The election season is over, for a while. And in a welcome shift of focus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has put the spotlight again on development. Creating a binary based not on identities, but sustainable development, and its practitioners versus those who practice, what Mr Modi termed, “shortcut politics”, the Prime Minister has a narrative that will likely be the spearhead for the elections ahead, including the next Lok Sabha polls.
Warning the country and citizens of the politics of “opportunism”, Mr Modi, who inaugurated several projects in Nagpur, including the Metro Rail, and launching new projects, all of them together worth over Rs. 75,000 crore, has once again brought into national limelight and public discussion, the politics which destroy the country’s economy.
By highlighting economic development, and its power to uplift poor people out of poverty, creating new jobs and opportunities, especially for the youth, Prime Minister Modi has challenged the collective imagination of Opposition parties to try to challenge his government over its track record of over eight years and his vision for the future on economic and developmental matters.
Interestingly, Mr Narendra Modi has made a rather unpopular and contrarian view that sustainable development can help political parties win elections. In the past, parties, especially the Congress, held a view that while economic reforms and focus on development was good for nation building, it was unpopular electorally.
Anecdotally, it was held as a popular view by many political pundits that several governments, including the reforms-centric P.V. Narasimha Rao-led Congress government and the Atal Behari Vajpayee-led BJP-led NDA government lost in 1996 and 2004, despite spectacular performance on the development front and in implementing reforms agenda.
“You can win elections with sustainable development,” PM Modi said. It is significant because Mr Modi has led his party to more victories over the last eight years than ever in its history.
The BJP, of course, during the time has become one of the largest political parties in the world, and its election machinery is fiercely competitive and combative, its tactics rattle the opponents and its campaign is never ending. But such factors of realpolitik aside, Mr Modi’s stated belief that its core foundation is vikas is very welcome and positive.
Interestingly, Mr Modi also distinguished between good and bad welfare politics and government spending. He cautioned people against politicians who indulge in shortcut politics, and loot the taxpayer, in an effort to grab power through “false promises”. Earlier, PM Modi had waged an unabated war against what he termed the revadi culture, referring to electoral populism of making everything, including power supply or transport passes, totally free.
By bringing a sui generis mix of development and welfare, ranging from mass-scale direct cash transfers, focus on reforms and privatisation, infrastructure building, healthcare insurance programmes, education, among others, Mr Modi has shown that development and election wins can go hand in hand. Will the Opposition take note, or will it see it as a ploy, mere words, and continue to challenge him by taking on identity and irresponsible populism? Time will tell.
