KS Muralidharan
Will India follow Bangladesh, like how the latter appears to be going the Sri Lanka way?
This doomsday scenario is playing out, in an attempt to put the fear of god in the ordinary citizen. Quite a few armchair experts led as usual by the liberal warriors in the western press and taken up with alacrity by our own media and the Opposition, are feasting on this negative narrative, hoping to send alarm bells ringing across the country and the world at large.
But the alarm bells muted quite quickly. And for a reason which was kept away from the shining lights of media glare.
It was the exact opposite of an apocalypse waiting to happen.
Simply put, the little celebrated story was that India was not only far away from any such apocalyptic explosion, there was zero chance of that happening.
Now for the real meat of the story.
It came from Bloomberg, a media outlet whose owner, is overtly anti-Narendra Modi. But leave that aside for the moment.
Bloomberg reported the findings of a survey recently which compared in percentage terms, the possibility of a recession hitting the biggest economies and major countries of the world, including India.
No prizes for guessing who topped this list. There was 85% chance of recession in Sri Lanka, the worst hit country.
US, the world’s largest economy, was itself very vulnerable, throwing up 40% risk of a recession.
Africa, Germany, England are all at risk at upwards of 30%.
Looking for India? It was at the bottom of the list. Meaning, 0% risk of a recession.
Wow. It deserved an editorial in Time, Economist, WaPo, NYT.
But it was brushed under the carpet.
Why did Bloomberg put it out, even though it is an embedded anti-Narendra Modi media? Because it is a financial media, and its readership essentially comprises the investor community. Which means even when you lie on one side of the mouth, bowing to your editors, you have to tell the truth on the other side, heeding your investing readers!
The attempt to air brush this report and not give it the space it deserved, is obviously not an editorial slip-up, but a cover-up, and actually more revealing than the survey result.
Consider also, how the social media is on fire with warnings on how India, like Sri Lanka, is going to face shortages of food, fuel and medicine, amplified with gusto by the opposition parties.
Peddling this lie, the Congress is leading the irresponsible pack as usual, declaring that “under Modi’s leadership, the Indian economy is heading the Sri Lankan way, the Rupee is falling, and inflation and unemployment are increasing.”
Not to be left behind, the TMC is dreaming that India will meet the same fate as Sri Lanka, and Modi will have to flee, just like the Sri Lankan President did.
One commentator in The Qunit.com, went on to caution that “Rajapaksa’s politics, style of governance, and gross disregard for democratic procedures … resemble the way Modi has led India post-2014.”
Rajapaksa? The father of all dynasts, like Modi? Well, when it comes to the Index of Modi Hatred, there are no limits.
Observe that all such negative commentary lacks any sense of remorse or genuine worry about the fate of the country. That is precisely why they know the truth that is borne out by the survey, and that is also why they are lying through their teeth.
That India has 0% chance of a recession, when big economies like US and China are at their most vulnerable, HAS to mean that Modi must be doing something right.
You cannot credit this to the opposition saying that the antics of Rahul Gandhi, Kejriwal, Mamata, et al, scared PM Modi to do the right thing!
But if this “darr) (fear, in Hindi) is indeed what is driving Modi, then, to borrow the PM’s own words, ‘yeh darr achha hai” (this fear is good)!