Jet-Setting PM Modi Begins Yet Another Foreign Tour—Aargh!
In today’s increasingly specialized and cut-throat world, a person needs in-depth knowledge and extensive domain expertise to handle a particular department even in a small company. But it is highly unfortunate that people with no qualification or expertise become Presidents, Governors, Prime Ministers, ministers, and bureaucrats in India to manage highly complex domains of governance. That’s why India continues to be a poor, underdeveloped country. Click here to read more.
By Rakesh Raman
The jet-setting Prime Minister (PM) of India, Narendra Modi, has gone to Seoul on a two-day visit to South Korea, beginning today February 21.
In the past over four years since he became the PM, Modi has aimlessly visited more than 50 countries. He is wasting public money worth millions of dollars (or crores of rupees) on his foreign tours that are nothing more than fun trips of a simpleton who is desperately trying to find an identity on foreign soils.
Obviously, people of India including the opposition parties are perturbed over Modi’s excessive foreign excursions because there is no Return on Investment (RoI) analysis available on his travel expenses. Reports suggest that Modi has spent more than Rs. 2000 crore on his useless foreign tours.
It is largely believed that Modi goes to foreign countries frequently as a marketing agent of his corporate friends. For example, it is alleged that the decision to purchase 36 Rafale aircraft from Dassault Aviation was taken arbitrarily by Modi when he was touring France. The Rafale deal aims to give undue monetary benefit to one of Modi’s corporate friends.
Although Modi has kept a Sushma Swaraj as External Affairs (Foreign) Minister, she has been relegated to a mere figurehead role while Modi himself keeps traveling in the name of managing external affairs.
But is Modi a suitable person to represent India in other parts of the world? No; because Modi is perhaps the most naïve and illiterate PM that India has ever seen. He can’t utter even a single word about any modern subject. His level of knowledge is not more than that of a bumpkin.
There is a huge controversy in India about the educational qualifications of Modi. A political outfit Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) headed by Delhi’s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal says that the academic degrees being shown by Modi to prove his literacy level are fake. AAP’s allegations against Modi carry weight.
Picture this: Even when Modi reads the speeches written for him by others, it’s difficult to make heads or tails of his meaningless utterances as he is almost uneducated and speaks in broken English language. Recently, West Bengal Chief Minister (CM) Mamata Banerjee said that Modi can’t speak a line in English properly and needs constant help from a teleprompter.
In fact, Modi should never be sent on any foreign trip because with his naivety he is giving a bad name to India. And no wise person would attend his events in India or abroad.
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If foreign corporate leaders or politicians are making a beeline for Modi, they see a foolish buyer in him. As the PM of India, he is squandering public money worth billions of dollars to buy foreign products and services which are not required at all in India.
For example, the opposition party CPI(M) had said that Modi’s purchase of six Westinghouse nuclear reactors to be set up at Kovvada in Andhra Pradesh is going to be a costly and unviable venture.
“It is being done only as a quid pro quo for the nuclear deal with the United States. The cost of the reactors are going to be prohibitive, just as the French Areva reactors to be set up at Jaitapur,” said CPI(M).
“By a conservative estimate it is going to cost Rs. 2.8 lakh crores for the six reactors. The cost of power produced from these reactors is going to be unsustainable,” CPI(M) added.
Modi is spending public money lavishly just to gain some cheap publicity for himself on foreign lands because as an illiterate, Modi is suffering from inferiority complex.
If Modi is so bad in his conduct, how did he become the PM? Actually, he won the election by exploiting the religious sentiment of Hindu voters (almost 80% of people in India are Hindus).
Modi, who was an accused in the Gujarat riots of 2002 in which nearly 2,000 Muslims were murdered, won the Lok Sabha election on the promise that he will make India a Hindu Rashtra (a nation only for Hindus).
Most Hindu voters bit the bait and voted for Modi as a religious demagogue rather than a wise leader. The dilemma began for Indian people as soon as Modi became the Prime Minister in 2014 because he is not trained to manage any field that requires professional competence.
In the 2002 Gujarat riots, while about 2,000 Muslims were killed, there were incidents of rape, robbery, and widespread destruction of property affecting Muslims.
It was alleged that the killings were executed at the behest of Modi who was then the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Although Indian courts have almost exonerated Modi in this case, most Muslims in India still believe that Modi was responsible for Gujarat massacre. The less said about the Indian courts, the better.
According to Human Rights Watch, the attacks against Muslims in Gujarat were actively supported by state government officials and the police. Police told Muslims, “We don’t have any orders to save you.”
As a result, the U.S. administration denied visa to Modi in view of the allegations of human rights violations against him in the 2002 incidents of riots and carnage. But now as he has become the PM of India, Modi is visiting the U.S. frequently because now he enjoys political immunity.
RMN Poll
Meanwhile, in an ongoing RMN Poll, only 18% people are satisfied with the work of Modi. You can also participate in the poll and see the results.
During the past over four years of Modi’s rule in India, the country has gone back by almost 40 years. While the religious persecution against minority communities is rampant, unrestrained inflation, dwindling economy, and political corruption have become pain in the neck for commoners in India.
A new “Freedom in the World 2018” report released by Freedom House – a Washington-based independent watchdog organization reveals that there are open attacks on media and corruption is rampant in Modi government. It reveals that corruption has a negative effect on government efficiency and economic performance.
“Though politicians and civil servants at all levels are regularly caught accepting bribes or engaging in other corrupt behavior, a great deal of corruption goes unnoticed and unpunished,” the report said in its findings.
Similarly, global anti-corruption organization Transparency International has lowered India’s rank from last year’s position of 79 to 81 this year.
Under Modi government, the already deformed democracy in the country has become a plutocracy or perhaps kleptocracy (the rule by thieves) controlled by the corporate bigwigs who hobnob with Modi.
This article is part of our exclusive editorial section that focuses on Lok Sabha Election 2019 in India.
The democracy in its current form is promoting only incompetence, and incompetent people like Modi become the rulers of highly competent and educated people who are treated like slaves by the politicians. This is the main reason that India continues to be an underdeveloped country.
While people of India have been suffering for the past seven decades under the rules of all political parties, there is an immediate need for a countrywide movement aimed to usher in a new competence-based political model in the country.
The main objective of the new model is to allow only domain experts to handle different fields of governance, and uneducated people like Modi should not be allowed to even contest the elections.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. He also creates and publishes a number of digital publications on different subjects.
Photo courtesy: Press Information Bureau
