Rajasthan BJP - An Ideological Counterpoint To The Congress
rgupta.substack.com
Published in The Telegraph It is fashionable to claim equidistance from the Congress Party and the Bharatiya Janta Party by saying there is no difference between the two. The last one year of Modi Sarkar has of course shown this to be false. In an obvious departure from the UPA, leaders of the current dispensation have been at the forefront of polarizing the polity along communal lines resulting in a 25% increase in communal riots under the Modi Sarkar. The leadership of Modi and Shah has shown how vengeful and ruthless a regime - driven solely by power and unencumbered by democratic principles - can be. Having used electoral victory to marginalize all institutional and principled dissidence, the Modi and Shah combine sees little value in legitimating their rule through niceties of democratic governance. Hence Modi Sarkar has been marked by its repeated and excessive use of Executive power to marginalize Opposition, disregard for competence and quality criteria to appoint its loyalists in important institutions, and a vicious crackdown on civil society as an institution and as individuals. The hounding of Teesta Setalvad who has pursued accountability for Gujarat riots is not just personal but is being used to send a message to other would-be dissidents. While the Central Government has shown the difference in the nature of leadership of the two political parties, the BJP led Government in Rajasthan is in many ways the true ideological counterpoint to the Congress. Under the guise of “efficiency”, radical changes are being wrought in Rajasthan, which will alter the nature and role of the State itself. Yet privatization fundamentalism has so overtaken the public discourse that the changes have been cheered without discussion about their implications. Two themes of the Raje Government - elite capture and privatization of the State - are particularly pernicious and need to be highlighted.
Rajasthan BJP - An Ideological Counterpoint To The Congress
Rajasthan BJP - An Ideological Counterpoint…
Rajasthan BJP - An Ideological Counterpoint To The Congress
Published in The Telegraph It is fashionable to claim equidistance from the Congress Party and the Bharatiya Janta Party by saying there is no difference between the two. The last one year of Modi Sarkar has of course shown this to be false. In an obvious departure from the UPA, leaders of the current dispensation have been at the forefront of polarizing the polity along communal lines resulting in a 25% increase in communal riots under the Modi Sarkar. The leadership of Modi and Shah has shown how vengeful and ruthless a regime - driven solely by power and unencumbered by democratic principles - can be. Having used electoral victory to marginalize all institutional and principled dissidence, the Modi and Shah combine sees little value in legitimating their rule through niceties of democratic governance. Hence Modi Sarkar has been marked by its repeated and excessive use of Executive power to marginalize Opposition, disregard for competence and quality criteria to appoint its loyalists in important institutions, and a vicious crackdown on civil society as an institution and as individuals. The hounding of Teesta Setalvad who has pursued accountability for Gujarat riots is not just personal but is being used to send a message to other would-be dissidents. While the Central Government has shown the difference in the nature of leadership of the two political parties, the BJP led Government in Rajasthan is in many ways the true ideological counterpoint to the Congress. Under the guise of “efficiency”, radical changes are being wrought in Rajasthan, which will alter the nature and role of the State itself. Yet privatization fundamentalism has so overtaken the public discourse that the changes have been cheered without discussion about their implications. Two themes of the Raje Government - elite capture and privatization of the State - are particularly pernicious and need to be highlighted.