Yoga guru Baba Ramdev has reversed his stance, strongly criticizing the current state of affairs in India under Prime Minister Modi's rule. He detailed widespread issues such as a lack of essential facilities in schools, corruption in government job selections, and exam irregularities

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev has reversed his stance, strongly criticizing the current state of affairs in India under Prime Minister Modi's rule. He detailed widespread issues such as a lack of essential facilities in schools, corruption in government job selections, and exam irregularities

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev has reversed his stance, strongly criticizing the current state of affairs in India under Prime Minister Modi's rule. He detailed widespread issues such as a lack of essential facilities in schools, corruption in government job selections, and exam irregularities

Baba Ramdev, the Yoga guru and till recently a staunch supporter of Prime Minister Modi, has just made a statement, executing a 180-degree turn and a somersault, by strongly criticising conditions in India under Modi's rule.

In this speech, he said that everywhere in India there is 'hungaama' (hue and cry). School children say there are no teachers, no electricity, no water, and no toilets in their school. If there are teachers, there are no textbooks. There is cheating in examinations, and paper leaks. In selections for government jobs, there is 90 per cent corruption. This is against democracy and justice.”

This statement was made soon after Prime Minister Modi's speech at the Red Fort, Delhi, on the occasion of Independence Day.

In this speech, Modi launched a fierce attack on his critics, calling them 'dimaaghi Naxals' (intellectual terrorists), and talked about all the achievements of his government, mentioning statistic after statistic, and claiming that India will be a prosperous country in 2047.

Modi decried what was done in India before he came to power in 2014, forgetting that former prime minister Nehru's government had laid the foundation of heavy industry in India, set up engineering colleges, established schools and colleges all over India, ensured education to girls, abolished zamindari (the landlord system) and reformed several regressive the laws ( e.g. the Hindu Marriage Act,1955 which banned polygamy among Hindus, and the Hindu Succession Act, 1956).

Despite Modi's claims of economic growth, India ranks 130th out of 193 countries in the world on the Human Development Index (HDI).

Even assuming that, according to statistics, there has been GDP growth in India under Modi's rule ( and we must remember Mark Twain's oft-quoted aphorism about statistics '' lies, damned lies, and statistics''), the further question is: who is getting the fruits of this alleged growth? Nine individuals in India own wealth equal to that of the bottom half of India's 1.43 billion people.

India's population is 80 per cent Hindu, and the BJP claims to represent the Hindus, which is why it kept winning election after election, not only for parliament, but also for the state legislatures. However, things seem to be changing in India, and the political wind seems to be shifting its direction.

Indian youth are rising above communalism and casteism, and demanding jobs, as was witnessed in the recent protests in Jantar Mantar, Delhi, in which the youth rose above caste and religion.

There is record-high and rising unemployment in India. Prices of food and other essential commodities are increasing exponentially, and there is an appalling level of child malnutrition (every second child in India is malnourished according to the Global Hunger Index, and the situation has worsened in recent years, with India slipping from position number 101 to 107 out of 125 countries surveyed ), and an almost total lack of proper healthcare and good education.


This is why discontent among Indians is boiling and exploding, and the Modi government, which has ruled India for 12 years with hardly any opposition, seems to be on the back foot now. And the opposition is not coming from political parties but from the people, who are fed up with the state of affairs prevailing in the country and are no longer willing to be fooled by empty talk, but want improvement in their lives.
This could possibly be why people like Baba Ramdev, who were earlier staunch supporters of Modi, sensing change in the political wind in India, are changing their tune now.

I am reminded of these verses of the Urdu poet Akbar Allahabadi :
'' Khabar deti hai tehreek-e-hawa tabdeel-e-mausam ki
 Khilenge aur hi gul, zamzame bulbul ke kam honge
 Badal jaayega meyaar-e-sharaafat chashm-e-duniya mein
 Zyaada the jo apne zom mein woh sab se kam honge ''
i.e.
'' The movement of the wind indicates a change of the season
 Other flowers will now bloom, the songs of the bulbul bird will be less
 The nature/understanding of rectitude will change in the eyes of the world
 Those who were full of pride and arrogance will fall to the lowest ''

Napoleon said of China '' China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep, for when she awakes, she will shake the world''.

He could have said the same about India, the sleeping giant which is waking up now.

(Justice Markandey Katju retired from the Supreme Court in 2011.)

(The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of THE WEEK.)