Rahul Gandhi’s Rafale salvo has rattled the ‘suit-boot sarkar’  

Each time the phrase 'Suit Boot ki Sarkar' is uttered, it causes alarm.  Like a gunshot that makes birds scatter, every time the Modi government is accused of crony capitalism, there is a furious and frightened flapping of wings and a great of squawking and screeching.

It happened in April 2015 when Rahul Gandhi coined the ‘Suit-Boot’ tagline in the context of the brazen attempt to change the land acquisition law to favour big business. It is happening again after the Congress president’s direct allegation that the Rafale aircraft deal was intended to benefit one particular corporate tycoon.

Ever since Rahul’s “you-can’t-look-me-in-the-eye” challenge during the no-confidence debate in parliament, there has been a flurry of backroom consultations to counter the charge. Narendra Modi himself has invoked Mahatma Gandhi’s proximity to industrialists as a justification.  Some captains of industry have issued unusual statements calling for a more business-friendly bias in government policies.  Various politicians like Amar Singh have been fielded to “expose” the nexus between business and politics during earlier regimes.

In a televised interview on Monday, Amar Singh reeled off a long list of names of leaders of the past and present who are known to have hobnobbed with industrialists – including his former mentor Mulayam Singh and even former President Pranab Mukherjee.

Interestingly, on Sunday it was Modi himself who had said, “Ask Amar Singh, he will give you the names”.  The Prime Minister’s contention was that unlike "some people" he was "not afraid of" publicly standing beside industrialists and business magnates. He claimed that his intentions were "noble"—industrialists contribute to nation building and it was not right to label all of them as “chors aur lutteras”.  Those among them who do something wrong, he said, will have face the consequences – either flee the country or live in jail.

Taking the cue, industry lobbies were quick to issue statements urging the Prime Minister not to “accept any ill-treatment to the industrialists just because a few of them have indulged in illegal activities” but to continue his closer involvement of entrepreneurs in the task of nation building.

Chamber president Rashesh Shah issued a press release stating that “The strong message that industrialists adopting illegal means to harm the economy will not be spared, will certainly help in removing any negative opinion in the public against industry in general”.

According to him, the government’s “encouragement to industry has indeed helped in the revival of animal spirits in the economy already”.  He also warned that without reviving the industry’s confidence to invest, it will be difficult to attain 8% growth in the coming years in a sustained manner”.

Inside Parliament, opposition leaders have made repeated references to the Mehul Choksi-Nirav Modi scandal and questioned why the lucrative offset contracts that came with the Rafale purchase from France were taken away from the public sector HAL and given to one tycoon Anil Ambani, who did not even have requisite defence
manufacturing experience.

The cat is among the pigeons – the outcome of the current flapping of wings and squawking is yet to be seen.  But it does look like the charge of favouring big businessmen does get under the skin of the Prime Minister and nothing nettles him more than Rahul Gandhi’s jibe that he is running a “suit-boot ki sarkar”.

Indeed back in 2015 when Gandhi raised the slogan at a Ramlila Maidan rally and then brought the accusation to the floor of Parliament - the “suit-boot” phrase had several connotations including Modi’s monogrammed suit.

During a debate on the agrarian crisis, the Congress leader who had not yet been installed as party chief,  alleged the Modi government had frozen minimum support price for crops and squeezed agricultural credit flow and was instead projecting a pro-corporate bias.

Gandhi said:  “I want to make a suggestion to the PM that yours is a government of the rich, but 60% of Indians are farmers and labourers. He will gain politically if he changes sides. If you renege on the promises you made to corporates, then we will lose politically,” he said.

As it turned out, there was a distinct shift in the government’s stance -  pro-poor rhetoric seemingly intensified. For all its talk about privatisation, the government seemed to have got cold feet ever since the Opposition accused it of being a suit-boot-ki-sarkar.

Now, after the Rafale deal, the pendulum appears to have swung back to what it was in the first year in power.  Sensing this, the Opposition has revived the suit-boot slogan -  which has again nettled the Prime Minister.