Last week, the Indian Express carried an insightful opinion piece by Badri Narayan, professor in Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad, in which he pointed out the return of social politics or politics that is sensitive to social activism. The fact is politics in its real sense is the politics of doing social work and strengthening values of democracy." What this is doing is generating social capital—the compact which creates the trust quotient among citizens and between citizens and the government. In fact, Francis Fukuyama, the American political scientist, describes social capital as “the sine qua non of a stable liberal democracy." The big test for the PM will be in managing these contradictions while remaining steadfastly committed to social politics.

Source: Mint July 21, 2019 18:00 UTC