Men, Matters & Memories
M L Kotru
It didn’t take the Nagpur-based popes and archbishops long to correct the impression already abroad suggesting that Narendra Damodardas Modi should indeed be his own man, cast no doubt in the RSS image, and very much the parivar’s Prime Ministerial candidate. Thankfully for everyone, including the BJP and the RSS and numerous sister saffron outfits, the top RSS clergy in Nagpur has been quick to keep the record straight: yes, it may have been averse to projecting an individual as the nmero uno of the Sangh parivar but Narendra Modi has been the RSS choice with the Bharatiya Janata Party, instantly falling in line. And Modi has since continued to be the Sangh’s sole choice. The official website of the RSS in fact says it all – and more. “Devotion is not business, it is sheer self surrender”. As an analyst has put it there must be some merit in what the geriatrics of Nagpur propagate in the virtual world – considering the this election season self surrender is what the Sangh is practicing by giving flat out endorsement to one of its own, a pracharak , as the saffronite candidate for the Prime Ministerial post. The self-declared non-political organization has pulled all the plugs in backing its own pracharak. It is as if the Sangh is out to ensure that an ordinary pracharak (Modi) and Sawayamsewak is enabled to fight a no-holds-barred battle to occupy the nation’s top executive post.
That’s why Modi’s battle as the saffronites preferred choice for Prime Ministership, is RSS’s own battle. It’s the Pracharak Vs. interlopers of the Vajpayee-Advani era, the ones who, even as they continued to be loyal swayamsewaks, always remained suspect in the eyes of the Nagpur clergy.
The idealistic ring given to the phenomenon, though, does jar somewhat when one sees a veteran prachark being deprived of his rank and sent back to his rural home for having broken the cardinal rule : a pracharak shall not marry and nor will he have any interest in the womankind. The poor man was served his marching orders a couple of days ago to live with the woman he loved.
Narendra Damodardas Modi falls short on that count, for his marriage, solemnized decades ago, has remained a secret. In fact, it came as a surprise to everyone when a national daily some weeks ago front-paged an interview with the woman to whom he has been wedded for years. The poor woman has entered the caveat (in the interview) that Modi had refused to acknowledge her as his wife after just three years of married life.
Some would say it was wrong, therefore, for him to describe his status as “unmarried” in the affidavit which anyone seeking public office must file. But that is for the record. The reality as we see it, or, which the saffron parivar projects, is that the RSS did not find any another suitable candidate for the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate.
A core committee comprising Rajnath Singh, RSS honcho Suresh Soni, Narendra Modi, his hit-man from Ahemdabad Amit Shah, with Nitin Gadkari, the ousted BJP chief, flitting in and out, was set up weeks ago to fine-tune strategy and to mobilize RSS Swayamsewaks for booth management etc. All said and done the RSS would undoubtedly wish the mid-May poll results to go the BJP’s way, and will surely consider anything over 200 as a strategic gain. There are States covering just over 300 Lok Sabha seats where the saffronites can hope to achieve substantial gains. But even if it were to gain 70 percent of the seats in this area, it would get just about 210. It would need to win another 59 from States where its pickings maybe in 2s and 3s.
And even with the solid backing of Akali Dal in Punjab, to get 50 odd seats from the remaining 240 seats elsewhere looks daunting indeed. What is required is the creation of a political wave that would sweep aside all opposition. Modi seemed to be doing just that when he started his campaign. He attracted mammoth crowds across the nation. With his accomplished delivery of speech he effectively targeted the mass of the underclass voters with populist rhetoric and smart one-liners thrown in. the campaign appears to be floundering just now.
One reason could be his rhetoric, directed in the main, to the underclass. With the exception of the corporates and the industry he has left the elite and middle class severely alone; he has not addressed serious policy concerns aside of bringing in his “Gujarat model” as a cure-all for everything gone wrong.
Given his realization that he will need the NDA alliance in the likelihood of his expected shortfall in numbers he is focusing on augmenting his NDA strength. The alacrity with which he accepted Bhihar’s Ram Vilas Paswan recently into an alliance which he had rubbished after the 2002 Gujarat riots speaks as much of Modi’s as it does of Paswan’s desperate calculation that the BJP would do well in the polls.
The saffronities are continuing to fish for support in other States including Tamilnadu and even Uttar Pradesh. There are more than six weeks to go to the polls and party men are still talking in hushed tones of the BJP changing its strategy midstream to persist with increasing its own tally. Perhaps he would need to respond warmly to overtures from potential allies but must simultaneously hold his cards close to his chest until after the poll. Given their lack of confidence in him it is another issue if the floaters chose to wait for him to make up his mind. Most BJP leaders – and their opponents heartily share their view – do believe that although its emergence as the single largest party after the polls is certain it may be very difficult for it to get 250 plus seats.
Modi backers on the other hand are confident that with the massive saffron network and its ability to spread itself to every nook and cranny including, wonder of wonders, the North East the saffronities will put together a sufficient number of Lok Sabha seats for them to become a choice of necessity among the ones, twos and threes which smaller parties will obviously pick up.
One of the BJP men asked that why wouldn’t People’s Democratic Party of Jammu and Kashmir or the National Conference add its mite to the BJP’s tally should the need arise and in return get one or more ministerial berths in a NDA set-up. Don’t forget that today’s Congress ally in Kashmir, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was a Minister in Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government. Or, in the event of the PDP winning, say up to three or four seats in the State, it may as a quid pro quo land an important Ministerial berth. The PDP’s founder and current patron, former Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has already held key portfolios at the Centre including Home Affairs.
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