This is an archived blog post from The Acorn on Medium.
“Most of these political commentators don’t know what they are talking about,” my colleague said. “What they do not realise is that the Gujarat election results demonstrate Modiji’s popularity!”
“How can you say that?” another colleague challenged. “Far from getting 150 seats, far from retaining their old tally, they actually got only 99 seats. Obviously the Modi wave is receding.”
**“That’s because Modiji was not the CM candidate,” she said quickly. “Had Gujaratis known Modiji will be chief minister, the BJP would have gotten more than 150 seats.** The fact that they got less than 100 shows Modji’s popularity margin. People vote for Modiji because they like him. They have faith in his leadership. They want him to be their Chief Minister. See, that’s why BJP never publishes a manifesto. Modiji is the manifesto. Gujaratis don’t want Anandibens and Rupanis, that’s why the BJP lost seats.”
It is startling that the entire political class — from those sitting in armchairs in air-conditioned rooms (paying 28% GST) to sitting on roadside stalls sipping hot tea in the winter cold (paying 5% GST) to those typing away on social media and WhatsApp groups (not paying any GST)— missed this profound insight. Modiji is today the most popular politician in the country: people want him to be their leader, people vote for him, people have faith in his intentions and actions.
That’s why in every state election, Modiji is the face of the BJP’s campaign. That is why no one really cares if there is a manifesto or not. After the elections, if the people feel cheated when some nondescript, junior or fringe leader is made the Chief Minister when, in fact, they had voted for Modiji it is not the BJP’s fault. It is the Constitution’s fault.
The Constitution must be amended to allow the same person to be Prime Minister and Chief Minister if that person has been fairly elected by the people. In fact, Modiji’s record of standing up to New Delhi when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat shows us that we need him in the state to protect federalism. We also need him in New Delhi to protect the national integration. Only Modiji can stand up to Modiji. Therefore the need of the hour is to let him be both the PM and CM.
However, it would be unfair to the people of other states if only Gujarat gets a powerful and popular chief minister. After all, voters in most states voted for Modiji, not the people currently occupying the Chief Minister’s chairs. To be fair, and in the interests of democracy, Modiji should be permitted to be the Chief Minister of more than one state. In fact, he should be permitted to the Chief Minister of all 29 States. All the problems that plague India’s federal setup, will be solved if Modiji is simultaneously the PM and CM of all 30 states.
Even this is unfair. During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Modiji was the face of the campaign. People were told that a vote for BJP was a vote for Modiji. And they voted for Modiji in large numbers. It seems unfair that after having voted for a tall leader like Modiji, they get some local figure as their MP. Very unfair. Instead, the law should amended to allow Modiji to represent more than one constituency, so that every constituency can have the best man to represent it in Parliament. It is entirely possible that all 545 constituencies will elect Modiji as their MP, in which case we will have a smoothly functioning parliament.
Whenever Pakistan has conducted terrorist attacks on India, be it on Parliament, be it in Mumbai or Pathankot, our military chiefs have given conservative advice to the PM. India could therefore not punish Pakistani cross-border terrorism with military force. The defence ministry is dragging its foot on the appointment of a five-star ranked Chief of Defence Staff. It stands to reason that appointing Modiji as the CDS with the rank of Field Marshal will solve the problem. He won’t hesitate to military options when required, and we all know how much Pakistan deserves to be punished. Lest the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force complain that the CDS is an Army officer, Modiji can also be made Admiral of the Fleet and Marshal of the Air Force. The problem of civil-military relations does not arise, as Prime Minister Modi will certainly outrank and give orders to Field Marshal Modi.
Since the Supreme Court has decided that interpreting the Constitution is not its only role, and that it has to respond to the collective conscience of society, judges need not be purely legal minds. They need to be able to understand the collective conscience of society. Modiji certainly understands it. Instead of the opaque process by which Supreme Court judges are chosen, we should allow the democratically elected Modiji to be a judge. Given his seniority, he should be the Chief Justice. That will also prevent the judiciary from holding up the government policies and programmes.
Modiji is the best person to make laws, to implement the laws, to judge when those laws are broken. We should stop listening to the elite intellectuals who want to perpetuate corruption, cronyism and dynasty in the name of the constitution. The constitution has been amended more than a hundred times. One more amendment making the above changes won’t hurt. It’ll probably even go unnoticed.
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