Why Should The Indian Right Rejoice And Get Ready For The Battle At The Same Time

Join in the battle wherein no man can fail,
For whoso fadeth and dieth, yet his deed shall still prevail.

                                                                          -William Morris

In the 1972 Francesco Rosi classic Il caso Mattei (The Mattei Affair), there are two interesting conversations; at one point in the movie one of the character proclaims “the Italian economic miracle (of the early sixties) is mostly due to the great Enrico Mattei”, while at another point in the movie, another character avers that had the “dangerous Enrico Mattei succeeded, then democracy in Italy would have been finished”. (The first statement is based on a perceived reality whereas the second one is based on a mere ‘possibility’)

Controversial Italian film maker Francesco Rosi has tried to maintain the neutrality of narrative in his political thriller, The Mattei Affair, and has largely succeeded. But Enrico was what is classically known in the liberal circles as, a “deeply divisive” figure. He was a Christian Democrat who had fought against the Fascist, yet he was also staunchly and unfashionably patriotic as a public administrator. Unfortunately, he died in a mysterious plane crash in 1962 without fully realising his true potential.

This is a classic malaise of the 20^th Century western world, wherein right-wing politics and economics never bloomed beyond a certain nascent budding stage because of the historic baggage of fascism. In fact, had the trio of Reagan, Thatcher and to a lesser degree, Kohl, not emerged in the 20^th century political firmament, then the world would have just remained a kaleidoscope of different grey shades of socialism.

In the post-colonial India too, the non-socialist alternate ‘right’ political thinkers and leaders met with an almost similar fate. It is as if destiny is ranged against the right. As Narendrabhai mentioned in his Pathankot address last week, “had any of the original triumvirate; Sardar Patel, Ambedkar and S.P. Mookerjee; not died a pre-mature death, then India would have been a great economic power many decades ago”. To that extent, the Nehru dynasty and the associated socialist parasites have been singularly lucky in propagating themselves towards prosperity.

Indian Right has been rekindled

“It is not just the governing class at fault in India” Modi insisted in his speech at the Mumbai Stock exchange yesterday, “even you (the average people) are responsible for the degeneration of our value system”. He then went on to ask in a light hearted manner, “Should I criticize you, will you be angry? For I still have a lot more work to do (as an elected public representative)…” and the audience went into a guffaw.

Narendra Modi, then went on to explain in simple words, with our regular bus travel anecdotes, as to how socialism has created a rights-based society that encourages subsidized bus travel, but never creates public ownership. This is the fundamental gap of a socialist democracy that no leader has ever explained to Indians – wherein government owns every public good while the voting populace simply rents it out temporarily. It is also inherent in our “five year governance contracts” that we give out to political parties as Modi explained so vividly.

“Janbaghidari” or “participatory public ownership” should be the true cornerstone of any democracy, but the leftist and dynastic political forces cannot allow such true democracy to sustain, for then their own role as providers would be rendered useless. This is the crux of the reason why the socialists are afraid of the right. This is also the fundamental reason why the Dilli elite are scared of Modi as we discovered in the last fortnight during the Uttarakhand disaster.

The fact that Modi can create public-government participation at such a short notice in another state outside Gujarat is truly a scary prospect for the secular-socialists. It turns their entire Gujarat-model-cannot-be-replicated-on-India argument upside down. The way in which the “Modi rescue act” of Uttarakhand is being taunted as a ‘Rambo in action’ belies the ultimate fears of Dilli. By acting so quickly and so efficiently, Modi has squandered all the best laid plans of token gestures of Congress president flagging of rescue trucks – for this is how socialism should work.

In the classical socialist narrative there has to be a lot of tokenism; token gestures of action by the rulers, followed by token anger by the ruling queen bee at bureaucratic and local level incompetencies, a token Muslim pilot rescuing a Hindu pilgrim to propagate secularism and finally some token aerial surveys and visits by the royal family. The number of casualties is a mere statistic in the socialist structure, what is important is that these tokenism procedures are followed. How dare Modi break this protocol and actually go out there to reduce the casualty? That is the important question, not the number of people he rescued or whether they were all Gujaratis.

Nothing short of a Ram Rajya should be the goal

Another aspect of Narendra Modi that creates mortal fear among the secular-socialists is that he refuses to bite the classical Hindutva bullet. When Modi speaks of Ram Rajya in the true idiom of inclusive growth to the meanest possible denominator of the society, it is hard to brand him as a communal even for the most imaginative spin doctors.

By quoting Tulsidas instead of an Urdu couplet, Modi has subtly sent across the message to his core voters, but by invoking the Mahatma’s Ram Rajya he has left no scope for secular criticism. Indian right has truly evolved from the 90’s Hindutva platform and the intellectual class is clueless on how to counter it.

No doubt the capacity of the dynasty to perpetuate itself is second to none and the ecosystems built around the dynasty ensure that it is difficult to breach its shield. Yet for the first time in independent India there is realistic chance of a true right leadership to attain centre stage. It is that defining moment that the western democracies went through in the 70’s and 80’s; when Indira Gandhi had a historic chance but instead chose to turn rabidly left. India is at the crux of history today and we cannot fail our motherland anymore.

Today it is time for all the right thinking ordinary people to get out of their comfort zones and join the battle. It is time for all of us to dedicate the next 9 months to the one cause that matters – creating a Ram Rajya. It is time for us to say goodbye to our ordinary day jobs and heed the clarion call of Narendra Bhai, for this is the brightest chance that Indian right has had in many generations to take India on a path to its alternate destiny. In the process, even if we fade or fail, our deed shall still prevail… and Indian right is the undeniable, unstoppable political reality of the future.