The
recently concluded Gujarat elections was monumental in the sense that the media
coverage and the attention that it has received from the pseudo secular
liberals of our country. The grand BJP victory, attributed to the personality
cult of Narendra Modi, was a thumping win that triggered a potent debate
amongst the political establishment whether majoritarian politics is the
decisive democratic fact or a populist notion that threatens the inclusive
growth of all strata of human society. The argument pursued the view of whether
Modi will ensure that the “development” agenda reaches the growth of the
minority community or will he covertly pursue the right wing ideology to
convert Gujarat, which apparently is now referred to as experimental Hindutva laboratory,
into a full blown saffron state based on the mandate he has received from the
recently concluded elections.
The
political apathy that I had once harboured in my younger days have now been
replaced with the need to engage in intellectual and fulfilling discourse about
responsible governance in public administration that can bring systemic change
in a lethargic but developing India. It is in this view that I see Modi as an
able administrator who through his leadership style, governance track record and
his corruption free image can help India leap into the next century as a beacon
of sustainable development in a trying global economy.
