AMITABH SINHA
My editor friend asked me what I thought of Modi’s achievements in twelve years in office. And would I write those down? I realised I couldn’t possibly turn time into tasks done but I could try and encapsulate into words my musings of the last twelve years. So here goes……
Let’s go back farther to when I was a student at the Jawaharlal Nehru University where being a staunch Hindu nationalist was a crime like no other, the Communist-Islamist combine made sure of that. And as a svayamsevak, as a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, it was an angst that when is this going to change? When will the majority of Bharat be finally free to own the fact that,“I am a Hindu and proud of it!”
In the 1990’s when the Ram Janmabhoomi movement had started to focus in the collective psyche of the people of Bharat, I still remember going to the office of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and bringing back bhagwa stickers of ‘GARVA SE KAHO HUM HINDU HAIN’- and pasting those on any and every public space brought me simple elation. I had also been given responsibilities for this cause by the BJP and despite having just started my legal practice, I spent more time than I could afford to on building the dream of a Hindu government. Countless others and I were driven by an iconic nationalistic movement that promised to change years of faux-British rule and bring in a Hindu government that would bring our dreams to fruition.
Sadly, that did not happen. Bhagwan Rama willed otherwise then.
Regardless, we continued with our sometimes silent, sometimes not, work in the background. We stood resilient when in 1996, the BJP failed to muster a majority among members of the Lok Sabha and Vajpayeeji resigned after 13 days. In 1998, general elections once again put the BJP up front. The NDA came into existence and Vajpayeeji was sworn in as PM. It was an uneasy coalition and it lasted a mere 13 months when the government lost the confidence motion in the Lok Sabha by a single vote on 17th April 1999.
I still remember the question uppermost in every mind- is it really not possible to have a non-Congress govt in the centre? We carried on with our work as soldiers of the party that had lost the opportunity twice to complete 5 years in power. There was only one agenda- that we remain at the helm for at least one duration so that we can try and bring in the changes that we want despite being a coalition.
And in 1999, our prayers were answered. The BJP led NDA came to power with a comfortable majority and Vajpayee took oath as the PM of Bharat for the third time, though in a government on crutches. While we were very happy, that niggling worry of “Will we last?” remained uppermost in all our hearts and minds. And it was a 5 years riddled with compromises, strife and problems from word go. As an office-bearer of the party, I personally saw that taking a stand for the Hindu cause was avoided for sheer fear that the coalition would collapse. Yes, Pokhran happened, and we did try to place Bharat on the world map but domestically one fell short. The main discussion was, “How do we last these 5 years?” That was the one and only goal, the only point to prove.
Somehow we persevered and lasted the full term.
While it was generally speculated that the NDA would return to power in the 2004 general elections, we didn’t. The people of Bharat obviously were not made to understand that the Vajpayee government was actually trying to make India shine and the Congress capitalised and took power for what would be another decade. A decade which saw the feeling of Hindutva take a complete backseat and we watched a Sonia Gandhi controlled puppet called Manmohan Singh run a government that was diabolically anti-Hindu, especially from 2009-2014.
As we saw in Bengal this time, a reign of terror, or rather a reign of torture and suppression can only muffle till the voice of dissent does not raise its head again. And that is exactly what happened in May 2014. The people of Bharat voted into power with complete majority, a staunch Sanatani Shri Narendra Modi, who by then had made his mark as a fearless Hindu leader who worked only and only for the cause of his nation and its people.
Its June 2026 now and nothing has changed. Shri Narendra Modi continues to be the PM and the BJP led NDA continues to be at the centre. The longest serving PM of independent Bharat- that to me, a svayamsevak who worked tirelessly to make sure that this exact thing would happen, is this country’s greatest accomplishment. Even when I was the campaign in-charge under Shri Arun Jaitleyji as election in-charge of the election in Gujarat in 2002, which was Modiji’s first election to continue as the head of the government in the state, this quality seemed glaringly apparent, Modiji seemed invincible. I was sure it would be impossible to defeat him and I haven’t been wrong in the last 25 years. It is a moment in time that gives me goosebumps as I write this.
Thus far I have been emotional, it is time to get practical. This government has proved itself on many points that it is the by the people, of the people and for the people. The Jan Dhan Yojana, Ujwala Yojana, Ayushman Bharat, the doing away with triple Talaq and many, many other welfare and developmental successes would take far more than 10,000 words at the very least and yet will not be quite enough. But I have a couple that require special mention.
Like-minded people including me, have long chanted a slogan that was our dream….
“Ek desh mein, do vidhaan, do nishaan, do pradhan,
Nahi chalenge, nahi chalenge, nahi chalenge.”
Article 370 that was a blot on the constitution of sovereign Bharat had to be abolished. Kashmir that was given special powers by a anti-Bharat Nehru and his unconstitutional decisions to appease the Muslims who never wanted Kashmir to be part of India, was unacceptable. Bharat is one and will always remain so.
And the decision taken by the government of India on August 5th, 2019 to scrap Article 370 will go down in history as the bravest, most courageous and most lauded. It required firm and indomitable political will and I cannot express how proud and vindicated we all feel for voting Modiji into power, if only for this act.
The next, even bigger, would be the building of the Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir in Ayodhya.
Yet another slogan comes to mind……
“Ram lalla hum ayenge, mandir vahin banayenge.”
And I still remember how we were jeered with a counter….
“Mandir vahin banayenge, par samay nahin batayenge.”
For us Sanatanis, the birthplace of Lord Rama who is an icon of our sanskriti, had for 500 years been sullied by the desecration of the place of His birth and the building of the Babri Masjid over it. It was a constant taunt, a visible insult to our very being that finally culminated in its demolition by kar sevaks on December 6, 1992, a moment that fills me with pride, as I was present there in person. But even after that, the people of Bharat had to wait over 3 decades until the mandir was finally consecrated on 22 January, 2024.
Again, for this decision, Modiji deserves our adulation. This changing of our Bharatiya mindset of what we did not even think would be possible in our lifetime, this acknowledging and rewarding the conflict and struggle of millions of Sanatani karyakartas for over 5 centuries to rebuild this shrine of our unshakeable faith, is a debt that generations will owe him forever.
Having said all this, there is still a large section of ardent Sanatanis who have turned major critics of this government because they feel that the Hindu cause that they voted them in for have still not been met. And the Hindu virodhis who have been our most vociferous critics all through have also once again risen to the occasion thanks to many other issues.
One of those mainly is the one pertaining to the standards of the judiciary which have fallen so low that their decisions taken are neither ethically nor legally correct or acceptable. And what comes to mind first and foremost is the creation of the NJAC(National Judicial Appointments Commission) by this government. That it was more a legislative decision than an executive one is my opinion because to pass this act, all parties in parliament united and unanimously voted to bring it into force. What is more proof that this was evocative of the entire nation’s feelings and wishes brought into force?
There are many wings and decisions of the judiciary that need correction and the collegium is one of the major ones where change is more neccesary. Any person who is well-versed in the law or even not, knows that where the judiciary has free hand in appointing their own to higher positions, corruption and blatant nepotism are but natural to be rampant, so the collegium system needed change with immediate effect. This is why the NJAC was brought in. But what happened next was to be expected- the Supreme Court through a constitutional bench rejected the NJAC.
At the time many institutions and individuals including me, felt that the government should have taken a stern hand and reasserted themselves. In my own capacity, at many levels I spoke to people who were involved in this process at the time, including the Late Arun Jaitleyji, and emphasised how important it was to hold the judiciary responsible for its actions because for me the NJAC is less the National Judicial Appointments Commission and more a National Judicial Accountability Commission. The judiciary needs to be accountable to the country and its people- that should be a given, especially about its appointments. But due to various reasons best known to them, the government chose to keep silent and not take any action.
The country and the government has suffered due to the many instances where judicial over-reach has proved to be detrimental in many ways. And will continue to unless something is done to check them.
We svayamsevaks had only three wishes that we wanted fulfilled- building of the Ram Janmabhoomi mandir, abolition of Article 370 and the application of the Uniform Civil Code all over Bharat. Two happily have seen the light of day and we wait for a time when this country wakes up to a new dawn where all citizens are the same in the eyes of the law.
The naysayers have gone to town saying that Modi has fallen short of the promise that he made to the people of Bharat after coming to power, but I believe that there must be executive reasons for the UCC not to have been implemented except for some states like Uttarakhand and Assam. Given time, it will be resolved because it is also part of the Union List in the Constitution of India.
And finally, all Hindu temples in Bharat must be removed from the purview and control of state governments. Just like masjids and churches have full authority of their places of worship, we need to have it too. Why has Hinduism been singled out for this step-motherly treatment? If there is a Hindu government at the helm, one can still hope for an impartial and honest system but what of where there are anti-Hindu governments? It is common knowledge that in those cases, loot and plunder of the temple’s treasury happens with unfailing regularity.
The government in right earnest should now bring in a central legislation because this subject is also part of the Union List.
So basically the need of the hour is implementation of the UCC, removal of state control from all Hindu places of worship and the proposed Population Control Bill needs to be passed with stringent provisions. The last one is something that should be worked out as soon as possible, not only because of illegal immigrants but also the unbridled procreation by Muslims of this country that is causing an imbalance in the population and which if not controlled, will prove to be detrimental beyond belief.
At the very end, let me reiterate what is the biggest achievement of the last 12 years. The fact that we have proved that a Hindu government, no less, can survive 5 years and in this case more, or most after independence.
That there has come a time when people ask- can there ever be a non-BJP government in Bharat?
For all those who believed otherwise, remember- the divine vigil of Mahadev is watching. Sanatan will never be defeated.
Life indeed has come full circle. Vande Mataram
(The content of this article
reflects the views of writer and contributor, not necessarily those of the publisher and editor. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only)
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