THE TOPIC OF change and evolution formed the crux of the Manorama News Conclave 2019, aptly themed ‘New India’. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the event via video-conferencing from New Delhi. Later, panels of eminent personalities delved into what the new and changing India meant for its citizens. Modi spoke of the country being in flux, and BJP spokesperson P. Muralidhar Rao explored the quest for identity in India’s cultural roots. Firebrand All India Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra raised a question: Is democracy a mere game of numbers—the decision of a brute majority—or best represented by the liberal values enshrined in the Constitution?
Modi, in his speech, welcomed constructive criticism. “We need not have to agree on everything, but there must be enough civility in public life for differing streams to be able to hear the other’s point of view,” he said. He defined New India as a participative democracy, with a citizen-centric government and pro-active citizenry. “This is an India where the surnames of the youth do not matter. What matters is their ability to make their own name. This is an India where corruption is never an option, whoever the person is. Only competence is the norm,” Modi said.
He showcased his government’s numerous achievements in removing policy red-tapes, eliminating corruption, building infrastructure, and foreign policy achievements vis-a-vis the Gulf countries. Modi spoke about the diversity of languages as a glue that gels the country together, prompting Congress MP Shashi Tharoor to launch the “language challenge”on Twitter.
Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar delivering the keynote speech | Sanjoy Ghosh
A panel comprising Rao, Moitra and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Mohammed Salim, moderated by THE WEEK Senior Special Correspondent Mandira Nayar, debated the changing dimensions of patriotism and love for the nation in ‘New Indian Nationalism’. Rao said Modi had spoken on this topic on multiple occasions. “New India is a concept of nationalism and nationhood that cannot be divorced from what Swami Vivekananda spoke about. He said nationalism was a religion that encompassed every aspect of our life,” he said. “Our nationalism is rooted in our cultural and spiritual ethos. It is non-conflicting. It is drawn, as Vivekananda said, from an ocean of love.”
Salim said, in reply to Rao’s comments, that the BJP was not practising what it was preaching. “Patriotism cannot be forced on anyone,”he said. “Nor can it be exclusionary. It cannot be administered upon anyone, it has to be invoked.” Moitra said democracy could not just be about ballot boxes and numbers. New Indian nationalism, she said, was patriotism thrust on the people of the country. “In the name of the flag and the government in power, we cannot support injustice,” she said.
In the fast-changing Indian landscape, can the political sphere be neatly pigeon-holed into left, right and centre anymore? This was a point raised by BJP spokesperson and MP Meenakshi Lekhi, who was in conversation with Shashi Tharoor and CPI general secretary D. Raja. The panel, moderated by THE WEEK Special Correspondent Cithara Paul, discussed ‘New Indian Politics’. “This so-called capitalist government [BJP]”, she said, “is the one following the welfare model, with impetus for the unorganised sector, and sparking conversations on hunger and malnutrition.”
A panel comprising BJP spokesperson P. Muralidhar Rao, TMC MP Mahua Moitra and CPI(M) leader Mohammed Salim, moderated by THE WEEK Senior Special Correspondent Mandira Nayar | Sanjoy Ghosh
“Corruption, communalism and caste—the three Cs—have been wiped out. India is asserting itself on the world stage,” she said. If that was the case, then why was the government not accepting the left’s demands for a minimum wage, Raja asked Lekhi. “Why are you introducing anti-labour measures in the name of labour reforms? What is the amount being allowed for the NREGA [National Rural Employment Guarantee Act]?”
Tharoor retorted that the only three Cs that have vanished are consensus, cooperation and compromise. “Communalism is rampant. Bigotry and prejudice are now openly spewed by political parties from public platforms. We now talk about this idea of a Hindu Rashtra, further compounded in this era of fake news and trolls,”he said. The panel later debated questions of whether the Indian political system was becoming too presidential and personality-oriented.
Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar delivered the keynote address. BJP MP Varun Gandhi, representing Pilibhit, elucidated on modern India’s rural potential. Kerala Minister for Local Administration K.T. Jaleel, RSS ideologue R. Balashankar, Kollam MP N.K. Premachandran of the Revolutionary Socialist Party, and writer S. Saradakutty debated the new boundaries of belief in India. A panel with Malayalam filmmakers—including directors Aashiq Abu and Priyadarshan—discussed the changing contours of cinematic expression.