Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Feb 10, 2024

Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Feb 10, 2024

Discrediting the adversary by denigrating his/her integrity is a well-known strategy among conservative and right-wing circles, among others. India’s RSS trained Prime Minister Narendra Modi while replying on February 5, in the Lok Sabha on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address, more or less entirely focused on bad-mouthing the opposition Congress party, its leadership, and policies —where he repeatedly attacked Jawaharlal Nehru, claiming that the Congress leader had in his 1959 Independence day speech spoken of Indians as people as being lazy. Mr. Modi has no qualms twisting the truth [1], had the cheek to say in his own public speeches in 2015 given abroad in South Korea and in China that people used to curse themselves of being born in India [2] till he became Prime Minister from 2014. Spiced-up claims like this have become a daily affair and the BJP propaganda machine has incubated fake news on a mass scale, turning India into the world’s top fake news generator. Ever since 2014, the number of occasions, when Nehru became the center stage of criticism by the BJP is difficult to keep count of, one would think that he is still the Prime Minister of India. It is election time now so whatever is spoken by the leadership of the ruling BJP in the Parliament or outside is all meant to influence public opinion. BJP will keep training its guns on all opposition formations. BJP has just released a propaganda White paper blaming the Congress party and its UPA alliance for the economic ills of India. This white paper on UPA years is more an attempt to deflect the present government’s failures to deliver on tall promises it had made e.g.: provide 2 crore jobs a year, Bring back all black money stashed abroad in 100 days, and deliver Rs 15 lakh to every citizen in his/her bank account; Farmers’ incomes will be doubled, every family will have a house of its own by 2022. The Modi-led BJP Govt has failed the public on these promises, but, despite being in power being in power for ten years it keeps blaming the previous government. Unemployment is one of the biggest problems facing people in India [3]. MGNREGA the vast public employment programme for rural areas created during the UPA years, which was criticised night and day by the BJP when in opposition has acted like a safety valve in an explosive situation in the past 10 years. The Modi years have turned India into the third most important source of illegal immigrants trying to break through the US borders [4]. The Govt. spin masters keep churning ‘an alternative reality’ that India has achieved an unparalleled economic boom —not telling us, that this was limited to a few crony capitalists like Adani & Ambani who are in the elite $100 billion club. As the national election gets closer the opposition INDIA alliance should expose the social and economic failures of the Modi Government. India alliance must campaign on bread-and-butter issues and not be drawn into communal and identitarian issues that the BJP will throw at them.

February 9, 2024 —HK