By Badri Narayan, Director, GB Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad
The term “Viksit Bharat” is quite popular these days. It is being widely used in the media, academia, business discourses, politics, and public debates. The questions that arise in these discussions are—What is Viksit Bharat? Is it merely a term or a slogan? Is it also a political metaphor? Is it a hope-based long-term vision of India’s development? And is it an abstract concept, a perception, or a concrete plan for India’s future? Opinions may be divided on all of these, but most have a consensus on achieving Viksit Bharat. In this sense, it appears as a vision of a long-term mission for India’s development, which has also evolved into a political metaphor.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi envisions rebuilding India’s future in a way that provides glory and pride to the Indian identity all over the world. Modern Indian history may be divided into three phases. In the first phase, Mahatma Gandhi led the freedom movement that resulted in Independence. The second phase is the post-independent period. And the third will include the timeline of Viksit Bharat, as conceptualised by Modi.
Viksit Bharat is not merely an abstract concept but a vivid metaphor of the long-term development of present-day India. In my view, after Mahatma Gandhi, Modi is the only political leader who has shown a capability to plan for the long-term future of both India as a nation and a society. Earlier, our future was planned in the form of five-year plans which had multiple connects and disconnects. Most of the times, it lacked a coherent continuum of the development vision that focussed on planning India’s future for 25 years or beyond. We have witnessed a long period through the stage of developing India, which Modi has transformed into the aspirational ideal that is Viksit Bharat.
Viksit Bharat proposes a development road map for India in science, technology, infrastructure, social sector, health, education, livelihood, tourism, and democracy. The notion of Viksit Bharat, however, visibly works for the material development of the nation. It is also closely linked with other forms of development such as cultural and spiritual. This mission maybe achieved by inculcating various kinds of bhavas (ideals) among the public.
What are these bhavas? We can find them in various deliberations of PM Modi in the past 10 years. The first bhava, which he discussed in his concept of “Panch Praan”, is to remove all the mental shackles and traces of colonial and medieval servitudes. This is required for making us free in the real sense.
Second, this constant effort of decolonising minds may produce the aatmanirbharta (self-reliance) bhava among citizens. One of the anchors of Viksit Bharat, the aatmanirbhar bhava may inculcate confidence in our societal knowledge, skills, and cultural insights, preparing us for the development mission.
Third, the Viksit Bharat mission requires the bhava of aspiration among the public for an aspirational India. PM Modi and his vision of governance is based on evolving public aspirations. Aspirations are essential for providing a sense of mobility among people, which may orient them towards individual as well as national development. Modi and his government lead all the social support schemes for the poor. They are slowly enhancing the capacity to aspire among marginal and poor communities to bring them within the circle of development aspirations. The beneficiary consciousness — expanded by various social support programmes launched by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the past decade — is deepening this bhava.
Fourth, hopes for a bright future is the central bhava to orient the common man towards development. A society which lacks hope becomes static and lethargic. PM Modi has identified the same and weaved hope in his Viksit Bharat discourse. Strong hopes for the future may enable socioeconomic and political mobility among the masses.
Fifth, Modi emphasised the samarsata (equity) bhava needed to ensure a conflict-free, and by extension, developed nation.
These five ideals could together produce the development capital needed for Viksit Bharat.
PM Modi appeals to all political parties to come together for this nation-building mission. Modi himself is the source of ideation and inspiration and is working as the lead campaigner. A strong political and governance team is constantly working with him for this mission. Union home minister Amit Shah understands the mission and is working closely with the PM. But other Union ministers such as Nirmala Sitharaman (finance), S Jaishankar (external affairs), and Dharmendra Pradhan (education) are working creatively as well to achieve this goal.
JP Nadda, Mansukh Mandaviya, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Arjun Ram Meghwal, and other members of the Union cabinet, along with a group of dedicated bureaucrats and administrative workforce, are striving to implement the policies that can actualise Viksit Bharat in the coming decades. The PM and the BJP have a group of competent political leaders to sustain the campaign in the years ahead.
The common man, the rural population, or marginal communities may or may not comprehend the meaning of Viksit Bharat. But they want vikas (development) to improve their lives. So, they understand that the gist lies in the term “development”, and they gravitate towards a politics which delivers the policies that may alleviate their socio-economic hardships. The term Viksit Bharat also acquires political and electoral underpinnings because the development vision it espouses renders hope. In a way, the BJP is advancing the politics of hope. The opposition has not yet succeeded to crush this discourse by contrasting it with disappointment about the present and future of India.
Viksit Bharat has become a powerful term in the current political and development discourse of India. It contains various meanings, but its central tone is the making of a developed India in the material, cultural, and spiritual sense, along with a global dignified identity.
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