Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first outing to Bengal and Jharkhand after the electoral upset in Karnataka predictably drew the attention of observers, who were dissecting his moves and words to see if there was any scope to gauge his mood following the grandstanding by the Opposition parties in Bengaluru over formation of the Congress-JD (S) government. In Bengal, where he had gone to preside over the convocation of the Vishwa Bharati as its Acharya, Modi was his usual unperturbed self, walking towards Bengal Chief Minister and a key architect of the federal front, Mamata Banerjee, exchanging pleasantries. While invoking Gurudev’s worldview, he also deftly wove in the poet laureate’s vision of a self-reliant village economy asking students to work in 100 more villages by 2021, the university’s 100th anniversary, and ensure they have lPG connections and basic rights. He even stressed on the need for participation of the masses for development. “If you walk one step, the government is ready to walk four steps,” he said, referencing his mission statement.
In Jharkhand, while inaugurating a slew of projects, he stuck to the theme of empowering the masses, the dispossessed, women, tribals and youth and local issues. And in a veiled reference to Karnataka, he mentioned how a performing government should draw sustenance from popular support, an oblique reference to the number-crunching that beat the tide of general sentiment. Is this then going to be the new mantra of the PM, development tied to local imperatives, for which he will have a worksheet of announcements and figures on the basis of which he will seek time to deliver againIJ Or will he go all out against the Opposition full guns blazingIJ