DNA Edit: Modi’s outreach – The PM holds out the olive branch to Muslims, allies

It is just as well that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has added another term to the legend ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’ —pitched in now is ‘sabka vishwas’. After an election season seen to be replete with polarising themes, a victorious prime minister was a picture of magnanimity. He told NDA allies that minorities had long been made to live in fear by practitioners of vote bank politics and stressed on the need to take everyone along — a euphemism for including Muslims in the larger national narrative. The prime minister, by applying the healing touch, has sought to bring down the political temperature, which had shot up several notches during the course of a highly combative and often below-the-belt campaign. Modi’s words should be welcome. For far too long has the credo of secularism come to dominate politics, prompting, in effect, the rise of the right wing in this country. 

The strategy of repeatedly stating that all that was needed to form a government were Muslim votes, has backfired. The BJP, which did not covet the Muslim vote, was happy to get a percentage of so-called Hindu vote to romp home with ease. Modi made the point that the 2019 elections had helped break barriers, pull down walls and connect hearts. To be sure, it is a victor’s lines, but it has come at the right time. The decisive mandate that the prime minister has won, can certainly inject a bout of much-needed generosity that the minority communities would be happy to receive. Delving into history, he went so far as to recreate the spirit of 1857 when both Hindus and Muslims had, for the first time, joined hands in what some historians call the First War of Independence. To Modi’s credit, he has tried to assuage the feelings of minorities in the past, without ever indulging in the politics of appeasement. 

Even at the height of the Gujarat riots in 2002 and in its aftermath, which saw fierce legal activism and under sustained secular onslaught, he had refused to relent. Maybe, it is this that has given Modi the image of a hawk. It makes sense, therefore, that after such a resounding mandate, the prime minister has now decided to make overtures to a vast segment of the population that is perceived to be hostile to him. That the prime minister was in an accommodative mood is also evident in the outreach that he has offered to regional parties. He made it a point to emphasise that even though the BJP has numbers of its own, the party would like to go along with its NDA allies in the government formation as “the politics of alliances is a reality and important to fulfil regional affiliations.” The point to be noted is this: Modi’s second term has started on a non-combative note, which is important for governance. There are many unfinished tasks on his plate and the PM needs all the support that he can get.