The outcome of the Digital Kumbh, with drones capturing real- time data on the crowds, mandatory online registration of pilgrims, all of it involving the application of AI, has been less than gratifying
For a government that earmarked Rs 10,370 crores in its 2024 Budget to promote the Artificial Intelligence Mission and declaring, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi did, “India has successfully built a digital public infrastructure for over 1.4 billion at very low cost. We have the world’s largest AI talent pool”, the proof of the pudding is the once-in-144-years Maha Kumbh at Prayagraj that according to Yogi Adityanath’s UP government has attracted over 62 crore pilgrims.
The outcome of the Digital Kumbh, with drones capturing real- time data on the crowds, mandatory online registration of pilgrims, all of it involving the application of AI, has been less than gratifying.
Stampedes happened, not only at the Kumbh itself but in New Delhi railway station. Traffic jams stretching up to 30 km happened. Pilgrims were forced to walk several kilometres to reach an overcrowded designated site to take a holy dip in a river the National Green Tribunal declared was dangerously contaminated with human and cattle faecal matter.
A government that measures its success in terms of Swachh Bharat or open defecation-free India by spending on building toilets and claims that history will judge its achievements in the 21st century, implying that previous governments had failed to do it right, has to contend with the reports of the Central Bureau of Pollution Control and NGT. The reported pollution must have been galling. Indeed, Yogi Adityanath challenged the CBPC data and declared “Sangam water is suitable not just for bathing but also for aachman (drinking)”.
There is a limit to the number of times the double-engine model of the BJP can go up the down staircase and find excuses for its mishandling of things by claiming them to be legacy problems or holdovers from previous Congress-led governments. The Digital Kumbh was advertised as a showpiece. Its implementation should have lived up to the expectations it raised.
And that is true for all the expectations the Modi government has raised over the past nearly 11 years in power. The same principle applies to Yogi Adityanath’s UP government, which has been in power for a shorter period. Had the stampedes occurred in a non-BJP ruled state, the party would have unleashed its powerful communications machine to weaponise the tragedy to score political points, as Mamata Banerjee has done by calling it the “Mrityukumbh”, or pitcher of death.
Ever since 2014 when Mr Modi arrived in New Delhi as the messiah of the masses with his slogan of “Sabka Saath-Sabka Vikas”, the BJP’s promise to deliver development to every Indian, it has not done well on making good its promises.
These included retrieving black money stashed overseas and redistributing it as a one-time Rs 15 lakh direct cash transfer to all Indians, to demonetisation, to an appalling GST regime, the alienation of Manipur, a border state impacting national security, to the post-Covid slump in growth that has certainly shackled wealth creation, job opportunities resulted in rising unemployment and domestic and international debt, the Modi government and its double-engine model has not been the success it claims to be.
Mr Modi is great when he talks about India’s transformation after 70 years of Congress mismanagement under his divinely inspired leadership. There have been achievements. India has sent a successful mission to the dark side of the moon. It has built the Pir Panjal railway tunnel in J&K. It has bought new warplanes to modernise the Indian Air Force, restructured the defence establishment by creating the Chief of Defence Staff.
The government has streamlined the appointment of Chief Election Commissioners by excluding the Chief Justice of India and turning the selection into a choice made by the executive arm of the State. The Modi government has strengthened the control of the State’s executive arm in other ways too, like the appointment of the CBI director, overturned precedents in the way Parliament and its committees have been transformed into a legislature for the majority, squeezing in the Opposition.
In the process, the Modi government has been criticised relentlessly by the Opposition, sections of the intelligentsia, academia and civil society for its centralisation of power and its disrespect to the underlying values of the Constitution, which established a democracy and a government that would be held in check by the balance of powers between the executive, legislature and judiciary.
The Modi government has talked of cooperative federalism; Tamil Nadu is now contemplating opting out of paying taxes to the Centre because of a clash over the New Education Policy, while the Supreme Court has had to remind hyperactive governors of various Opposition-ruled states that they are “unelected” and their role is as “part of the legislature” and “bound by the constitutional regime”.
Mr Modi may be correct in his complaints that he is the most reviled Prime Minister that India has ever had. As the Prime Minister, Mr Modi has already served 10 full years and having won the Lok Sabha election in 2024, he will continue to hold office till 2029. In these years, Mr Modi has perfected the art of disowning responsibility.
In his eleventh year and going forward, Mr Modi needs a new fall guy. The Rahul Gandhi-led Congress Party is not strong enough to carry the burden of the Modi government’s missteps. His acts of omission and commission as the Prime Minister, where he or his colleagues have used or misused the BJP’s legislative majority at the Centre and in the states have to be held to a different standard of judgement.
It is a mistake to equate the politics that he preaches inspired by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh with his role as Prime Minister. The BJP-RSS combine has shaped the competitive electoral arena into a “Batange to Katenge” — “Ek Hain to Safe Hain” communally divisive contest between the majority Hindus against the minority Muslims on the one hand, and the demonisation of the Opposition labelled as anti-nationals, Urban Naxals, Muslim Leaguers and anti-Dalits, anti-Sanatan Dharma, anti-Hindus, on the other.
The BJP can be held to account for how the government has functioned and how politics has changed. Mr Modi will be judged on how he did his job as the Prime Minister, which incidentally includes taking responsibility for maintaining communal harmony, upholding secularism and strengthening unity in diversity and abiding by the Constitution in the spirit and in the words and illustrations of the original version, of which apparently 22 illustrations have been deleted without the approval of Parliament. He cannot dodge being responsible merely because he was divinely inspired.
Shikha Mukerjee is a senior journalist based in Kolkata
