PM Narendra Modi Invokes Maa Lakshmi To Win Delhi Polls For The BJP

By Sushil Kutty

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is sucking up to the gods ahead of his government’s second budget of his third term. The god he chose, but, of course, ‘Maa Lakshmi’, the goddess of wealth and prosperity. Somebody spoke of a ‘Hindu goddess’, which is ridiculous because monotheistic religions don’t have goddesses and more than one God!

The Budget Session started Friday and Prime Minister Narendra Modi couldn’t but mention ‘Viksit Bharat’. He did give the impression though of being wary of the February 5 Delhi Assembly elections. And gave the impression he was nervous like a butterfly! Will the BJP make the best of Budget 2025 to win the Delhi assembly after 25 years in a power vacuum in the nation’s capital?

Modi’s display of superstition betrayed nervousness. One election victory or loss will not make ‘Viksit Bharat’, will it? Even Maa Lakshmi doesn’t look so far ahead? Prime Minister Modi sounded like India will become Viksit Bharat by February 4 max! He said the Budget will give “new energy and hope to the nation.”

What is making Prime Minister Narendra Modi nervous? Isn’t it customary for prime ministers to address the media before the beginning of a new parliamentary session? Why did Prime Minister Narendra Modi have to differentiate with, “Ahead of the Budget Session, I bow down to Maa Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity…I pray that Maa Lakshmi continues to bless the poor and middle class of our country?”

“I can confidently say that in 2047, when India will complete 100 years of Independence, India will fulfil its aim of Viksit Bharat and this budget will give new energy and hope to the nation, 140 crore people will fulfil this vow.”

Viksit Bharat doesn’t seem to leave Prime Minister Modi alone for a moment. There are more pressing things bothering the country right now. There are issues that will rise to the surface in this Budget Session of Parliament itself. Like the Wakf Board Amendment Bill 2024. And a proposed “Deportation Bill” that will be introduced. Also, in his third straight term, albeit with a lower threshold to hold on to power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi cannot let lethargy take hold by losing himself in dreams of the future.

Doesn’t Prime Minister Modi know that he is on notice and unless he delivers on key parameters and electoral guarantees, he might end up on a limb, walking the plank? Viksit Bharat is way ahead in time and people want things to happen now, today, not tomorrow or the day after. There is impatience all about and the people are spoiled for choice with the number of freebies promised.

Feasting on ‘freebies’ will defeat Modi’s commitment to “all-round development” and the BJP’s claim to “mission mode” will be water off the duck’s back. A freebie of Rs 2500 every month to the woman of the house will upset all calculations of ‘Viksit Bharat’. Even the generous Maa Lakshmi will not dole out blessings for the asking, the goddess knows that if wishes were horses even beggars would ride, so forget it!

Does Prime Minister Modi even know the extent of poverty plaguing India and Indians? All Modi has to do is to get off the high-horse and slip into Delhi’s slums and rundown unauthorized or recently authorized colonies, he will be sick to the gills at the poverty eating into India’s chances of making it to ‘Viksit Bharat’ in 2047, by when all of those who are in the late 60s and 70s now would be over the Hill and gone forever.

Modi spoke of a roadmap to economic development; of the several historic bills to come up for discussion. Of reform, performance and transformation of a youthful nation, of those who are 25-26 years old today and living in a Viksit Bharat when they are 45-46. “In this Budget session, all MPs will contribute, especially the young MPs since it is a golden opportunity for them. They will be witnesses to Viksit Bharat…”

But behind the pep talk, there loomed the Delhi assembly elections, voting for which will take place on February 5 and the results will be out on February 8. Therefore, evoking Goddess Maa Lakshmi. Modi said he was praying to Maa Lakshmi to be specifically generous towards the poor and the middle classes. Now, it is up to the poor and middle classes to take the hint and vote the BJP to power after a hiatus of 25 years. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has a task in hand.

People in the know say, the Modi-led NDA government will present a “generous Budget” and the poor and middle classes will enjoy to the hilt; not just the poor and middle classes of Delhi but the poor and middle classes of entire India. Then, as if to curate the Budget further, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also spoke of the necessity for “prudence and achievement.”

So, will there be some “big-bang announcements” for the poor in the budget? Don’t forget, the Bharatiya Janata Party and many opposition parties have been on a freebie announcement binge for the past couple of weeks, making a dime a dozen promises — what are called “guarantees”, all of them doctored to win elections.

The Congress did it in the Karnataka assembly elections and won with flying colours. Later, repeating the effort in Telangana, too, while the Bharatiya Janata Party successfully navigated “Modi’s Guarantees” to a top of the podium finish in the Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra assembly elections.

Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP is, of course, the original king of freebies, making good with freebies in the harshest of electoral circumstances; to the extent of even bankrupting its treasury and moving to liquoring up the electorate. Arvind Kejriwal is not at all mindful of AAP’s financial distress as the gods they are always helping him despite alleged perfidy.

Kejriwal is at it again, asking voters to vote the AAP to power for another term if they didn’t want the BJP to stop the “welfare schemes”. Kejriwal is a master of manipulation and this must not have escaped the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Prime Minister’s biggest failure to date has been his inability to win Delhi for a complete makeover of the nation’s capital and from the looks of it, Modi’s one great wish is stuck in his gullet — turning Delhi into a Lutyens paradise, such that he is forever recognized as the ‘Architect of Indraprastha!’

For sure, Prime Minister Narendra Modi must have lined up a number of guarantees for the Delhi assembly elections in his Budget 2025. Delhi’s poor and middle classes will be anticipating a bonanza. The middle classes will expect income tax relief and the poor might be promised houses by the dozens and the hundreds. Maa Lakshmi willing, that is! (IPA Service)