The centrality of Narendra Modi
His ability to dream, translate dreams into reality through courage and persistence, and engage with the masses is key to his success
Last Friday, workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) celebrated Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi’s 71st birthday with fanfare. Modi’s critics may have termed it a sponsored display of sycophancy, but the political equations are not so simple. Hasn’t his birthday been used by the BJP to re-energise its workers, who were in a state of dismay because of Covid-19?
How did PM Modi singlehandedly reinvigorate the party? While looking for the answer, let’s compare Modi with his predecessors.
Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, and Rajiv Gandhi were symbols of a lineage. PV Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh were products of coincidences. Political movements and agitations handed over power to Morarji Desai and Vishwanath Pratap Singh, but they did not live up to expectations. Atal Bihari Vajpayee reached this position due to seniority and experience. The rest of India’s PMs — Lal Bahadur Shastri, Gulzari Lal Nanda, Charan Singh, Chandrashekhar, HD Deve Gowda, and IK Gujral — were the product of equations of that era. Modi is the only one who reached this destination, step by step, on his own, without any godfather. His success is an example of dreams, courage, dialogue, and a composed attitude.
All this reminds me of Napoleon Bonaparte. During the French Revolution of 1789, he was an officer in the artillery. He had neither stature nor lineage, but he had a keen eye for the changing situation. At the same time, he nurtured the dream of becoming an emperor and began to make it come true. He became the emperor of France in just 16 years. Modi also observed political processes, changes and conspiracies while working for the organisation for 15 years.
Dreams need courage to reach their destination. For example, when the then PM Vajpayee was in Ahmedabad after the Gujarat riots, there came a live feed in which he was saying that the government should follow raj dharma. His sentence was just completed when Modi, sitting next to him, replied, “Wahi toh kar kar hoon sahib,” (I have been doing that). No chief minister (CM) of that time had the courage to say this in front of Vajpayee
during a live transmission. It is also true that Gujarat has been riotfree since 2001, and there has been an increase in its prosperity.
At the Goa convention organised subsequently, an attempt was made to remove Modi. However, due to vociferous protests, Vajpayee and his supporters had to maintain their silence. It is a coincidence that a decade later, in 2013, it was in Goa again that the party chose Modi as the PM face. There were already many veterans in the race when he became CM, and this time also, tall leaders such as LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Murli Manohar Joshi were in the queue. Modi got through without any trouble.
Modi knows that there is only one way to better his achievements — constant dialogue with the masses. Though the media and the Opposition have complained that he doesn’t talk, in the last seven years, he has made 27 visits to his constituency Kashi. He also keeps in constant communication with the country. The 80 episodes of Mann Ki Baat are examples of this.
With this art of communication and continuous use of the latest technology, Modi has managed to instill confidence in the minds of voters. This is why, despite demonetisation, the pandemic, and inflation, people still have faith in him.
Recently, a young author-researcher, Vivan Marwah, found in an in-depth survey that many young voters were drawn to Modi’s personality, speaking of him in almost reverential father-like terms, as a guardian who will take care of them in an otherwise volatile world.
The Ram Mandir and Kashmir issues have also played a major role in maintaining trust in him. At one point, Modi was a prominent participant of Advani’s Ram Rath and Murli Manohar Joshi’s Ekta Yatra. The BJP came to power earlier too, but the revocation of Article 370 from Kashmir and the separation of Ladakh from Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) have happened during Modi’s time. Efforts are being made to complete the Ram temple in Ayodhya by 2023.
All this is attractive to the majority community. The Opposition calls it the politics of divide and rule, but in politics, some allegations act as a feather in the cap. You will find two types of people in every discussion: The strong anti-Modi individual and the staunch fan. Despite this unprecedented divide, he is a successful politician. Why?
Modi works hard at this. In August, the PM was informed, late at night, about an outbreak of influenza in Tripura. He called up CM Biplab Kumar Deb and ordered him to send a complete action plan by noon the following day. Even during the Covid-19 pandemic, he maintained a constant dialogue with all the CMs and even telecast these meetings. He knows that politics is a game of perception.
In politics, not everything always goes in one’s favour. In the assembly elections of Delhi, West Bengal and southern states, the overall vote percentage of the BJP increased, but it couldn’t form the government. Apart from these defeats, the government is also facing the challenges of inflation and unemployment. However, India’s economy is coming back on track after Covid-19. This gives some hope.
Modi’s opponents believe that every Napoleon has his “Waterloo”, but the lionhearted does not give up fighting for fear of defeat. This is what the last two decades of the Narendra Modi era tell us.