As the elections draw to a close, the fervor of campaigning and rallies has reached its peak, especially in Kashi, which holds immense significance for multiple reasons. It is revered as a sacred site for Hindus across the nation and is blessed by the presence of the holy river Ganga. Moreover, it is the area where Prime Minister Modi is set to submit his nomination on May 14th for the upcoming phase of elections. Leading a roadshow from Lanka Chowk in Varanasi, PM Modi is accompanied by Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath. Incumbent MP and candidate from Varanasi, PM Modi faces competition from Congress’ UP party chief Ajay Rai in the constituency.
There have been a lot of debates and discussions with regards to the wealth distribution survey, the inheritance tax as well as regarding the latest attack launched by the Aam Aadmi Party leader and the Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal, who demanded to understand as to who would succeed the Prime Minister after Prime Minister Narendra Modi turned 75years old.
In response to the attack, the Prime Minister has also swiftly remarked that there maybe families and dynasties and even politicians who may want to give their legacies to their heirs and inheritors, however, the Prime Minister stated that his legacy and inheritance will be passed on to the people of the country who he believes to be his heirs.
“There is no one name to Modi’s inheritance, You people are Modi’s heirs, Your family and your children are Modi’s heirs and I have to pass everything on to you as inheritance. I have to provide for you, a peaceful life, I have to give you the guarantee of your childten’s bright future and I have to handover a developed India to all of you as inheritance,’stated Prime Minister Modi.
On the subject, Megha Sharma, Executive Editor, NewsX was joined by a panel of experts for an exclusive discussion. The panel included Congress spokesperson, Adv Mahima Singh; BJP spokesperson, Raman Malik; Joyeeta Basu, Editor, The Sunday Guardian and Political analyst, Nikhil Mehta.
“From wealth distribution to caste survey, to talking about inheritance tax and then about Muslim reservation and then proceeding to bringing to surface the Manmohan Singh comment that had been made when the UPA era was ruling the country about how “Muslims have the first right to India’s resources” to the Prime Minister now having an altruistic view of building and running the country and giving it all to the people of the country when he decides to retire from politics, how does Congress view this?” The discussion commenced with Megha Sharma’s question directed towards the Congress spokesperson, Adv Mahima Singh, to which the Congress spokesperson was quick to respond.
PM Modi is a master of digression
She stated that the Prime Minister is a master of digression. “He can hurl huge slogans and phrases at the public whenever he wants to but it is all whimsical because when it comes to the ground, what is the reality on the ground, in India, today, is an unprecedented unemployment, inflation, crimes against women, with SCs-STs-OBCs all facing atrocities,” she asserted that the gap between the rich and the poor has widened like never before. “Forty percent of India’s wealth is enjoyed by the one percent crony capital friends of the Prime Minister. She brings to light the discussion that took place amongst the congress party leaders regarding the disproportionate rate of changing of apparels to the income of the Prime Minister, she mentioned, “He earns around one and a half lakhs per month but the suits and boots that he keeps changing, we don’t know from where all that money comes from but it is the poor and the middle class and the women and the SCs-ST-OBCs of this country who have faced the brunt.” She further adds that the rate of crimes against the SCs-STs has increased by forty- eight percent during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governance. “He and his ministers have never really responded to our questions regarding the fact that it was Narendra Modi’s own ministers who were advocating for inheritance tax but the question still stands that even though the Prime Minister says that the people of the nation are his inheritors, what exactly is he leaving in legacy,” with this, Adv Mahima Singh concluded her opening remarks.
Newsx Executive Editor, megha further directed Congress Spokesperson’s question to the Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson, Raman Malik. She asks, “Raman Mallik, would you like to respond to the question that Congress is asking, what is the legacy that PM Modi is leaving behind?”
The legacy of Nepotism-free India
“Surely, it’s not going to be the legacy of Mountbatten, or the night drive of IIT, or for that matter, the stories of London, Columbia or Afghanistan. Surely, it’s not going to be all of those but the legacy that will be left behind is a nepotism-free India, a developed India or atleast India which is on the fast track to becoming a developed nation, a self reliant India and an India that can look into the eyes of the masters who signed the 2008-09 MOA in beijing,”Raman Malik emphasised on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s vision for a developed India that can stand at par with the officials who signed the 2008-09 MOA in beijing. He further addressed the remark made by senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar regarding Pakistan’s sovereignty and their possession of the atom bombs. He asserted that Pakistan was not competent to manufacture bangles. “They did not have atta, electricity, they did not even have the shame. So they should understand that this is the legacy of Bharat(India) and not about discovering India,”Raman Malik concluded his introductory remarks.
Progressing into the discussion, Megha directs Raman Malik’s reference of Mani Shankar Aiyar towards the Adv Mahima Singh to get Congress’ perspective on the comment that the senior Congress leader had previously made urging people to respect Pakistan and stating that Pakistan is not wearing bangles. “The comment was so widely criticised and mocked that the Congress had to distance itself from the comment,” Megha reiterated citing Raman Mallik’s remark.
However, the Congress spokesperson was swift to respond as she asserted that the comment was not made recently, instead it was a month old comment and that Mani Shankar Aiyar’s comment was irrelevant when Congress is being discussed because the party had already taken the due action against the party leader. “Even today, when it comes to talking for the nation, the Congress party takes a very firm stand against those who speak against the nation and the issues of the people of this country instantaneously.”Adv Mahima stated firmly. She further takes a dig at the BJP stating that the party cannot stand the truth and is intolerant, as she questions the Bharatiya Janata Party’s stance against Tarun Vijay who had previously passed a remark calling Lord Krishna, black along with calling out the people of the country for their skin color. “And yet no action was taken against the BJP leader. He is not only an ideologue of the BJP but he is also a big leader of the party. But none of the BJP leaders, not even the Prime Minister called him out for his remark,” Adv Mahima countered.
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BJP’s legacy is the concealment of the poor in the country
“The BJP’s mindset and the legacy that they are leaving for the people of this country, is the green curtain on the poor people of this country,” Adv Mahima stated addressing the current scenario in the country. She cited the Namaste Trump event and she light on the fact that there was a wall buit to conceal the poor people of the country and then drew similarity between the Namaste Trump event and The recent event of G20 that was hosted in Delhi, the capital of the country, when there was a curtain put to hide the poor section of the country. “So that is the mindset of the BJP and people have very well understood the same which is why the party is losing ground and they are rattled today This is the reason why their own ideologue, RSS has also distanced itself from the Bharatiya Janata Party,” She asserted.
Taking the Adv Mahima’s point, Megha redirected the question and asked Raman Mallik if he would like to respond to the allegations. “Would you like to respond to the allegations that everything is put behind curtains, merely, to put a show of India’s brilliance and vibrance when the reality is absolutely different?”
“In the Vigyan Bhawan, when the entire International conference used to end, Lutyens used to stroll the entire city of Delhi, this is from the time when Manmohan singh was the Prime Minister who was solely controlled by Sonia Gandhi, she used to have his remote control. Now on the contrary, when G20 happened, every part of the country was showcased, even the state of Jammu and Kashmir which comes under the Congress’ goverance was displayed in the good light even though the state was dealing with the misery of poverty at the time,” Raman Malik indicated that the BJP government did not try to conceal the poverty in the country. He further highlighted that Congress had a habit of disgracing Hinduism, they referred to the Congress spokesperson’s previous remark calling Lord Krishna, a mythological character and drew a similarity with Congress’ similar remarks over Lord Rama, he stated that all the other Hindu gods, similar to Lord Ram will get their own temples in the country. He asserted that the people of the country need development and independence from nepotism that the Congress had created, which the BJP government will provide for them despite the Congress’ Muslim league philosophy.
The Congress spokesperson was quick to offer a counter statement for the BJP spokesperson as she brought to light the apology issued by BJP leader Tarun Vijay and asserted that his statement stating that they are not racist because they accept south Indians as their brothers and siters was a qestionable statement to which BJP did not take a stand against, further, she also cited a recent statement made by the Assam Chief Minister, Himanata Biswa Sarma, on his twitter handle on X that it is the duty of all the other classes to be at the service of the upper classes, where he also cited a shlok from the Bhagwat Geeta. Adv Mahima stated that nobody from the BJP spoke against the Assam CM’s remark which reflects the Bharatiya Janata Party’s true mentality, irrespective of what the BJP spokesperson said. ‘It is not going to work because the people can see through them,” she concluded her remark.
Public perception of the ongoing political fiasco
Taking the conversation further, Megha Sharma directed a question towards the analayst Joyeeta Basu, Editor, The Sunday Guardian, regarding the public perception of the ongoing political fiasco. “How do you view the comment made by the Prime Minister, this cacophony that we witness with regards to first, the caste census, then the inheritance tax, wealth redistribution survey, what has it all come to? Is it just facade because of the election season? What is the perception of the people to all that is transpiring?” Megha asked Joyeeta Basu.
“Before I go into that, I’m just quickly reminded of an incident regarding the green curtains concealing the poor. If you remember in the Common Wealth Games which was widely covered due to the corruption activites involved. It was at that time when Delhi was covered with green curtains and screens everywhere so that the poor people could not be seen and this was actually commented on by the British Press, who said the most awful things about India. It was widely talked about how the green screens were being used by the Sheila Dikshit-Manmohan Singh government at that time to hide the poor in the country. So when it comes to green screens and poor people, I would say both the parties are equally responsible,”Joyeeta addressed the issue of the BJP government attempting to conceal the poor people in the country behind in curtains and walls and highlighted that this practice was not only central to the BJP government but had been done by the leaders of both the parties owing to the situation and circumstances. She further addressed the ‘Modi’s inheritors’ issue and stated that one among the many reasons that Prime Minister Modi is trusted by the citizens of the country and is so popular is because he is seen as being above nepotism. She stated that since the Prime Minister does not have a family member in the political arena, it is seen as an advantage on his part and when he says that his legacy will be passed on to the people of the country, people believe it which primarily differentiates him from the other politicians.
Nearing the end of the discussion, Megha prompts a question towards the political analyst, Nikhil Jain. “when 2014 election campaigning started and BJP took over from the UPA, the narrative that was played out by the BJP was that the UPA is corrupt, that the Congress is corrupt and it is dynastic politics, that has led to the fall of the country and the narrative has carried on from 2014 to 2019 to 2024, and there have been two successive elections that have been won by the BJP on this plan, besides the others that have been played out over the years, over the terms, now this time again when the inheritance tax hullabaloo comes to the fore and allegations being made that wealth distribution is being done simply because the share of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and the Dalits will then be further divided up to give a percentage of it to the Muslim minorities. Now in a situation, it’s like, Modi is once again playing on the cards, that he doesn’t have a family to bequeeath his political leadership, his position, there’s nobody he will fall back on. Everything is out in the open. He is working for the people, he is working for the development, he is working for the welfare and therefore the people do not have a reason to pinpoint, raise questions on him, that how are you filling the coffers? Who are you filling the coffers for?” Megha summarised the discussion as she asked for the analysts comments over the same.
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Concluding remarks
Nikhil Jain took the opportunity to eleborate on the Manmohan Singh statement regarding the Muslims having the first right over the country’s resources, he stated that it was misquoted and was not what the former Prime Minister had said because he had also included several other classes and castes. He then asserted that all the narratives that the Prime Minister had tried to play with had evidently failed and all his claims had been for the sake of the Lok Sabha Elections. Further, he addressed the issue of dynastic politics and asserted that BJP and NDA are the biggest proponents of the dynastic politics. He went on to take a dig at the Prime Minister’s comments on not having a family. He criticised the remark stating that in a country where, culturally, we value our close knit familiy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that he has no family, when in actuality, he had five siblings, multiple nephews and nieces, his wife and also his mother.
Passing the floor to Joyeeta, Megha took the final concluding remarks where Joyeeta Basu asserted that there has been a lot of deliberate misinterpretation and misrepresentation going on in the current political scenario. In the concluding remarks, Nikhil, further, taking the floor asserted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had maintained the charade for a very long time and while the people of the country beleived him earlier, they do not believe him anymore which is why the party has to once again go back to its narrative of Hindu-Muslim.
Concluding the discussion, Megha remarked that while Prime Minister Narendra Modi might not have an inheritor to pass on his political legacy to, however, that is untrue for the other people or ministers who are part of his cabinet and other sitting members of the Parliament or those who are fighting the elections. This, therefore, underlines the subject of nepotism and dynastic politics in question.
