The lofty sentiments expressed by Narendra Modi on his air journey from Kanniyakumari to Delhi stand in sharp contrast to the divisive rhetoric deployed by him during the lengthy election campaign. Bharat, for thousands of years, he rightly claims, has been “a cradle of ideas” (‘ We need to dream new dreams ’, IE, June 3). What he failed to recognise was that the legendary ruler Bharat, from whom the name of our country is derived, was a rajchakravarti — a sovereign at the centre of a circle of sovereigns — not a despot exercising overcentralised bureaucratic domination.
Indian unity can only be of the federal type. Ten years ago, I had taken a break from my tranquil academic life to make a foray into the rough and tumble of India’s parliamentary politics. In early June 2014, I delivered my first speech in the 16th Lok Sabha on the same day as Modi and warned the newly formed Modi sarkar not to confuse majoritarianism with democracy and uniformity with unity.
The juggernaut of religious majoritarianism and centralised authoritarianism has at last stumbled in its tracks. Projects such as “One Nation, One Election” will not now achieve fruition. “We need to dream new dreams,” pontificated our Prime Minister on the eve of his third term in office.
For a decade, Modi has been a successful seller of dreams. The harsh reality of massive youth unemployment and obscene levels of inequality has finally caught up with him. Even the pomp and ceremony surrounding th.
