By Sushil Kutty
If putting an end to Narendra Modi’s rule for the “democratic revival” of India is the Opposition’s goal for 2024, then billionaire George Soros should be kept at a couple of oceans’ length. Soros might come with a certain reputation, but laying India on the mat is a different ballgame, Narendra Modi or no Narendra Modi at the helm. Allegations of “foreign hand” will flood the media and that will be the death of the Opposition’s gameplan.
True, like the Indian saying goes ‘bakre ki maa kab tak khair manayegi’, meaning for how long will the goat’s mum escape the butcher’s knife, some day she will come under the keen blade. Ultimately, the axe will fall on Modi’s run, too.
But do India’s opposition parties need George Soros to lend a “foreign hand”, even if taking out Modi is a noble errand? After nine years of Modi rule, there is no guarantee his regime would go the way of most authoritarian regimes and George Soros’ intervention holds hope, but that still does not justify inviting a foreign “financial mercenary” to the gala.
None of the opposition parties, which are committed to oust the Modi government, would voice loudly their appreciation and acceptance of Soros’ grand design, even if every last one of them agreed with Soros that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “stranglehold” on the Indian government had waned after the ‘Hindenburg’ report, and the two-part BBC documentary ‘India: The Modi Question’.
The Soros assertion that Prime Minister Modi’s hold has weakened rattled the Modi government. Enough for it to call a presser, addressed by no less than the government’s chief troubleshooter, Minister for Women & Child Development Smriti Irani, who rubbished Soros’ “ill-intentions” and branded him a mercenary hired to stop India’s breakneck development under Modi’s watch.
The question is, did George Soros jump the gun? Two, did he make the mistake of taking a knife to a gunfight? Wittingly or unwittingly, Soros revealed his hand in the Opposition campaign to remove Modi with the help of a “foreign hand”. Where and what was the necessity for Soros to fire a warning shot over the Modi government’s bows?
To advertise that India was a target for regime change, calling it “democratic revival”, was stupid. Regime change in India goes through an ordered and well-greased electoral process, even if, of late, that process has been questioned, and found to be wanting.
George Soros made a mess of the Opposition parties’ sworn duty to remove an authoritarian regime and return India to democracy. And do this through the set electoral process. None of India’s political parties will invite the outrage of a regime change with the help of a “foreign hand”.
What did George Soros think, that the majority of India’s billion-plus would line-up in the streets, and clap? Wasn’t he there when questions were raised of Russian interference in the 2016 US Presidential elections that put Donald Trump in the White House? It is hard not to believe that Soros wasn’t part of the remove Trump campaign. That Soros is leading a remote ‘remove Modi’ campaign is now out in the open.
And with Soros claiming he has pledged a billion dollars to the campaign, the Modi government has been forewarned. The humongous hubris of a 92-year-old got the better of him. There is no going back now even if the declaration has backfired. Soros’ India links are under the scanner and India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar says it doesn’t matter if Soros is “old, rich and opinionated”, but it does make a difference that Soros is “dangerous”.
Soros has the reputation of not playing by the rules. And he wouldn’t give two hoots for the “strength of Indian democracy”. His goal is to weaken Modi as much as possible, and if that takes weakening Indian democracy, so be it!
Also, it cannot be that Soros does not know that the Modi government will use all the resources at its command to take him out without a count! The disruptor cannot discount the odds he faces. Soros confessed he must be “naïve” to think that a “democratic revival” was happening in India. Soros, of all people, must know that the ground for keeping Modi at India’s helm is an ongoing process.
Removing Prime Minister Narendra Modi from power using an overseas billionaire will not be easy. Most definitely not if the billionaire gets atop a roof and shouts his defiance! By jumping the gun, Soros has handed to Modi and his party the makings of a counter-toolkit.
In the process, George Soros did Congress leader Rahul Gandhi a great disfavour. The Gandhi scion now has a target painted on his Burberry t-shirt courtesy George Soros. Much like Prime Minister Narendra Modi has one on his Nehru-jacket made of recycled plastic bottles, also courtesy George Soros.
That said, Soros is not the superman he thinks he is. The ground rules peculiar to India are a handicap. For one, Soros cannot be on the ground in India to run firsthand his remove Modi campaign. Two, he will have to rope in India’s opposition parties and it is unlikely any Opposition leader will risk his party’s name getting linked to a “foreign hand”.
Immediately, without much ado, there will be shouts of “traitor” and “anti-national” and there’s no guarantee people will not believe. Soros is on record that Narendra Modi and the BJP were behind the hyper-nationalism that has caught on like wildfire in India after 2014.
The same hyper-nationalism that has kept the BJP in power for two terms and could fetch Modi a third straight term. Attacking Modi with the charge of hyper-nationalism will be the biggest ever misstep. Especially if a foreigner is making the charge. The same foreigner whose affinity for Pakistan is well documented.
The Congress party, especially, should not risk contesting BJP’s hyper-nationalism with Soros at its side. The Congress is perceived as “anti-Army, and anti-national”, and joining Soros will only boomerang. There is video evidence linking Rahul Gandhi, and Rahul’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, to Soros and his open society foundation.
India’s media scene is also different from that of Europe, and the United States. The cacophony is overwhelmingly hyper-nationalistic and the Modi regime has a stranglehold on the noise. Stitching an anti-Modi narrative and making it stick would not be easy.
To reiterate, George Soros symbolizes the much accused “foreign hand”, and he is a liability. Smriti Irani at her presser said that Soros wanted a “pliable government” and that his anti-Modi comments were proof of waging “war against India”. Soros, she said, will be met with the “might of the Indian electorate”.
Bottom-line: The Opposition does not need George Soros to defeat Narendra Modi. Soros is an albatross. India’s Opposition has very potent issues to fight the BJP and Modi. From the damning BBC Gujarat documentary to the Hindenburg-Adani revelations, from ‘Modani’ to unemployment and the uncontrollable price rise; from the use of brute state power to the missing rule of law. The Opposition does not need a “foreign hand” to put an end to 10 years of Modi rule. The Soros gambit is a non-starter. (IPA Service)
