The BJP rebuts my piece on Bihar: 'We won't talk about Bihar, but don't criticize Modi, okay?'

The BJP rebuts my piece on its loss in Bihar, but their defence is “Let’s not talk about Bihar at all – but we must understand that Modiji cannot be criticized at any cost.”

It’s interesting, the reaction to the piece I wrote here and elsewhere online, on how I felt Modi could course-correct, learning from the lessons in Bihar.

My overall tone was positive – as in – learn from this debacle and get to govern well, and maybe even win a second term.

To sum up, my points were simple – get off the beef and cow jingoism, ditch the RSS line because people voted BJP and not RSS, and, most important, get back to doing what you were voted for – economic development.

Today, in the BJP mouthpiece Niti Central, one of their regular contributors, Sudhir Kumar, who strangely describes himself as a “repulsive writer”, penned a piece after he was apparently “tired of all the lies Mahesh Murthy was spreading”.

While it’s a bit of an honour to be singled out for focus by the saffron propaganda machine – you’ll notice how the bots and bhakts start re-tweeting the piece immediately, to counter for the many tens of thousands of views my piece somehow seemed to gain.

And how the attack then directly becomes personal as in “all the brands he has advised must have failed, and so must the companies he has invested in.” Not to mention the “he must have funded the AAP” as though that explains completely why the BJP got trounced in Bihar. Standard BJP defence mechanism - I’m of course waiting for Rupa Subramanya to join in, if she’s finished having her lunch or dinner in Canada :-)

So before we get to the points he has chosen to rebut, let’s look at what he has not rebutted.

1. That the BJP lost Bihar, comprehensively.

 Indeed, there isn’t a single mention of this, and why it happened. Not a single mention of the policies that led to the loss. Indeed, the over-arching sense through the rebuttal was “let’s not focus at all on why we were trounced in Bihar. Let’s instead focus on whitewashing the image of Narendra Modi – and make it clear that he or his performance had nothing to do with the loss.”

 This is even though our man campaigned more in Bihar than he ever did anywhere else in recent living memory in India, and the people just seemed to not believe him one bit – and wen and voted for someone else. 

1. That one-fifth of those who voted for BJP in 2014 voted for someone else this time.

The response from BJP supporters to the Bihar loss has been more to the tune of “those fools (Bihar voters) have chosen idiots to lead them.”

Strangely, just 18 months ago, those very same people, when faced with the very same choice, between Modi, Nitish and Lalu, had chosen the BJP in the national elections.

So I guess they were all geniuses then.

And suddenly all caught some disease (sane cow disease perhaps?) that lowered their collective IQs.

1. That the BJP’s focus on RSS / Hindutva policies around cow and beef instead of actual proof of development, caused their undoing.

This is the truth-that-must-not-be-mentioned.

So I guess it is also the-allegation-that-must-not-be-rebutted.

Let’s now get to the carefully chosen points that the BJP mouthpiece chooses to focus on:

1. Apparently, reforms indeed are happening.

Well, what’s quoted in the rebuttal are Mudra Bank and Gold Monetization – apart from what the BJP hastily announced AFTER the Bihar loss. And links given are to questionable charts inside Niti Central itself. Haha, funny.

 Gentlemen, the truth is that what tiny stuff has been announced is less than par for an 18-month course. The Congress or indeed any other party could have done that too.

The big stuff the BJP promised in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections were the GST regime, the Land Acquisition Bill and OROP. And truthfully, it’s not managed much on any of these fronts. Even what’s happened so far on OROP is a shame compared to what was promised.

 The good news however is that the point in my piece seem to have been taken to heart in a hurry.

The BJP announced 15 FDI-related reforms in the 48 hours after the Bihar drubbing.

And just to offer more corroboration, here are some external third party links: Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/saritharai/2015/04/22/modis-economic-reforms-agenda-in-india-hits-biggest-roadblock-land/;

Moody’s Report: https://www.firstpost.com/india/disappointment-growing-modi-governments-reform-pace-moodys-2319734.html

 So I believe my original point still stands. 

1. Apparently, corruption is gone.

Actually you can read for yourself what the claim in Niti Central is. Just vagueness about “tackling corruption at lower levels.” No statistics.

I speak as an investor in several businesses that have offices in BJP-run states. I can tell you that at the lower levels, things are much the same. (As in non-BJP states too, for that matter.) The same babus reach their hands out for the same sums of money, if not larger ones.

My point was actually pro-BJP -  that despite the enormous corruption cases of Vyapam, where nothing was done – or Gadkari, where nothing was done, or of Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan – where again nothing was done, actually, the amount of rot seems less than that in the times of the Congress.

More third-party links to corroborate: How the BJP re-defined “corruption” to justify its continued support for Vasundhara Raje https://www.timesnow.tv/videoshow/4477615.cms 

How the billionaire behind Vyapam actually funded the BJP and the RSS https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/top-political-leaders-facilitated-vyapam-scam-whistleblowers-tell-supreme-court-781672 ; not to mention the corrupt history of the BJP in Karnataka and elsewhere.

So my original point still stands.

1. Apparently, Modi stuck to his word on bringing back black money.

The claim is Modi has stuck to his word.

The unfortunate truth is different. During his pre-2014 electioneering, Modi claimed he would bring back so much black money that every Indian could buy a car. Even taking into account the cheapest car around, that would indicate a haul of around Rs. 300,000 crores. Actually he referred to a Rs. 15 lakh car - so the amount he promised to bring back was Rs. 18,75,000 crores.

What he’s done in 18 months is bring back around Rs. 3,770 crores. About 1/6th of 1% of the amount he promised. Or, even with a more generous estimate, about 1.2% of the amount in 30% of his tenure. The going isn’t very good, I’m afraid, from a run rate point of view.

Actually it’s even less than that too, because the tax and penalty amounts to a paltry Rs. 2,200 crores. Probably not enough to buy each Indian even a dinky toy car.

Oh, and for the record, Chidambaram brought back Rs. 30,000 crores in 1997. Jaitley has barely done one-eighth as well, eighteen years later.

Here’s independent third party corroboration: https://www.livemint.com/Politics/XQLgFn2I1ydEidkulmA38H/Modis-1-trillion-black-money-hunt-earns-only-enough-to-buy.html

So my original point still stands here too.

1. Apparently, Modi had nothing to do with the anti-beef or pro-pure-veg movement.

Apparently, because the first such ban was when he was 5 years old. What a silly defence.

The facts, again, are to the contrary. Given the drubbing, the BJP is furiously retreating from its beef stance. But not too long ago, it was the BJP in Bihar that ran an ad about its achievements on the anti-beef front.

It’s the BJP in Maharashtra, controlled from the center, that enforced for the first time historically, an un-needed beef ban.

It’s the BJP in Maharashtra and elsewhere that asked for a few days of “pure veg” to pander to the “sentiments of the Gujarati Jains”.

It’s Modi, who specifically refused to tweet about or mention the horrific Dadri mutton murder case. He chose to look the other way. I guess all of this looking-the-other-way and plausible-deniability have come back to haunt him.

Not to forget the BJP leader who threatened to behead a Chief Minister for speaking against the beef ban https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/india-bjp-leader-threatens-behead-karnataka-chief-minister-over-beef-eating-1526974

Or the BJP member beating up a Muslin legislator in J&K for hosting a beef party https://www.firstpost.com/politics/after-beef-ban-politics-deeply-flawed-bjp-pdp-coalition-in-kashmir-must-work-as-a-whole-2463484.html

Frenetic denials and apparent about-turns notwithstanding, the point still stands.

1. Apparently, Modi had nothing to do with shutting down international NGOs.

 So Greenpeace was banned, it seems, because of a typographical error.

And Modi’s government, apparently has never had a problem with international NGOs at all. Other than the VHP funding its ilk in India. Hindus funding Hindus is cool, anything else is not.

Why not talk to the leadership of any global NGO in India?

You’ll hear stuff like this: https://thewire.in/2015/06/19/new-draft-rules-tighten-the-noose-around-foreign-funded-ngos-in-india-4332/

And this https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/why-has-bjp-turned-anti-ngos/76718.html

1. Apparently, all of Modi’s overseas travel is economically useful.

The much-vaunted figure of $20 billion is FDI is claimed. First, where is that money? How much has come in, really?

But even if one were to take the fictional $20 billion number as real, here is where our man has spent his time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prime_ministerial_trips_made_by_Narendra_Modi

I’d love to know how much Nepal, Seychelles, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have given us out of that.

Nepal, for one, I know, used to be our friend.

Now they hate us – because we’ve blockaded their country, and not let essential goods and supplies get through to them.

 7. Apparently, BJP’s vote share in Bihar hasn’t gone down.

So, apparently all is well.

Bihar never happened.

I could re-publish charts or send people to the Election Commission site, but I guess this is at the root of the issue.

Denial.

Anything that suggests Modi is not the greatest, has to be denied.

Anything that suggests that all is not well with how he is perceived, has to be denied.

Anybody who dares raise a question about his awesomeness, has to be denied. And if that denial doesn’t work, then personally vilified. This is the issue.

Let me say this right out – Modi is a far more capable national leader than anyone the Congress or any national opposition has to offer.

But let’s accept he isn’t God. He has goofed.

He was, directly and indirectly responsible for the BJP winning Bihar as part of the national elections. And just as much, he is directly and indirectly responsible for the BJP losing Bihar 18 months later, to the same two opponents.

The biggest issue here was ignoring economics and getting on to beefonomics. There was no reason to do so.

And now, I hope there’s no reason to ever do so again.

Thank you, once again, BJP and NitiCentral for bringing this to national highlight.

I do hope it makes a difference, though.

As a good start, I notice none of the economic announcements yesterday have anything to do with cows and beef.

We have learnt a little, I guess.

Awesome, that's a good step forward!