How NaMo Bhakts Think NaMo Will Rule India

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

The most ubiquitous thing in the Indian social media space today is the NaMo Bhakt. They are present everywhere, so much so that if Indian general election is done exclusively online, then NaMo will win hands down; not only will the BJP under him get to the magic mark of 272, they may even get 543 out of 543 Lok Sabha seats. These bhakts give unwavering support to NaMo and they all hope with all their heart that he will become the Prime Minister of India and will rule India and will bring prosperity to the nation in such a way that India will become a super power in the next five years time. These bhakts are generally abusive of those who criticise NaMo and think that those who oppose NaMo are traitors, with hardly any patriotism and are therefore prospective candidates for sedition charges to be imposed on. They were hardcore Rahul Gandhi haters until Arvind Kejriwal came up meticulously propping up facts about Gujarat’s flawed development model, when they sincerely transferred their hatred to the latter gentleman.  It is always good fun to keep following these bhakts and indulging in conversations with them. They all invariably keep similar sentiments on the subject of how NaMo will rule India. The following is how the NaMo bhakts think he will do it.

First of all the hyper patriotic bhakts (oh yes they think so) believe that NaMo will order an attack against Pakistan and will wage war against it if ever that country again attacks Indian jawans at the Indo-Pak border. No need to consider any other factors including the strategic issues associated with such an attack, the bhakts think NaMo will teach that country a ‘lesson’ if it ever shows the audacity to attack Indian jawans.

The bhakths also think that NaMo, being a lionhearted, patriotic Indian, will bomb China if it ever shows the belligerence to claim as their own any of India’s territory in the east. No such incursions from the big, powerful neighbour will be tolerated. Military might of the enemy, where China’s military strength is far more superior than India’s, will not be an issue as long as you have the courage to sabotage enemy intentions, bhakts think. They also think that timidity of those who ruled India until now is the main reason why a country like China keeps on claiming territories of India as their own and when the brave NaMo rules India, any country that shows the impudence of claiming any part of India as their own will rue their rashness.

Once NaMo becomes the Prime Minister, corruption would become a thing of the past in India. It was he, who was in the forefront of the crusade against the corrupt Congress, these bhakts tell us. NaMo’s party, their ideological mentor RSS, and above all, the bhakts will give him all the support required to make this happen. You know, he has already made arrangements to figure out the intricacies of the internal workings of corruption with the re-induction of two of the corruption tainted leaders in Karnataka. They will give NaMo an in-depth knowledge about how corruption works, which is needed to entirely wipe out the menace.

NaMo and his bhakts have been vociferously asking the UPA government to bring back money stashed away in Swiss banks by many politicians of India (read Congress politicians). The bhakts think that NaMo is serious about his intentions of bringing back the money to India. They believe that within one year, maximum two years, NaMo will bring all that money back to India. Anyways he already has the services of Dr. Subramaniam Swamy at his disposal, who incidentally knows more details about Indian politicians holding covert accounts in Swiss banks than those banks themselves. Therefore bringing back the money is quite easy these bhakts think; only what was missing was a brave heart to do that, which NaMo has.

The bhakts think that the Indian legal system should just hang all those convicts who are under death row. They think there is no need to follow what the ‘cowards’ call "due legal process". Just hang them all, is what they call for and they think NaMo will do that, because he is decisive (did I say ‘divisive’?). They think that all those human rights activists in India who call for abolition of death penalty are ‘traitors’ and the international human rights organisations that call for it, ‘foreign agents’ involved in espionage and possible sabotage in India.

NaMo-bhakts also think that Maoist insurgents in the red corridor in India are at best ‘armed nuisance’, nothing more than that and the reason why they still run amok in various parts of the country is because of lack of political will of those who governed India. What one needs to have is that strength of mind, which NaMo has and so he will just order the armed forces in the country to ambush the Maoists and they will be exterminated with ease. 

Terrorists should be shot at sight is what the bhakts think and they show the incident that happened in Gujarat as an example, where three alleged terrorists were encountered by Ahmedabad Police Crime Branch. Again, due legal process, is nothing but humbug for the bhakts and this is how all terrorists must be treated, only then can our nation become strong and safe and the only man who can do this is NaMo, the bhakts say.

The best thing that will happen to Indians, particularly the middle class, if NaMo comes to rule India is that we will no longer be made to pay that little annoyance of a tax called the ‘income tax’. NaMo’s Finance Minister-to-be Dr. Subramaniam Swamy has already explained his idea of a no income tax regime for India. Though it has been stalled for now, the bhakts think that Dr. Swamy will re-invent the idea at the behest of NaMo and that economic blessing will be showered on the Indians once NaMo becomes the PM, sooner rather than later. Now, that is a revolutionary idea from the ‘visionary’ NaMo, the bhakts believe.

Once NaMo starts ruling India, the world will know that the country has a strong PM. Then it is important to strengthen the nation further and the bhakts have no doubt that NaMo will take the right steps towards it. The most important thing to do then would be to increase the defence spending of the country so that we have the latest arms and ammunitions with us. We need to acquire more fighter jets, more nuclear war heads and more robust submarines, so that we have the strongest armed forces in the world. It may lead to lesser social spending on subjects like education and health; but who needs education and health when you have the strongest army in the world, the bhakts boast.

The bhakts ask other, “haven’t you seen the roads and highways of Gujarat?” and then shows that photo of some city in South Korea made famous by the online bhakts, with writings in Korean language in many places. The bhakts are generally quite innocent you know, and hence they believe such things instantly and so they will tell you that once NaMo becomes the PM of India all roads in the country will look like that in the photo of the Korean city, which the bhakt believes is that of some road in Gujarat. 

When NaMo becomes PM, the markets will rise with hope and investment from abroad will rush into India. When BJP governments came in many states in the recently conducted state elections in India, the Sensex soared and the bhakts show this as evidence that India’s economic condition will brighten up once NaMo becomes PM. They say that rupee will appreciate against dollar and will touch even Rs. 40 per dollar once NaMo becomes PM.  Nancy Powell has already come to meet NaMo and the bhakts believe that the day is not far off when Obama himself come to meet NaMo. It’s not that the bhakts need American approval for NaMo, but one can never reject if Obama appreciates NaMo, isn’t it?

All in all the bhakts think that once NaMo becomes the PM and rules India, to quote Malayalam script writer Sreenivasan’s famous dialogue, “dollar kunnukoodum, vyavasayashalakal uyarum, 5 varsham kondu nammude rajyam oru harithaswarga bhoomi aayi maarum”, which could be roughly translated as, “dollar will come in great numbers, industries will come up, within 5 years our country will become the greenest and wealthiest country in the world”. Many of us non-bhakts may think that these expectations of the NaMo-bhakts have ridiculously unsound logic, but haven’t these bhakts already Modi-fied conventional logic?

Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place

For all practical considerations, the Indian democracy has become much similar to the UK and US democracy insofar as the major political parties with a national appeal are concerned. Like in those two countries, citizens’ choice has been in the main restricted to two political parties – the Congress and the BJP. 

The conservatives and the liberals have been at loggerheads in most political systems. When the Tories and the Republican Party are the conservatives in UK and US respectively, the Labour Party and the Democratic Party are the liberals. Such absolute categorisation may not be possible in the Indian context, but Congress can be considered more liberal and BJP more conservative in their overall political ideals. However in the coming general election, the choice Indians have to make would not be as easy as between the liberals and the conservatives, because it is a choice between a corrupt Congress and a communal BJP. Without any other competent alternative, the Indian public, much to its dismay, is caught between a rock and a hard place.

As has been the case with general elections in the recent past a third front, a conglomeration of many regional parties under the leadership of the national parties CPI (M) and CPI, has emerged a few months prior to the election. The 10 party front includes the four left parties, SP, JD (U), JD (S), JVM, BJD and AGP (AIADMK had been a party to it, but later opted out). It is a loose association of political parties with a proclaimed policy of keeping Congress and BJP away from power, whereas in reality, most of the leaders of these parties keep a covert desire of being the Prime Minister of India and is perhaps their sole reason to join such a political front. Without a coherent political ideal and with many internal contradictions this front is bound to crumble after the elections, if not before. If by any chance such a front comes to power in the centre, they will face a mammoth challenge of creating a common minimum programme of governance that will have a national outlook. In the absence of a strong national party in the front (the CPI (M) is a national party only in technical terms, in real terms they are now a party with only a limited influence across the country), the satraps of the regional parties will probably govern with obtuse regional outlook, which would be inimical to the future of the nation.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has come up as an alternative form of political party; a party that has come with an image of being an outsider, something that seems to have the same dislike for traditional politics played in India as has most ordinary Indians. Though it is highly unlikely that it will get more than 9-10 seats in Parliament elections, it has given India an alternative way of playing politics. Many of the practical ideas and political ideals that AAP has been practising in their short term as a political party have already had great impact in the Indian political scene. Many traditional political parties including the BJP and the Congress have already started copying them, which is a good sign for Indian democracy. These traditional parties have understood now that those are the things that ordinary Indians expect from their political parties. In that sense the arrival of AAP in the Indian political scene is a welcome development.

The Congress doesn’t seem to have any new idea with them to run the country and the fact that Congress sees Rahul Gandhi as the only option available for them shows the ideological and organisational poverty that the party is afflicted with now. To save Congress from the nadir of corruption it needs a strong leader with high level of probity, but it doesn’t seem to be forthcoming unless Congressmen drop their foolish affinity to the Nehru-Gandhi clan. 

Modi’s BJP has been at the forefront of anti-corruption crusade against the Congress. But they are committing the same crime as those they oppose. They are not doing anything against corruption per se as can be evident from the fact that they are bringing back Yedyurappa and the Reddy brothers and some others who have been facing trials on corruption charges. At least there are two ministers in Modi’s Gujarat cabinet who are facing corruption charges. Still Modi and his bhakths want us to believe that he is working tirelessly against corruption. Many land dealings that the Adani group has done in Modi's Gujarat are far from being transparent. Arvind Kejriwal and his AAP have been asking many questions relating to this to Modi, but he hasn’t given answers to any of these questions. It is very important for Narendra Modi to dispel all doubts about him by coming out openly against the accusations and coming out clean on these allegations with his answers to them, as he is the Prime Ministerial candidate of the BJP.

It is a shame that a democracy as vibrant as India has only two options to choose from when it comes to the decision of who would rule it. In the absence of a good option, people would be forced to decide between the lesser of the evils. However, to decide between a corrupt-inept Congress and a corrupt-communal BJP, to decide between an incompetent leader and an authoritarian leader, would indeed be a hard task for us. We Indians surely deserve better.