“Insult” is perhaps the favourite word that India’s right-wing politicians use to spin their own narrative about the politics of their opponents. They would like the people to believe that this nation — its past, and present — has been nothing short of perfect and that anyone who wants to throw light on its seamier side are “insulting” it. The BJP has been the best at working this strategy and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, has been its most frequent victim.
Mr Gandhi was thus found “insulting” India in the speech that he delivered at the University of Texas in Dallas the other day, if Union minister Giriraj Singh is to be believed. In fact, he even said that Mr Gandhi is a traitor and “always promotes China over India”, also that it seems to him that he is thriving on China's money and hence feels obliged to go abroad and promote its brand.
What is it that Mr Gandhi said about India that invited the label of “traitor”? Reports say that in his speech the Congress leader underscored the need to focus on manufacturing in India. Painting the gloomy picture of employment generation not only in India but in the West, too, Mr Gandhi said that India, the United States and other countries are facing the problem of unemployment while China is not as it is dominating production. There is no shortage of skills in India and the country could compete with China only if it starts aligning itself for production, Mr Gandhi reportedly said.
It is a universally acknowledged fact that the East Asian nations, first Japan, then Taiwan and lately China, have leveraged their availability of cheap manpower to become manufacturing hubs of the world. They all started on the lower strata of the value chain and moved upwards slowly, in the process, bringing economic prosperity to their people. As time went by, they invested hugely in research and development, and have become a major presence. The governments in these countries played a big role in making it happen through policy and funding.
The government led by the BJP, Mr Giriraj Singh’s party, introduced in 2014 “Atma Nirbhar Bharat”, an ambitious project that called upon industries in India and abroad to “Make in India”. The project indeed notched substantial gains, especially in defence production, but failed to turn India into a major manufacturing hub for the world. At a time when India is facing the highest-ever figures of unemployment, the BJP and the government will do well to make the necessary changes in policies and funding patterns and handhold industries instead of hectoring Mr Gandhi.
Mr Gandhi’s observation that the RSS is an anti-woman organisation has also got on to the nerves of the BJP and its spokespersons. The RSS calls itself a voluntary organisation and says it is working with a vision and mission to “carry the nation to the pinnacle of glory through organising the entire society”. True, it has a women’s wing, but it is the duty of the BJP leaders who take up the cudgels on behalf of the Sangh to explain why a body that wants to “organise the entire society” should limit its primary membership to men. The party must also realise that untimely, unhistorical and unsubstantiated attempts to term Opposition members “traitors” will eventually lose their punch.
