oppn parties Hindutva Elements Derailing PM's Growth Agenda

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  • The home ministry has notified 50% constable-level jobs in BSF for direct recruitment for ex-Agniveers
  • Supreme Court said that if an accused or even a convict obtains a NOC from the concerned court with the rider that permission would be needed to go abroad, the government cannot obstruct renewal of their passport
  • Supreme Court said that criminal record and gravity of offence play a big part in bail decisions while quashing the bail of 5 habitual offenders
  • PM Modi visits Bengal, fails to holds a rally in Matua heartland of Nadia after dense fog prevents landing of his helicopter but addresses the crowd virtually from Kolkata aiprort
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  • Indian women take on Sri Lanka is the first match of the T20 series at Visakhapatnam today
  • U19 Asia Cup: India take on Pakistan today for the crown
  • In a surprisng move, the selectors dropped Shubman Gill from the T20 World Cup squad and made Axar Patel the vice-captain. Jitesh Sharma was also dropped to make way for Ishan Kishan as he was performing well and Rinku Singh earned a spot for his finishing abilities
  • Opposition parties, chiefly the Congress and TMC, say that changing the name of the rural employment guarantee scheme is an insult to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi
  • Commerce secreatary Rajesh Agarwal said that the latest data shows that exporters are diversifying
  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that if India were a 'dead economy' as claimed by opposition parties, India's rating would not have been upgraded
  • The Insurance Bill, to be tabled in Parliament, will give more teeth to the regulator and allow 100% FDI
  • Nitin Nabin took charge as the national working president of the BJP
  • Division in opposition ranks as J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah distances the INDIA bloc from vote chori and SIR pitch of the Congress
U19 World Cup - Pakistan thrash India by 192 runs ////// Shubman Gill dropped from T20 World Cup squad, Axar Patel replaces him as vice-captain
oppn parties
Hindutva Elements Derailing PM's Growth Agenda

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2015-01-03 10:56:52

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
If Narendra Modi harbours any hopes of fulfilling his promises to the electorate, he has to move quickly and put an end to the shenanigans of the various offshoots of Hindu extremist organizations. For, in the end, if he fails, it will for their excesses.

Apart from giving the party and the government a bad name, these unruly elements are providing the Opposition with an excuse of not cooperating with the government in Parliament. In the present scenario, the BJP needs all the help it can get to push through much needed legislation. Ordinances can be used only in emergencies.

The Prime Minister has done well to meet secretaries of all departments from time to time to tell them what the government expects of them. This will make them work harder and in tune with what the government wants.

Now, the time has come for him to make a list of all such Hindu organizations and call them for a meeting. He should drill in their heads in no uncertain terms that the government will not tolerate any kind of disruption. The government, if it is committed to the development of the country, needs to prevent these elements from disrupting the growth agenda.

But will Narendra Modi do this?

His record in Gujarat does not give much hope. He had ruled Gujarat and brought development there by letting the Hindutva elements disrupt the harmony of the state from time to time. He had thought it to be a minor digression in the scenario. But India is different from Gujarat.

First of all, the government does not have the required numbers in the Rajya Sabha. Any measure it takes for development needs to be passed by both houses of the parliament to become law. The Opposition will not cooperate with the government by citing the agenda of these Hindutva elements. The government will have to take recourse to ordinances frequently, which is not the way a democracy should be governed.

Hence, Modi has no alternative but to put a tight leash on these elements.

The nation cannot be made to suffer for what a tiny minority of Hindus think is right. If ghar wapsi or reconversion is an issue that is more important than bringing the economy back on track, there seems to be little hope for this great nation.

Till now, Narendra Modi has done little else than show his annoyance at these disruptions. But as a leader who has given the BJP its biggest electoral win, one thinks his writ should run on a broader scale. It is true that the large scale mobilization by RSS and people like Ramdev helped in bringing victory for the BJP, but the payback should not include anything that hampers growth.

The best way to bring an end to this would be for the Prime Minister to meet all these hotheads and tell them point blank that such tactics will not be tolerated. He should demand space from them to push his growth and development agenda. If they still pursue their anti-national agenda, the PM should let loose the full force of the state police against them.