On May 21, the GOI issued an advisory to social media platforms that the usage of the term “Indian Variant” for a Covid strain should be removed from all content and usage. Promptly, Reuters that evening put out a tweet using the very term. The offensive term “Indian Variant” was used as far back as April 19. The GOI was just sleeping:
It is fair to assume that this late awakening of India being abused with the term came only when Singapore reacted instantly to a stupid tweet by Arvind Kejriwal using the term “Singapore Strain”. So much that Singapore even warned that it has legal provisions to prosecute Kejriwal but decided against it after GOI reassured it. Last week, the top BJP sleuths, like Sambit Patra, claimed to have landed on a “Toolkit” by the Congress which promoted usage of the terms “Indian Variant” and “Modi Strain”. Regardless of what the Toolkit conspired to do, the GOI did not act on usage of the term “Indian variant” till 2 days ago. There is a severe lack of alertness and response to situations by a govt that already looks like a lame-duck as much as the PM looks like a wandering mendicant. He has simply no clue what to do other than fire-fighting. Consequently, the Congress filed an FIR against some BJP leaders who circulated the Toolkit in Chhattisgarh where they have a Congress govt. On their mass-complaint Twitter also tagged Patra’s tweet on the Toolkit as “manipulated media”:
Nothing can be a bigger humiliation for a ruling party when a social media platform alleges and marks its content as possible “concoction” and “forged”. In the initial years of ModiSarkar (2014-2017) many of us thought these are teething troubles that a new govt faces and that its clumsiness and stupidity will go once they get a grip on things and some experience in government. But, unfortunately, despite being elected with a greater victory in the second term, the BJP has only drifted and slid into pathetic incompetence and all-round failures. The only thing that the BJP seemed good at is electioneering but once they get to power, they seem to be hopelessly out of ideas, out of guts and out of common sense. Today, many of the staunchest supporters of BJP like Suhel Seth, Minaz Merchant are also ridiculing Modi. Merchant has even ridiculed Modi’s beard and ask him to groom himself and return to normalcy. I see some clear reasons why BJP is on a slide:
Surrounding all the above failures is a serious lack of leadership. I have stated elsewhere that Modi’s main “brains-trust” was Arun Jaitley in the first term – be it the decision of Demonetisation (which turned out bad) or poor implementation of GST, Jaitley had a hand. Jaitley also had a hand in the legal work for junking 370. And most of all, Jaitley was a masterful media manipulator. In fact, media-management was the biggest asset of Jaitley. With Jaitley out of govt in 2019 and later passing away and passing away of another veteran like Sushma Swaraj, the ModiSarkar looks depressed and out of sorts. Most of all, Modi himself looks depressed and out of sorts especially after the Bengal loss.
Modi went quiet after the Bengal loss. The BhajanMandli idiots started chanting that his silence is his secret weapon. But the usually loud-mouth, blabbering Modi returned to his old ways lecturing on Covid-2 and talking directly to District Magistrates on handling Covid. He usually likes to talk in a situation where nobody talks back or nobody asks any probing questions. In all these 7 years, Modi’s interactions have all been one-way unless there are little children who ask “programmed questions” on Mann Ki Baat or Pariksha Pe Charcha. Though many blame Modi for the Covid-2 failures and quite rightly so, I don’t consider it as his major failure as this was a situation beyond his imagination and control. I did expect that as soon as he stopped election campaigning in mid-April he would address the nation, express sorrow for the dead and assure people that his govt would do all it can to save lives. Nothing came about. However, Modi expressed sorrow on May 21, choked and fought off tears in another show of histrionics that would do Swara Bhaskar proud:
This pathetic tear-jerking is uncalled for and unnecessarily adds to the incompetence of the GOI. As with the Toolkit barrage, all the ministers and BhajanMandli are only interested in protecting the failing “image” of Modi. And he doesn’t help his cause by doing more stupid things like an aerial survey of cyclone hit areas of coastal Gujarat. Who in hell does an aerial survey in this day and age? And even if an aerial survey is needed for some reason, why should the PM drop everything and go all the way to coastal Gujarat? This is something the CM or top NDRF officers could have done and reported back. It’s a worthless activity but politicians love “optical activity”. Aerial surveys are just that – Optical Foolishness. And in the latest flight, Modi sits with a printed “political map” of Gujarat and looks at coastal Junagadh and Diu. Even Einstein may not be able to figure out what he would understand from such an exercise:
Unfortunately (or fortunately for Modi) another cyclone is predicted for the east coast around May 26. Maybe that will give him another chance to go an aerial survey with Mamata Banerjee and get away from Delhi. Such runaway-activities, general interactions with frontline govt officials and sermons to the public are what seem to keep the PM busy. If there are no election campaigns, Modi seems out of his element. It now turns out that the 18-44 group vaccine announcement was also a political distraction from all the Covid deaths, burning pyres and tragedies all over. Now the entire vaccination programme has gone into heavy weather and every age-group is struggling. The GOI predicts vaccine availability will improve only from August. This is an outright fraud on the innocent public by the nautanki of PM Modi and his gang.
Modi came to power in 2014 on the promise of punishing the corrupt and “Vikas” for all. All that is now down the drain. Even the “fake” unspoken Hindutva image he had carved out for himself is sunk beyond redemption. His only ideas seem to be Muslim and minority appeasement, crawl at gurudwaras and doles to farmers and other backward groups. There is nothing to revive the economy or tackle unemployment.
One of the most disgusting legacies of Modi will be that of wanton murders of Hindus across the country, especially in Bengal. Throughout all these killings, Modi not only watched helplessly but didn’t even have a word of sympathy or condolence for the dead, many of them BJP Karyakartas. ModiSarkar is now a ship that is wrecked and searching desperately for a lighthouse. Of course, there is a big difference between being 63 and 70 and aging. While 70 may not be politically that old, the aging does affect the agility of the mind among some people. The one noticeable change is Modi’s appearance – from wanting to be a Bollywood type style icon, he is now a bearded recluse. Instead of destroying the corrupt, the anti-nationals and the anti-Hindus, Modi has simply allowed them to go on an unchecked rampage. India lost 10 years under the corrupt Sonia-MMS govt. It’s now seven years wasted under PM Modi and there are no signs that the drift will end.
Follow the blog on Twitter / Follow on Koo.
Subscribe To EducatingForward / Buy The EF Handbook
