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July 2014

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Naya Daur

Modi heralds change with Gandhi-Lohia-Upadhyay talisman
WHAT comes first in the life of a nation—sociology, philosophy, politics or economics? The world over, there is intense debate over what drives a nation. Economy building without a clear social roadmap cannot yield any progress to ameliorate the condition of the masses. A nation without a defined socio-political roadmap is just a geographic presence on the world map. For the past 23 years, India followed an economic agenda driven by market forces. Though India progressed, the soul of Indian-ness was missing. The GDP growth rate appeared to be satisfactory, but over the past decade Indians had started questioning why they were under a compulsion to follow the agenda—in toto—of those sitting in the US and Europe. The mirage of taking every Indian to a wonderland made UPA I and II implement even those policies which were partly inconsistent with or irrelevant to the spirit of the emerging young India.

Every nation absorbs the thought processes of its social and political leaders in its development agenda. The latter does not appear overnight, but is orchestrated over time by great leadership. Narendra Modi is a Prime Minister in a different league. His socio-political thought process is totally different from the political milieu ruling the nation for the past 67 years. Modi, in his first speech as Prime Minister and parliamentarian, while replying to the debate on the President’s speech, said, “We have grown up with the teachings of Deendayal Upadhyay, Mahatma Gandhi and Ram Manohar Lohia.