Sunil Gatade
With the Lok Sabha elections just three months away, the just concluded National Executive and National Council meeting of the BJP was the right occasion to take stock of how near or how far Narendra Modi is from power at the Centre.
At a time when a ten-year anti-incumbency has more than caught up with the Congress-led UPA, Modi has by all accounts emerged as the challenger. The rise of Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal has come in handy for the detractors of Modi to push the Delhi Chief Minister for an all India role, but it is too early to count the chickens. The problem with meteoric rise of any party or leader could also see a sudden fall in popular perception.
At the same time, it must be conceded that Kejriwal is unpredictable and has put his finger on the pulse of a section of urban India which is restive and aspiring. People of India have a certain liking for political ‘fakirs’ – v p singh being an example.
Modi’s projection as a strong and decisive leader has been successful to a sizable extent given the fact that the BJP has left no stone unturned to paint the Manmohan Singh government and the Congress in dark black. The commissions and omissions of the UPA and the scams and the price rise has helped the BJP strategists including the RSS to write a racy script around Modi.
The inexperience and the incapacity of Rahul Gandhi has come in handy for the BJP to project a larger than life image of Modi. Rahul’s interview to a TV channel recently, his first such exercise, has exposed his depth much to the dislike of the Congress managers.
Cool and calculating, the Gujarat Cihief Minister has used every trick in the trade to push his leadership and has tried to enlarge his influence from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. How far he has really succeded could be gauged only after the results are out by Mid-May, but one thing is certain that Modi has attained the centrestage in the national debate.
Modi is controversial too. The 2002 riots in Gujarat are seen as an albatross round his neck. Minorities are sought to be shown Modi as a bugbear so as to frighten them to vote for his detractors. One good thing about the BJP strategy is that it is projecting Modi in different ways-from a Chaiwala to a dedicated follower of Sardar Patel, the iron man of India.
Despite the first Home Minister turning RSS into a banned organization, Nagpur has shrewedly reinvented the Sardar as one who could not get his due because of the Nehru-gandhi family, the first family of the Grand Old Party. Such a tactic helps in spreading the anti-Congress rhetoric and in making BJP more acceptable despite its umbilical chord with the controversial RSS.
Modi’s constant theme of referring to his humble origin of a Chaiwala boy helping his father on a Gujarat Railway Station is intended to send a subtle message to the backward classes that the BJP PM candidate is one among them.
The OBC’s are a sizable lot in the country’s 1.2 billion population and though spread over several castes and sub-castes have a general feeling that they have been denied the leadership in Independent India so far.
The Chaiwala boy narrative is also aimed at connecting Modi to the oppressed and the downtrodden. It is also intended to soften the image of Modi in the backdrop of the controversies galore on the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The RSS has given its go ahead to the leadership of Modi realizing that he was the best man available for the BJP for the job who can galvanise the cadres and make a mark among the people. It should be understood that the Sangh was instrumental in promoting the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee with a liberal face and L K Advani a Hindutva hardliner at the same time. The strategy helped the BJP gain power via the coalition route for six long years, a development which has no mean significance in Indian politics dominated by the politics of the Congress.
Modi is no visionary notwithstanding the fact that the main opposition was trying to project a vision for him and plans are also afoot to come out with India vision 2025 to turn the country into a land of milk and honey.
Modi’s forte is his execution and his administration and his ability to make the systems work for the benefit of the aam aadmi. He is also pro-business and therefore his leadership is hailed by the rich and the powerful, the Ambanis and the Tatas. The India growth story has halted due to a variety of reasons and the india Inc is also wanting a strong leader who get the things done for them and one who saves them from troubles of various sorts.
The extent of success or otherwise for the BJP depended upon how the campaign progresses in the next two months. The good show in the recent Assembly polls in four states has already built the buzz around the opposition party and certain moves of the ruling party have also given an impression that it is resigned to its fate.
Political pundits are doubtful about any substantial Congress recovery. They are also watching the silent and not so silent moves of the non-Congress, non-BJP parties to get their act together. The efforts of the AAP to make its presence felt and the tactics of detractors of the BJP to use Kejriwal to stop the march of Modi who is no pushover All in all the Mission 2014 Lok Sabha is expected to be the most exciting poll in recent times.
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