Agent Orange writes in the Economist that when the BJP won a “landslide” in 2014, Modi was “something of a mystery”. The question then was would his government initiate an “economic lift-off”, or “spark a sectarian conflagration”? Agent Orange has, after five years of Modi, come to the conclusion that Modi has neither been “as good for India” nor “as bad.” But, cautions this agent of change, the “risks outweigh the rewards” and India would be “better off with a different leader.”

Modi, says Agent Orange, has been campaigning as a “strongman with the character to stand up to Pakistan”, but adds that sending warplanes to “bomb India’s nuclear neighbour was not so much an act of strength as recklessness that could have ended in disaster.” Agent Orange is pretty sure that Modi’s muscular Kashmir policy in the “disputed” J&K is also a “disaster.”

This “impetuousness disguised as decisiveness” has had a similar impact on economic policy-making, declares Agent Orange, as witnessed when Modi abruptly cancelled high denomination currency notes and pushed through GST and a bankruptcy code. Farmers and small businesses were drastically hit and the economy “grew only marginally faster.”

Agent Orange has no patience for Agent Saffron Narendra Modi. ‘He’ is outraged that Modi failed to take advantage of the low oil prices and unemployment grew. He also angry that Modi “cowed” the Indian Press, “bullied” his critics and “suborned” respected government institutions, as he did by hounding the “boss of the central bank” from office and “loosing tax collectors” on political opponents and “packing state universities with ideologues”, besides “cocking a snook at rules” meant to insulate the army from politics.

But what has really and truly got Agent Orange’s goat is Modi’s “biggest fault”, which is “stoking of Hindu-Muslim tensions” and he cites the nomination of a ‘Hindu cleric” as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh as an example. As also BJP President Amit Shah reference to “Bangladesh migrants” as “termites”. But Agent Orange makes a blunder there: it is not “migrants” but “illegal migrants”.

However, ‘he’ is pretty much on the dot when he says that Modi has not once expressed “regret” for the Gujarat riots which left 1000 dead. The ‘leader’ in the Economist calls for a change of leader in New Delhi. It finds Rahul Gandhi a good substitute. “India is too combustible a place to be put in the hands of politicians who campaign with flamethrowers,” says Agent Orange. The Congress might be “hidebound and corrupt” but “at least it does not set Indians at each other’s throats”.

Besides, the Congress manifesto is “impressive” with “thoughtful ideas about how to help the poorest Indians.” Congress President Rahul Gandhi gets the green signal from Agent Orange for “modernizing the party a little, raising its profile on social media” and is “worthier recipient of Indians’ votes than the BJP.”

That said, Agent Orange is not stupid and understands the Congress will not “improve its showing enough to form a government on its own”, that it’s more likely that the “BJP remains in power.” So, what’s the solution, what’s the way out? Agent Orange has all that chalked out: A coalition government. Either one that is a non-BJP mishmash of all opposition parties or a coalition led by the BJP but not by Narendra Modi.

Bottomline: Agent Orange wants no BJP majority on its own and no Modi at the helm. “A degree of bickering and stasis would be price worth paying to curb the BJP’s excesses. At the very least, coalition partners might be able to bring down a truly wayward BJP government by leaving it.” All in a month of May! (IPA Service)