Prime Minister Narendra Modi has risked his and the BJP’s politics in wooing mutually antagonistic economic classes across the country. Within two days of announcing the decision to demonetise high-value bank notes, Modi began claiming at every opportunity that his government embarked on the audacious strategy because government was anti-rich and pro-poor.
It was clear that the decision, ostensibly on an economic matter, was taken with a political intent. Modi was obviously attempting to recast BJP’s core constituency and jettison the predominantly trader and middle class which had been his party’s bulwark against adversaries till date. The metaphors Modi used and imagery he drew left little doubt about his intentions. Famously, he claimed the rich were forced to queue up and desperately seek sleeping pills, while the poor were in deep slumber in the comforts of their dwellings.
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