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| English: Image of Narendra Modi at the World Economic Forum in India (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Then they drag Narendra Modi in. That is how media gathers eyeballs. You build someone up. Then you break them down. You get eyeballs both ways.
I don't have time to be reading sludge. This is going to be the first article I read on the topic.
Return of the scandals: Where does PM Narendra Modi go from here?
No one quite expected the country to transform suddenly and shake off the legacy of the past. But there was a widespread expectation that since Modi was 'clean' and 'strong' - as opposed to Manmohan Singh who was 'clean' but 'weak', the government would remain clean. This is what the PM capitalised on when he said the absence of scams was a sign 'ache din' had arrived during the first anniversary celebrations. ....... Irrespective of the rhetoric, both Congress and BJP have been closely enmeshed with capital. Democratic politics as we practice, needs money. Elections are expensive business. Politicians accumulate wealth which they invest in businesses, or outsource to certain businessmen to manage. Businessmen hope they have backed the right horses and when the time comes, they can reap rewards for their investment. This is not specific to India, but has been an established fact across the world. Quid pro quo exists. ......... The question is if political systems are able to institute a degree of transparency (for instance, make public all the funding that is received or have state funding for parties in elections); regulation (for instance, restrict the amount of funding; keep close track of transactions; legalise lobbying); reduce the extent of discretionary decision making in government; and have strong avoidance of conflict of interest laws..........To give credit where its due, the Modi sarkar has recognised that it is in natural resource allocation that discretion and crony capitalism is most acute - they have made an effort to correct this partly through cleaner spectrum and coal allocations. But there are a range of other sectors where discretion is rampant. Cricket is an obvious example where a deeply unhealthy relationship exists between politics as money and glamour - the PM himself is a part of this nexus as a former president of the Gujarat Cricket Association. The line between encouraging a business friendly environment (a stated goal of this government) and between encouraging select, friendly businessmen is a thin one. And BJP, like its predecessors, under the garb of the former, does not shy away from doing the latter.Narendra Modi goes from 7.5% to 10% --- that is where.
So I read the article. I still don't know what the accusation is. Time waste kar diya.
