Modi criticised Togadia and Priyanka defended her husband but here's why the two have more in common than they'd like to admit

What’s common between Narendra Modi’s indirect chide to Pravin Togadia and Giriraj Singh, and Priyanka Gandhi’s indignation over the allegations of corruption against her husband Robert Vadra?

Both are devoid of substance and conviction - Modi didn’t name Togadia and Singh, and asked them to shut up by telling them what was wrong with their rabid utterances, and Priyanka didn't tell the nation why she felt hurt. Instead, both just skimmed the surface and got away with some meaningless talk.

First, let’s look at what Togadia and Singh said and how Modi reacted. Speaking in Bhavnagar on Saturday, Togadia called for the forcible eviction of a Muslim family from a Hindu area. He gave step by step instructions on how to enforce it and even said that he had done it in the past. Singh literally asked the detractors of Modi to go to Pakistan.

Both Togadia and Singh are no small fry - the former is the president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the latter, a BJP candidate in Bihar and a former minister in Nitish Kumar’s cabinet.

What did Modi do? Name and condemn them? No, he took to Twitter and called them -without naming anybody - “petty comments” that “are deviating the campaign from the issue of development and good governance”. While neither Modi nor his party refused to take any action, the EC clamped down on them and is pursuing action that might lead to the arrest of both.

Of course Modi was annoyed, but probably to the point that their comments were counter-productive to his plank of good governance and development. But what he didn’t realise is that by doing what he did, Modi himself was not fostering the idea of governance and development, but was defeating it.

Good governance is not "strong" governance - as many associated the term with Modi - and development is not about increasing per capita income, building infrastructure or making the private sector happy. As the UN, among many other development think-tanks, lays them out, the principles of good governance include participation and inclusion, acceptability and rule of law, and non-discrimination and equality.

It’s therefore clear that by directly not condemning both Togadia and Singh and asking for action against them, Modi hasn't conformed to the the principles of governance. In good governance, people should feel that their governments embody these principles. When Modi promises the country good governance, what he in fact promises are these principles.

Since both Togadia and Singh targeted the minorities, it will be worthwhile referring to what former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in 1999: "In practice, good governance involves promoting the rule of law, tolerance of minority and opposition groups, transparent political processes, an independent judiciary, an impartial police force… Above all, good governance means respect for human rights."

Development, the other buzzword that Modi referred to, is not any different either. Article 6 of the UN Declaration on the Right to Development says: “All States should co-operate with a view to promoting, encouraging and strengthening universal respect for and observance of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without any distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.” It’s certainly time that the veil of good governance and development are torn open and the terms are disaggregated.

Now let’s look at Priyanka, the privileged Congress campaigner in family constituencies, who felt upset and angry by the way her husband and family was being “insulted”.

"There are things that are said about my husband. The more they humiliate us, the stronger we become. I am saddened by the attack, but I have learned from Indira Gandhi that the truth becomes the armour," she reportedly said.

Obviously, Priyanka claims that she is armoured by truth. But where’s it? Shouldn’t she show what exactly is the armour, the truth? The nation has been asking this question for a few years based on what appeared to be prima facie evidence that her husband has accumulated a lot of wealth, mainly through sweet deals with the help of Congress governments. Either Vadra, or anybody from the Congress party or the family, hasn’t openly countered the allegations and disclosed the “truth”.

Even while expressing her wounded innocence, Priyanka is in no mood to spell out the truth. In fact, BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi, for a change, provided the right cue: “Obviously she is defending her husband and is unhappy as a wife, but people are also unhappy with the money he has made. Let him return the money and her unhappiness will end.” But Priyanka refused to pick up.

What people such as Priyanka Gandhi should realise is that emotions - fake or real - are no substitutes for substance. There is a strong perception backed by considerable evidence that her family has chosen to stonewall. But when it finally broke its silence, it’s all hot air, playing on the emotions. Finding a parallel with Indira Gandhi - of truth as courage - is not an answer to the relevant question - did Vadra make money using offices controlled by the Congress? That’s the truth that will make Priyanka look courageous and Indira Gandhi, prophetic.

Anyway, Modi and Priyanka are not isolated cases. Unfortunately, the Indian electorate still falls for them. If only they could learn that the real meaning of lofty words and phrases are really not what Indian politicians tell them.