An Open Letter to Shri. Narendra Modi Ji

Ravinder Singh Sodhi

Honourable Shri. Narendra Modi Ji,

(Samajweekly) As this letter is published, you may have taken the oath as the Prime Minister of India, or arrangements may have been made for your oath ceremony. According to the Indian constitution, the leader of the largest party or the leader of the largest alliance is invited to form the new government. Your party has the most MPs, but it has failed to secure a simple majority. Your NDA alliance has a majority, so the President of India will invite you to take the oath. However, morally, you are not entitled to this. Your party, BJP, went to the voters with the slogan ‘third term for Modi Ji,’ which was the main issue of your party. You were the main spokesman of your party. Not once did you or any other leader of your party mention giving a third chance to your alliance in any election rally. Many prominent leaders of your party are good speakers, but they have little time to address rallies. According to them, ‘Modi’s’ name represents the development of India. Therefore, when your party failed to secure a simple majority, it is evident that the Indian masses have rejected that slogan. If you have lost the confidence of the voters, how can you be the PM? Additionally, in election rallies, you frequently said ‘This is my guarantee or Modi’s guarantee.’ You never mentioned that the promises you are making to the voters would be fulfilled by the party. If your party leaders hold different views than yours, where does your guarantee stand? It seems that you are not the leader of the BJP party, but the owner.

There are several examples where you’ve displayed this tendency. Demonetization is one of them. Once, when you were returning from a foreign visit, your aeroplane was flying over Pakistan, and you reportedly called the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, Sh. Nawaz Sharif, who was busy with his granddaughter’s marriage. He invited you to join the marriage, and you ordered the pilot to land the plane. There are rules for the foreign visits of dignitaries, but you disregarded them. Did Sh. Nawaz Sharif ever sent you an invitation to the marriage? When high-profile dignitaries visit other countries, there are formalities to follow. The agenda must be fixed. However, based on a verbal invitation, you landed in Pakistan.
I want to provide one more example. After the election results, you were very eager to become the PM of the country. You invited all the leaders of NDA to choose you as the PM. Mr. Modi, I have a question. Before the newly elected MPs of BJP formally elect you as the leader, how can alliance parties nominate you as the PM candidate? Even though electing you as the leader of the elected MPs was just a formality, confirming the formalities was still necessary. Therefore, you always considered yourself as the master of the party.
Even after the election results were declared, you stated that the people of India have given their mandate for the third term. Although your party won the most seats, it failed to secure a simple majority. You never acknowledged that your party got about 65 seats less than last time and claimed to have a mandate. This is ironic! Sir, please understand that this time the mandate is against you, not in your favour. You once said that you are just like a faqir (beggar), and whenever the people of India say, you will pick up your Jhola (bag) and leave. The nation now wants to know whether, during the last ten years of rule, your bag has become too heavy to pick up and go, or if the greed for power has clouded your judgment.

On many occasions, your actions have gone against well-established democratic traditions. According to the Indian constitution, the President is the head of the state, and the PM and his ministers are meant to assist him. Despite being a nominal head, all decisions are taken on his behalf. When the new building of the Indian Parliament was to be inaugurated, you did not invite the President of India to attend the function. Instead, the President was supposed to inaugurate the new building, but you disregarded this.

You constantly raise the issue of Hinduism, but you do not follow the principles of the Hindu religion. When the inauguration of the Ram Mandir was to take place, the highly respected Shankracharyas objected that the Ram Mandir was still under construction and should not be inaugurated according to the Shastras. However, you did not heed their advice. To inaugurate the Ram Mandir was a political issue for you and your party. Before the Lok Sabha election, you wanted to show the Hindus of the country that you had fulfilled your promise of the Ram Mandir. Now the result is clear. Even your party’s candidate from Ayodhya has lost. While in the last elections, your party almost swept the state of Uttar Pradesh, this time you failed to win even half of the seats.
After the recent election, you claimed that the people of India had given their mandate for your third term. While your party won the most seats, it fell short of a simple majority compared to the last election. It seems that the mandate is against you this time, rather than in your favour. Your statement about being like a beggar, ready to leave when the people of India wish, raises the question of whether the weight of power or greed has affected your decision.
You are known as a self-made man with strong determination. Before the 2019 elections, you received approval from RSS as the candidate for Prime ministership. After the elections, you sought RSS’s permission again to choose your ministers, sidelining some of the senior leaders like Shri. L K Advani, M M Joshi, and Ysswant Sinha. It’s worth recalling that after the Godhra episode, Sh. AB Vajpayee, the then Prime Minister, wanted to take action against you, but it was Mr. Advani who supported you.

In your second term and during the recent election, you used the phrase “This is my guarantee” or “Modi’s guarantee,” rather than mentioning BJP’s guarantee or the NDA alliance’s guarantee. Forming a new government with the support of influential leaders like Sh. Chandrababu Naidu and Sh. Nitish Kumar might change the dynamics. You may need to consult these leaders before major decisions and agree to special packages for their states. They will also likely negotiate for favourable portfolios for their ministers and may even seek the speaker’s post. This shift in power dynamics within the NDA alliance will impact decision-making.

Ravinder Singh Sodhi
Richmond, Canada
604-369-2371″