The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, which came after the Vajpayee government’s ouster, was not aligned with the generation of the 80s and 90s, said author and former CEO of Prasar Bharati Shashi Shekhar Vempati, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “with his different language” and consistent hold on “minimum government and maximum governance” grabbed the eyeballs of this aspirational generation which led to his rise in 2014.
In an exclusive interview with ANI, the author of ‘Collective Spirit, Concrete Action’, a book based on PM Modi’s Mann Ki Baat said the generation of the 80s and 90s, which underwent uncertainties like the Mandal period, the Ram Janmabhumi agitation, unstable coalition governments, easily related to PM Modi in the run-up to 2014 Lok Sabha elections, who was talking about limited government role, technology, innovation, entrepreneurship among others. On the question how in 2013-2014 PM Modi suddenly sprang on the scene as the perfect candidate for Prime Minister, he said, “He spoke a different language. A language that you didn’t hear from Arun Jaitley or Sushma Swaraj or anyone talk and a language that was appealing to my generation because if you recall my generation came out of was the product of the 80s and 90s we came out of that uncertainty of the Mandal period the Ram Janmabhumi agitation, coalition governments which were unstable, the rupee got devalued, Gulf War, so much of uncertainty. I recall the late 90s when you felt that you were making history, you felt that you were making a difference now that generation felt quite let down once the Vajpayee government was voted out and the UPA government came in and the whole rhetoric, the narrative of governance was very different. It was not aligned with that aspirational generation and then here you have PM Modi who was talking very different things.”
He said that PM Modi was talking about minimum government and maximum governance and that was the first time he heard that from an Indian politician.
“He’s talking about getting the government out of business, he’s talking about technology, innovation, entrepreneurship that is something this generation was very able to easily relate. I recall he had gone to China as a chief minister and when he came back there was a speech. That was the first time I heard an Indian politician talking about minimum government maximum governance and that is something. Then you see you know this makes its appearance in his speeches quite consistently,” Shekhar said.
“In fact, I recall the 2012 Gujarat elections there were multiple phases of voting and I think in between one of those phases he [PM Modi] wrote a blog where again he talked about this whole philosophy of minimum government. So you see entrepreneurship, a limited role for government was new rhetoric that was unheard of anywhere in the political landscape and it appealed to this generation hence this generation got involved you know in the digital campaigning of 2013 2014,” he added.
