China comes unstuck and on its way to a democracy?

India is and will continue to benefit from standing up to China. The world has taken note. Armaments, organisation and force readiness on land, sea and air, is moving fast. Border area infrastructure is being rapidly completed. If there is a future conflict there is no doubt that India will acquit itself well.

Parts of the Opposition are seething in anger, motivated by hate and fear, unable to digest their rejection by the masses. This part of the Opposition cannot stand the idea of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP moving from strength to strength. Neither, of course, can inimical neighbours such as China and Pakistan. It is a sad thing, but parts of the Opposition have made common cause with anti-nationals, terrorists and other enemies of the nation.

The BJP has recently won decisively in Bihar alongside its ally the JD(U). It is about to repeat the performance in the border state of West Bengal plagued by Islamic aggression, terrorism and infiltration. This is openly supported by the presently ruling TMC, heavily dependent on the nearly 30% Muslim population. The demographics and the culture of the state have changed alarmingly, much to the quiet annoyance of the Hindu majority. West Bengal has enormous untapped economic potential. It is now firmly looking to the BJP for rescue. The chances of it coming to power in the 2021 assembly elections in the state gains ground every day.

On the national stage, India is showing the world not just the spectacle of the biggest democracy in action with its expert management of free elections, but also its talent for generating atmanirbhar chaos and bloodshed.

Those Communists, Leftist, Christian, Islamic, Maoist, Khalistani, Kashmiri hard-liners along with Pakistani and Chinese elements, who don’t want India to prosper, love the chaos.

But they can’t seem to make any appreciable dent by backing the weak, fractured, and rudderless Opposition. An Opposition with just a single point agenda. There is no positive or developmental vision at all that might have enthused the voters.

The arson, the loot, the street blockages, the atrocities, are funded by those who want to destroy the already hurting economy, and encourage the aggression of India’s enemies on its borders. They are not bothered about taking advantage of the damage done to the economy and health by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The lust to bring down the Modi government at any cost,  in spite of it being very popular with the voting masses, is  a difficult proposition. Admit it or not,  all the brickbats are boomeranging.

There are also substantial chunks of the non-aligned Opposition who vote with and support government initiatives. In parliament, the government’s domination in both houses is now evident. The electoral juggernaut too rolls on from the grassroot elections to panchayats, blocks, districts and city municipalities, all the way through the state assemblies and on towards the national elections.

Substantial money is coming in from near and far to fund the rabid sections of the Opposition. The protests and insurrections are well planned home productions. The return on investment though, is dismal.

Even the agent provocateurs are well known, often fiery, but ineffective. Many are out-of-office politicians, ageing, frustrated people, aided by some disgruntled state governments also in the fray. The entire bandwagon suffers from lack of credibility, rampant corruption, internal rivalries, and sheer jealousy of the success the government enjoys. It is an unequal contest, becoming more tilted against the would-be usurpers by the day.

One narrative is backed by the power of the government. The other by the powerless Opposition and its camp followers determined to trash the whole place if nothing else. The powerful government refuses to retaliate with violence. The powerless Opposition tries even greater provocation.

This has become a familiar see-saw over the last six years, in parliament, in the TV studious, in the speech-making, on the streets. There is arson, rape, murder, false news. There is a desperate scrambling for lost electoral traction, a search for  new leadership,  even as vested interests refuse to let go.

It is obvious the baton has passed decisively to the BJP and its brand of nationalist, majoritarian politics. The leadership here has dedication honesty and vision. It has an efficient organisation. The world can see it.

However, those who have lost after decades in power refuse to do so, even as they are staring at the imminent end of their line. The new year 2021 is about to dawn after a most difficult 2020. It will usher in a new decade, the third of the 21^st century.

India will prosper like never before, but it won’t be  thanks to the florid code that hid under the ‘Idea of India’. That made the majority Hindu ashamed of his grand heritage.

 Modi’s Atmanirbhar is not an inward-looking thing. It is getting out of the clutches of commission agents and needless imports. It is building a strong domestic military machine for the country’s defence and export. And this government’s ‘New India’ is a very different thing from the false secularism that preceded it. There is room in it for every nationalist of every caste, creed, region and religion, but none for those who want to destroy the country.   

(1,319 words)

For: WIONEWS

December 20^th, 2020

Gautam Mukherjee