Learn from the mistakes of Congress
How can there be a government whose slogans include “Save our daughters(Save the girl child) Continue to support Brij Bhushan Singh? Isn’t it a shame that its critics are now saying that the slogan should be changed to “”.save daughter from us(save daughters from us)?
The Delhi Police (which reports to the Centre) also refused to file an FIR against Singh until the Supreme Court intervened. The message that goes is that wrestlers are not victims as far as the political establishment is concerned; They are enemies.
Several explanations have been offered for the government’s attitude towards the wrestlers. Most of the focus is on Brij Bhushan Singh himself. Not only has he won many elections, but he is also said to have influence in many constituencies. Apparently, this is the reason why the BJP, which is busy assuring the women of Karnataka that it will protect them, will do nothing about Brijbhushan.
This is probably a valid explanation. But I don’t think that’s all there is to it. Modi knows that one reason for all the allegations of corruption and impropriety leveled against the UPA was because Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi sacked people at the slightest provocation. The media had to focus on only one story and the person allegedly involved in the scam would be immediately removed.
The Congress leadership did this in the naïve belief that people would see the government as committed to the highest standards of governance.
In fact the dismissal had the opposite effect. People believed that the allegations were valid: otherwise why would the ministers be sacked? The government made the same mistake with street protests. It legitimized India Against Corruption, which was, in fact, a smaller, largely Delhi-centred media event, deputing official delegations to talk to Arvind Kejriwal, thereby becoming the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) midwife. Worked in When Ramdev arrived in Delhi, he sent six ministers to the airport in the hope of persuading them to withdraw their agitation.
As it turned out, very few allegations of corruption led to any successful prosecution – even after the UPA’s defeat and the Modi government coming to power. And often, the allegations don’t even cover actual corruption. Shashi Tharoor was sacked at the behest of Lalit Modi (what an irony?) Natwar Singh saw his ministerial career in disgrace, even though nothing had been proved against him.
Narendra Modi knows how stupid and foolish this policy was. Not only did it project the UPA as a government of scams, it also made Manmohan Singh look weak. It encouraged the media to regularly target the government and it also encouraged the subversion of the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), which began to garner publicity by making allegations that could not be sustained .
All this worked in favor of Modi. Faced with this chaos, voters yearned for a strong leader whose image was not interested in making money for himself.
The Modi government is determined not to make the same mistake – even when the allegations are genuine and not a publicity-hungry CAG’s office or a part of the media frenzy.
In the early days of this government, when allegations against Sushma Swaraj were raised, the media, accustomed to its experience with the UPA, waited for her to be fired. But nothing happened. She survived and the charges were dropped. This has been Modi’s strategy: never listen, never explain, and never give in the movement.
The government rarely bows down to public pressure. Finally the farmer succumbed to the movement because he was worried about the UP elections. It sacked MJ Akbar but he was never Modi’s favourite. And there are only a few occasions when it bows down to public pressure.
But it is always a shrewd cost-benefit analysis, not the self-righteous, knee-jerk reaction that the UPA believed in.
So it is with wrestlers. If the BJP feels that their protest will affect the Karnataka elections (which it has not done so far) or seriously dent Modi’s image, it will act.
Otherwise Brij Bhushan Singh’s ride may fly. And wrestlers can sob silently in the air.