

The Narendra Modi government prides itself on a disciplined approach to government functioning and policy making, shorn of loose talk, selective leaks and bureaucratic inertia. His ministers stalk government corridors, catching errant babus who are late for work or who have not kept their offices clean. But Mr Modi’s missive on talking less and doing more appears to have fallen on deaf ears, atleast in some cases. If one minister appeared to talk in cavalier manner about the return of Kashmiri pandits to the Valley, another has got tied up in knots trying to explain his statements on Indian culture, AIDS and sex education. Yet another minister is just recovering from a barrage of non-stop attacks from a leading television channel about a notice from a Rajasthan court in an alleged case of rape. The last case has nothing to do with loose talk and Mr Nihalchand is innocent until proven guilty but the first two cases are clearly those of men who clearly wish they had communicated their thoughts better.

Take Dr Harsh Vardhan for instance. The genial health minister has got himself into two controversies in the past one week alone. In an interview to New York Times, the minister said that condoms alone are not enough in the battle against AIDS and that people should be taught the importance of Indian cultural values which preach fidelity and faithfulness to one partner; A few days later a report surfaced in a leading newspaper about the minister’s vision document for improving the quality of education in Delhi’s schools. Nothing wrong with that, except that it contained a line expressing the minister’s disgust with sex education and his preference for making yoga compulsory in schools.

This was enough for the country’s pseudo-secular/left brigade to jump up and shout about the Modi-led government trying to impose a rightist/religious agenda on an unsuspecting, unwary nation. Social media exploded in a flurry of tweets and messages about a sinister medieval agenda and the only thing missing was probably a candle light march mourning the death of multiculturalism in Indian society as we know it.

In my view, three mistakes were committed by people involved in the debate. Dr Harsh Vardhan made the first mistake and the second and third were made by the pseudo-liberal/left and the independent observors who probably should have known better than to get taken in by the hype and propaganda.

Let us examine this. The health minister and the former Delhi chief ministerial candidate should have known better than to talk about Indian culture and AIDS in the same breath and that too to an ultra-liberal, international publication like the New York Times. He should have known that his words will be misinterpreted, turned, twisted in a way that he himself would not have recognised. A Congress or a communist politician making this link would have probably been laughed at or probably ignored but a BJP politician is a different matter. Dont get me wrong. I am not advocating that the minister be silent on this issue or that he should not speak his mind on an important topic. I am merely saying that he should have chosen a proper forum to voice his views on this sensitive issue like a public speech or a TV interview where there is a record his full statement and the context in which he made this point. Today, we don’t have both. ‘What transpired in that interview is between him and the NYT reporter. The American paper has not published a transcript of the conversation for an independant person to judge.

Dr Harsh Vardhan’s second mistake was to insert the words banning sex education in the vision document. Again, I am not saying that his views are wrong. Only that an issue like sex education in schools is too sensitive to be dismissed in one line. It lends itself to all kinds of interpretations and serve as a needless red rag to bulls of the pseudo-secular/left. The minister then made matters worse by trying to walk back his statement. He probably realised that his single-line dismissal of the issue was inadequate and tried to clarify but by then the damage had been done.

What do these controversies show? One thing is crystal clear. The pseudo-secular/left will stop at nothing when it comes to maligning the government. They know they don’t have the numbers or the wherewithal to bring down the government. They know that the Congress party is too weak to win elections and that it is still facing anti-incumbency in prominent states like Maharashtra and Haryana. AAP is too small and insignificant. The only available route is to tarnish the government’s image and distract its attention by painting it as an ogre out to spoil the peace and harmony of Indian society. The first shots in that battle have already been fired.

Independant minded people who are probably expecting government to lift the pall of gloom over the economy would have probably been surprised by the turn of events, especially the controversy regarding sex and AIDS. They should be. Sex education in schools is the least important issue facing the country now. Even when it is promoted as a weapon against ill-treatment and sexual violence against women, it fails the test. In the age of internet and easily available foreign travel, a mass media geared to appealing to base instincts of human nature, what good can platitudes in a sex education class achieve? If liberals think this is a panacea to solve all ills regarding violence against women, it is best to let them stew in their own ignorance.