The obverse is true of the BJP that runs the nation - and for the past 13 years at a stretch. Its obsessions are Hindu and Hindi-centric, with no regard to the fact that this is a secular nation with a federal character where the parts are as important as the whole. A recent instance at Surajkund, Faridabad, where the National Women's Commission held a loosely-termed 'capacity-building workshop' in which women ministers and legislators from various states attended, is only one example of the parochial, sectarian, divisive mindset of those who rule the nation today. The NWC, led by nominees of the Modi government, conducted the entire proceedings in Hindi, as was cited by some delegates from the South who boycotted the meeting at its fag end. They say there was no facility for translation of the speeches, nor was anyone allowed to speak in English. This left them high and dry.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has a deficit in formal education, learned English after he became PM to a level he can somewhat communicate with the outside world. Most BJP leaders, including parliamentarians, cannot speak in English or communicate with the outside world. This reflects in their parochial mindset. They live in their cocooned world. This reflects pathetically in the governance process as well. Notably, after the Operation Sindoor, when Modi sent a parliamentarians' delegation to various countries to justify India's position, he had to put a Congress parliamentarian like Shashi Tharoor to lead it from the front. The multifaceted intellectual deficit in the BJP was, thus, all too pronounced. The sectarian mindset of this party, which harms the nation, is evident in all its actions and in its continued anti-Muslim-proclivities. By raising the bogey of a 'threat' to Hindus, the Sangh Parivar demolished a dilapidated mosque in Ayodhya and erupted into jubilation in 1992. This was also a turning point in the political history of the nation. A single act divided India vertically, but its political benefits were reaped gleefully by their political arm, the BJP, which grabbed power. The past 13 years saw the Prime Minister and his government concentrating their attention on the select states in the North and meting out a step-motherly treatment to states that did not signal their full support to the BJP.
The result is also that there has been marginal progress to the eastern/ north-eastern states, where non-BJP governments were/are in rule. A divided opposition has not been able to effectively question this, challenge such indulgences or revert the process. The North-South divide is more pronounced today thanks to the parochial attitudes of the central dispensation headed by Modi. The South managed to progress by dint of its IT booms in cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad etc, by other commercial initiatives and by heavy flow of money from Indians working abroad as is also the case with Kerala. The BJP governments' unhelpful attitudes are also a reason why the South and the North-East mostly reject the saffron party. Parochialism has a price to pay.