Bookmarking the Modi Renaissance
Amit Shah, the Union Cabinet Minister for Home Affairs was the chief guest at the launch of “The Indian Renaissance, The Modi Decade”, a book that takes a comprehensive look at the Modi era. Speaking at the event, Shah listed various achievements and contributions made by the Prime Minister on our daily, political, domestic and international arenas. One of the aspects he dwelled on was how the PM has given pride of place to the Hindi language. He recalled how he himself brushed up his Hindi by translating a Gujarati paper into Hindi every day. At the time an acquaintance of his asked him why he didn’t learn English instead. Amit Shah’s reply was revealing—he told his friend that he knew enough English to understand what was being spoken. And then came the twist, as he added, “However, if someone wants to understand what I (i.e. Amit Shah) am saying, then they should learn Hindi.”
The book is edited by Dr Aishwarya Pandit and features essays by 27 authors, delving into the various aspects that capture the profound transformation of India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the last 10 years. Of course, as Amit Shah pointed out at the launch the impact of Narendra Modi will be felt much beyond his tenure in office. So maybe a sequel is on the cards.
Deja Vu for the Congress
Mani Shankar Aiyar must be having a deja vu. A political storm has broken out over Sonia Gandhi’s comments about President Droupadi Murmu’s hour-long address to the Joint Session of Parliament. Speaking to reporters, the former Congress president observed that the President must have been tired at the end of the long speech and added in sympathy, “poor thing”. Of course, the BJP wasted no time in calling out Sonia Gandhi, accusing her of having an elitist bias against a tribal leader. The PM himself led the attack, accusing the Congress of being anti Adivasis, Dalits and OBCs. The Congress defence was led by its party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, who is a Dalit himself. However, this brings back an earlier instance where Mani Shankar Aiyar had referred to the Prime Minister as a chaiwalla and the BJP pounced upon this comment to target the Congress as being naamdar and elitist. Or the time when Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accused the PM of indulging in neech-rajniti (low level politics), the BJP in turn accused her of insulting the PM since he belonged to a backward caste. Apart from the Delhi election being round the corner, this is also the Budget session of Parliament, so the stakes are indeed high, with the only guarantee being that any word that can be misunderstood, will be.
Shadow Boxing in Delhi
Those who thought that the Delhi elections were a Modi vs Kejriwal affair, should think again because it is fast becoming a Modi vs Modi Lite battle. With Arvind Kejriwal doing a Narendra Modi whether it’s on the slew of welfare schemes or the pursuit of the Hindu vote, he has been accused of being a Modi-Lite. So when the AAP says that in Delhi, Kejriwal is the issue, they should do a rethink. The issue in Delhi, as it was in the Lok Sabha, remains Modi. The question for the voters is whether to vote for a nominee of the original (whoever the BJP appoints as Chief Minister should it win the Delhi vote), thereby a Modi-Proxy—or for a Modi-Lite.