Now that he had spoken at length about the need for a constructive criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, here was a chance for Congress leader Shashi Tharoor to make a shrewd demonstration.
The occasion was the discussion on 'New Politics: What is New' at the Manorama News Conclave 2019 in Kochi on Friday. BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi's opening statements during the discussion, however, looked to have spared him of the effort.
Lekhi, in her opening remarks, said that the BJP dispensation has done away with three Cs in India politics: Corruption, Casteism and Communalism.
Tharoor responded with mock disbelief. “Your words have taken my breath away,” he said. “Doing away with corruption, casteism and communalism is one of the most extraordinary things that can be said about any political dispensation,” he said. Tharoor said corruption had grown intense. “India has fallen down in the Transparency International ranking many places to to 135,” he said.
“The consciousness of caste as a political factor has in no way diminished,” Tharoor said about caste. As for communalism, he said it was rampant now. “The sad thing is that certain amount of bigotry that might have existed privately, things that when I was growing up would not have considered permissible to say even behind closed doors, are now said openly from public platforms by members of the ruling party,” Tharoor.
He then said the three Cs that were actually done away with by the BJP dispensation were: Consensus, Cooperation and Compromise.
The only time Tharoor came close to constructively engaging Modi was when he termed the Prime Minister's words during the conclave on lending his ears to different voices as “interesting”. Earlier Tharoor had even tweeted about this. “We in the Opposition certainly intend to put this to the test — constructively, and always in the national interest. But criticism there will be, & we hope the ruling establishment values it in the spirit of what @narendramodi ji said today,” he tweeted.
Later, during the discussion, when Lekhi said that it was for the first time that a Prime Minister was speaking about the marginalised, Tharoor could be heard exclaiming “preposterous”. Further, when the session's moderator insisted on Tharoor's take on the 'praise Modi' controversy, he said: “I am still to come across something that would make me praise Modi.”
CPI general secretary D Raja, too, found Lekhi's statement that the BJP had rooted out casteism in the country as outrageous. “Babasaheb Ambedkar had categorically said India is yet to become a nation. He said the country is divided into thousands of castes. Caste is anti-national. As long as caste exists, India will not emerge as a true nation in a sociological or psychological sense,” Raja said.
According to Raja what has instead happened under the BJP was right wing populsim. “Right wing discourse is dominating the public discourse.
Public discourse should remain argumentative but it has become abusive. Social media is used for abuses and not for making arguments,” he said.
Like Tharoor, Raja too said that the BJP was now openly talking about Hindu Rashtra.
Meenakshi Lekhi also gave a tweak to the BJP's 'Congress-Mukt Bharat' slogan. “That does not make Bharat CPM or TDP or Aam Aadmi Party Mukt Bharat,” she said. “It is a way of saying that the party that had helmed the country for the most part post Independence has not delivered. It is against its politics,” Lekhi said. “In New India, delivery is the byword. It is not about keeping schemes in the files.” she added, taking a dig at the Congress.
“If the Congress had done nothing why has the Prime Minister continued with the MGNREGA and a host of measures taking during the UPA tenure,” Tharoor asked.
The CPI general secretary wanted to know what the BJP government was doing for the real wealth creators of the country like farmers and the lakhs working in the organised sector.
