Why Academics Should Take On Narendra Modi: Aditya Prakash

Photo: Joe Paul Cyriac

The US recently rejected Narendra Modi’s visa application. Yes, even after he won a third term as Gujarat’s Chief Minister. The Americans don’t seem to share our mindset of 'elected is legitimate'. For a section of our people, Modi’s election means Modi’s innocence. The BJP mounts this cerebral defense time and again. Surprisingly, it found resonance in the silence of Jagdish Bhagwati.

In recent ramblings against Amartya Sen’s view of development, Jagdish Bhagwati offloaded on Sen. He attacked Sen’s personal credentials, while discerningly keeping his discussion of Modi limited to Gujarat’s economic growth success. While Sen’s audience was deemed dangerous, Modi was portrayed as a little girl building an igloo next to the ageing academic.

Bhagwati is one of the premier economists of the country. He is read throughout the country’s intelligentsia. He could have been critical of Modi’s politics while praising the successes of his neo- liberal policies. Economics can be debated but killing people is just wrong. Yet, the ambit of the article was deemed too small by Bhagwati to mention, leave alone challenge, Modi’s abysmal human rights record.

It is but the unwillingness of academia to demolish dumb statements that allows rhetoric like “But then there have been no riots in Gujarat since 2002”, float about. The air with which Modi and company say it, makes one wonder if it’s a success of the establishment or a favour by the paid goons of the ruling party who are now supposedly underemployed. There shouldn’t have been a riot in 2002. The year was not ‘The year of the Dragon Riot’.

Yet another defense goes, “You cannot blame Narendra Modi for what the crowds did”. The center of the chessboard is a difficult place to hide. Modi placed himself at the very center when he accepted the position of the state’s chief minister. Such a colossal failure of the state to maintain law and order is sadly his responsibility. So are the actions of MLAs in his cabinet like Maya Kodnani who became an arms dealer for The Day.

Modi is at fault, irrespective of whether charges are proved against his person. In a time when the man who should have resigned as Chief Minister 11 years ago is vying for Prime Ministership, the author feels it behooves academia to critique him vociferously. Bring up the 2002 riots in every discussion on anything about Gujarat- because the man in the picture cannot.

Aditya is a second year student of the MA in Development Studies programme at TISS, Mumbai.