As the (Modi-led) Right goes marching Left

The whole tide of history is changing. The other day watching BJP MP from Bihar’s Madhubani Hukmdev Narayan Yadav giving uber gyan on farmer woes in Parliament replete with Laluisms, I couldn’t help but wonder whether the world had turned upside down. After all, here was a right-wing BJP MP extolling the virtues of how Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a messiah for the poor and farmer community. It could well have been a socialist or a UPA constituent speaking, such was the vigour and robustness of his argument. This exchange took place as part of the Budget debate and may have been missed by a whole lot of people. I found it riveting and I will explain why. On checking, I discovered that Mr Yadav was indeed a socialist having been with the Bharatiya Lok Dal and then the Janata Party. After being a three-time MLA, he was elected to the sixth Lok Sabha in 1977 and by 1980 to the Rajya Sabha after the Janata Party experiment failed. In 1989, he was re-elected to the ninth Lok Sabha in his capacity as the president of the JP in Bihar. He then became a Union minister in 1990. He was re-elected to the 13th Lok Sabha in 1999 for his third term and held several portfolios in the Central government as a junior minister. In 2009, he returned to the Lok Sabha for his fourth term and in 2014 came back on a BJP ticket (traversing the political spectrum, he had joined the BJP in 1993). Now 77, it is believed Mr Yadav is Mr Modi’s choice to be the next vice-president later this year. I can understand why.

His forthright speech defending the PM was an eye opener. Speaking extempore, Mr Yadav lauded the PM for his agrarian focus saying: “Khet mein pani aayega, khushali aayegi, chehre pe lali aayegi.” He went on to highlight how the Kaushal Gramin Yojana and Mudra Yojana will change the face of rural India; he had the treasury benches in titters. In the past too, he has made many memorable speeches, most notable being the one in 2015 when while participating in a debate, he had practically roared: “Why can’t we restructure MGNREGA and the Food Security Act? Kya yeh param Brahma parameshwar ka avatar hain (are they incarnations of God)?” Now the same MGNREGA has got its largest outlay ever. Then, even the BJP benches had hesitated to applaud him. Here is a Lohiaite who has become a staunch supporter of the PM. But what is remarkable is that he has not given up his socialist moorings. Speaking in the Lok Sabha on March 16, 2015 his advocacy of farmer rights was aptly filibustering:

“They say that in nine months a child can be born but this government did nothing. What an unscientific argument! Yes, it is a law of nature that a child is born in nine months. But can that child then have a baby of its own in another nine months? How illogical!”

“Harvard economists will destroy this country. A Hindustani economist is needed. Like Arun Jaitley.”

“You say you gave food security. We are the ones who produce the food, we are the ones who slog in the fields, and you treat us like beggars. ‘Everyone will get one kg rice and three kg wheat’. You are big people, economists. Why don’t you live on one kg rice every month?”

“You oppose just for the sake of opposing, because you have to justify your Opposition status. If you wish, send your leaders to me for six months of training to learn what we used to do when we were in Opposition. If you have to take part in a drama, you should learn from a director.”

“I am all for removing all caste-based reservation if the House agrees. But just make one provision. Make inter-caste marriages compulsory for government jobs.”

“Yes, you (Congress) decreased dependence on agriculture, but how? Did you make us officers, give employment, set up industries, give us cycles, motorcycles? We were farmers, you made us labourers, made us live a life worse than that of insects.”

“You say 26 per cent people are poor but decide to distribute food to 70-80 per cent people. What kind of figures do you have?”

“It is to the credit of the BJP that Hukmdev Narayan Yadav, who never let a party rest in peace, has been accommodated for 20 years now.”

Through his February 10 speech, Mr Yadav embodied how the Indian Right under Mr Modi has taken a Left turn. His speech was emblematic of the transitional nature of the Indian polity. The body politic has been turned on its head with the BJP under Mr Modi espousing the cause of the poor. The suit-boot ki sarkar ka jibe is redefining Indian politics. The UPA model of welfare economics predicated on the European sensibilities of chairperson Sonia Gandhi created several safety nets for the poor, none bigger than MGNREGA. Her dramatic farm loan waiver in 2008 which decidedly altered the mood of rural Bharat and brought the Congress-led UPA back to power in 2009 was seminal in its nuanced understanding of the Indian voter. Corruption and scams, however, tilted the balance decisively in favour of a brand-new style of aggressive leadership; one that promised growth and development imperatives. A demagogue who swept all and sundry off their feet winning the BJP an unprecedented mandate in the process, which brings us to the question of constant elections and how they may have changed Mr Modi’s outlook. Yes, of course, India resides in its villages, there is no argument there. It is a slam dunk. Let us revisit Mr Yadav’s Budget debate speech: “Sanjog aisa hai, ki jab bhi us taraf se Veerappa Moilyji bolte hain, unke baad mujhe bolne ka mauka milta hai, hum dono OBC hain, aapne angrezi mein bola, mein utni angrezi nahin janta, magar mein itna janta hoon ki Hindustan mein do Hindustan rehte hain — India (jo Moilyji represent karte hain) aur Bharat (jiska main rehne wala hoon), aap India ki bhasha aur bhawna bolte aur dekhate hain, main Bharat ki, aur yahi farak hai Congress aur Modiji ki BJP main.” If a Universal Basic Income scheme was in the works, then you can understand what its genesis is? Had the BJP maths on demonetisation worked out, UBI would have been a reality in this Budget, but the money never came through, hence the delay. Just for the record, let me remind everyone that a pilot project of UBI was launched in West Delhi and three places in Madhya Pradesh as far back as 2010.

What a transformational role reversal! The UPA, courtesy the loot and scandals which punctuated its second essay, has lost the moral right to be the saviour and rescuer of the poor and underprivileged and from the far right of the political vector, Mr Modi and the BJP have adorned a neo-centrist position. And this goes beyond optics, it is policy. The BJP has turned left unequivocally and the PM himself is by definition a centrist in his thinking and approach. You can argue that the hotheads in Uttar Pradesh and the lunatic fringe remains the same and is still trying to take over the asylum, barricading itself with hate and animosity. In the unremitting storm of concussive blows, their verbal fusillade remains as dangerous as ever, as they try and script a narrative of hate-mongering. This right will always remain ultra-right and even as the party’s politicians try and delink populist politics from this brand of debased politics, the war of perception continues.

It is said that there is no coincidence in this world — some life-altering events can only be described as happenstance. Mr Modi’s realpolitik is a smart and scientific move to stay relevant with the Indian masses, which are homogeneous for their poverty and destitution. When the Right goes marching Left, it means that the vacuum which nature abhorred has been filled temporarily. If UP, Punjab and Goa are lost by the BJP, will this Left turn lead to a redirectional call via a Right-led compass?