Modi rule, six months on

Looked at from one angle the six months of Narendra Modirsquos tenure may be a cause of disappointment for some For the corporate sector for instance the absence of lsquobig ticketrsquo reforms is bound to detract from the prime ministerrsquos gogetter image The business houses may not have said anything as yet about their dissatisfaction but it is clear by now that Modi is not an ideologicallydriven rightwinger like Ronald Reagan or Margaret ThatcherCrowd of BJP supporters at Prime Minister Narendra Modirsquos election rally in Kishtwar file picInstead he evidently likes to pursue his own line at his own pace He will not be hustled therefore into drafting a hireandfire labour reforms policy which is favoured by industrialists nor into a return to land acquisition laws reminiscent of the 1894 rules which have now been scrappedWhat is more likely is that he will tweak these laws including those on environment and not opt for drastic changes In this respect Modi is a reformer not a radical Any expectation therefore that his partyrsquos majority in the Lok Sabha will make him ride roughshod over the existing rules and regulations will not be fulfilledOne reason why such dramatic changes have been expected since Modi appeared on the scene like a lsquorock starrsquo as even the foreign media describe him is the pentup frustration in the last years of the previous government It was hoped therefore that Modirsquos changes would be in the nature of a noholdsbarred recourses to a fastgrowth path Since this hasnrsquot been the case the belief is that he is as much of a pragmatist who will not like to unnecessarily overturn the apple cartThe prime minister is currently focussing on what can be deemed small things such as toilets cleanliness egovernance encouraging the underprivileged to open bank accounts and the celebrities as well as the MPs to lsquoadoptrsquo villagesThere is also another kind of disappointment for some people with Modi It is the result of the fact that there hasnrsquot yet been what Mani Shankar Aiyar called the ldquoGodhra momentrdquo According to the former Congress MP Modi is waiting for such an outbreak of communal violence to reveal his real self just as Hitler used the Reichstag fire to impose oneparty rule on GermanyAlthough the recent riots in Trilokpuri and the communal tension in Bawana on the outskirts of Delhi have been seen as examples of the local footsoldiers of the saffron brigade fishing in troubled waters there havenrsquot mercifully been any major incidentWhat is more the likes of Yogi Adityanath and Sakshi Maharaj have desisted mdash or have been prevented mdash from carrying on their earlier vicious propaganda on lsquolove jehadrsquo in Maharashtra on the eve of the polls It is not impossible that Modi is more serious about his proposed 10year moratorium on sectarian animosity than what his hotheaded followers had assumedThe BJP has indicated that it will go soft on the question of scrapping Article 370 of the Constitution which confers a special status on Jammu and Kashmir Evidently the hopes which the party entertains of scoring an unlikely victory in the impending assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir have persuaded it to dilute one of the key items on its proHindu agenda Not only that the BJP has even said that ldquoIslam will prosperrdquo under its rule a claim which is likely to baffle both Hindus and Muslims especially the bigoted among them Modi has decided to follow a path of moderationThat the country is advancing even in the economic sector is however evident from the projection of a 63 per cent growth rate next year by Morgan StanleyOne reason why Modirsquos first six months in office have been relatively trouble free is that the Congress not only continues to remain in the doldrums but also that its ldquointernal tensionsrdquo as Rahul Gandhi once said have not subsided as was evident from the virtual boycott of the partyrsquos observance of Jawaharlal Nehrursquos 125th birth anniversary by party stalwarts such as AK Antony P Chidambaram Sushil Kumar Shinde Kamal Nath Ghulam Nabi Azad and othersAmulya Ganguli is a political analyst The views expressed are personal He can be reached at amulyaganguligmailcomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper