Modi and Macron fell for the hype and lost the plot

The masses want leaders to solve basic local issues, saving the world can wait

The Indian PM preached to the toiling masses as youth joblessness rose and farmers turned desperate. The result was the loss of three states in the Hindi heartland

The other day I was having a conversation with a colleague that turned into a larger debate on issues concerning common people — the hoi polloi, or the working class. The same people who are affected by economic challenges which make them go out and vote unlike the rich or upper middle class in most democracies. Politicians and corporates think they have them in their pockets. They take them lightly and talk down to them, almost condescendingly.

Corporate social responsibility packages, freebies and loan waivers are thrown at them during election time. In kinder terms, it’s called charity — an elevation of the kindred humanitarian spirit with some great PR-media spin around such schemes.

Policy-makers and politicians, I believe, lack empathy on common working class concerns as they decide what is best for the future. I am a socialist at heart who is often called a nationalist, which I take in my stride, but not before putting up a strong defence of my core beliefs that respects borders while giving the individual a fair deal.

So the discussion in office turned to the Indian state election campaign that was reaching fever pitch while in France, protests against President Emmanuel Macron were spreading. I picked on Macron and Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister whose party was battling to fend off an incumbency challenge in three states (which it lost).

But let me first get to Macron who was stuck in his own universe as people lined up in anguish on the streets of Paris. The city was burning and Macron was fiddling with climate change and its impact. My colleague didn’t appear to be moved by their angst and said the president was backing the right policies for the future of humankind. Ah, policy. A word I love to hate. Like what? Climate change, of which Macron was passionate about, or a European army which is a non-starter at best.

I pressed on and told her she was taking policy way too seriously, and was far removed from reality like Macron was. I thought she was on a policy orbit when the Yellow Vest protestors took to the streets of Paris. Policy does not put food on the table. Thought leaders like to expound on inequality and a more equal world while the masses are expected to listen meekly to them.

Wonks and elite politicians think they know what is wrong and how to fix larger problems ailing their countries. Macron was the change who appeared before France a year ago and the French took it, goaded on by the pundits. The people were tired of the Right and the Left narrative. Macron was young, smart and polished. His centrist credentials were in order.

Look where they are now with their elitist president who has a global vision. He speaks eloquently of values while failing to put his own house in order. The French were sick eating the political-ideological spiel thrown at them once, now they are worse off under a presidency that doesn’t care about ordinary bread and butter issues.

On the other hand, Indian PM Narendra Modi promised something to the ‘marginalised’ sections and the middle class when he came to power in 2014. The argumentative Indian soon developed a grand vision. Modi’s Make in India was celebrated by PR agencies and the media joined the chorus. He said he would bring a new order to New Delhi, and that being an outsider would make it easy for him to embark on the changes he envisaged.

This meant more jobs and more opportunities for people who the intelligentsia dismiss as blue-collar workers.

But Modi, like Macron fumbled while paying lip service to the poor and working classes, or the underprivileged in policy terms. Modi’s pact with the poor stopped with him being a tea-seller, his lone connection to the past that he often brings up during an election.

Like Macron, the Indian PM preached to the toiling masses as youth joblessness rose and farmers turned desperate. The result was the loss of three states in the Hindi heartland to the Congress — Chhattisgarh Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

While the French working class took to the streets in protest to make Macron heel and heed their concerns, the Indian masses handed out an electoral slap to a suit-boot sarkar (of the elites) as the main opposition leader, the Congress’s Rahul Gandhi said some years ago.

India’s ruling party would do well to learn lessons and take a leaf out of the history books. In 2006, the BJP’s poll campaign was about India Shining, and the masses responded by bringing back the Congress. Now, Modi’s Make in India programme appears distant to people and the sentiment is spreading across the country.

In an edit two days ago, I argued that the Indian voters are smarter than the politicians. These are the silent masses who keep their lawmakers guessing during election time.

They know they have alternatives and they will wield their vote and people’s power with a flourish. Macron faced a backlash from the Yellow Shirts while Modi was up against farmers earlier this month who took their anger to the ballot booth on election day. Common folk don’t want their leaders to save the world like Macron, or make their country a economic power like Modi.

They only demand that politicians and other bigwigs hear their concerns and make lives easier for them with jobs, better wages, food, education, water, electricity, and connectivity. Spare us those policy sermons on inequality, our demands are basic, is the message. Are leaders listening? —