Modi’s popularity soars, why he needs to listen to voices that want to be heard, north to east to south

It runs like a mesmerising film reel.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurating a Hindu temple in the UAE on Wednesday, signifying the outreach of a country seeking to be a “Vishwaguru” and a “Vishwabandhu” (teacher and friend of the world); earlier this week, an accommodative Qatar freeing eight Navy veterans who returned to India as free men following the quiet diplomacy led by the PM himself; and Modi, an OBC, leading the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya last month instead of a Brahmin.

These illustrate a prime minister at the peak of his power both at home and abroad. Yet, voices from different parts of India — from the north to the east to the south — are trying to make themselves heard.

At the moment, farmers from Punjab are trying to seek a better deal for themselves with their “Dilli Chalo” cry, demanding, among other things, a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP) for their crops. Legally guaranteed MSP is just one of the demands in their 10-point charter.

No one knows the import of optics in politics better than the PM. And yet the protesters were met with barricades, concrete slabs covered with barbed wires, and drones dropping tear gas as the BJP-led Haryana government stopped them at the Punjab border, refusing to let them through. A team of three Union Ministers, including Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda, have been engaging in dialogue with the farm unions; even after a long session on Thursday night, tear gas was used Friday morning.

One argument the farmers are making is that they need a better deal. The 2018-’19 government figures put the average income of a farmer from agriculture at Rs 27 a day. The situation, therefore, calls for urgent reforms and a safety net for the farmers.