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Narendra Modi
On a ‘Fast-Track’ towards Delhi
The polarization is near completion. It’s not merely on religious lines. That was well reflected during 2002 post-Godhra riots. These days in Gujarat, it is rightly rumoured that there are two sets of people – those who approve of Narendra Modi and, albeit in a minority, those who do not.
The three-day Sadbhavna Fast by the Gujarat Chief Minister brought that to clear focus.
Modi, titled the ‘Hindu Hridaysamrat (Ruler of a Hindu heart)’, over the last decade has truly weathered enough brickbats and political discomfort. Most of these are of his own making and the remaining are due to the highly communal frenzy in Gandhi’s Gujarat. Has Narendra Modi grown beyond the size of his shoes?
No BJP leader worth their salt could ignore him and thus there was a beeline of whose-who in Ahmedabad during the three-day fast or ‘Modi fest’.
Modi was in his element; choosing his words carefully. Though he stuck to his pet parochial Gujarati slogan of ‘six crore Gujaratis’, he also tried to offer himself as a politician in search of ‘reconciliation’. Modi told the gathering on the last day that “my government has not done anything for the minority or even for the majority. Whatever the Gujarat government does, we do it for all”.
The reaction was expectedly a roaring applause. This only shows the shrewd politician in Modi. He could eye beyond his pocket-borrow state of Gujarat and look for wider acceptability nationwide, but he is holding fast to BJP’s core values: no appeasement for Muslims or others. “This keeps him on the winning side. The younger generation both in Gujarat and outside Gujarat will endorse this,” agreed an enthusiastic Muslim supporter.
“We have to look beyond 2002. Look at what the left front did in Bengal to Muslims in the name of secularism. The young Hindus and Muslims believe that Gujarat has risen above petty politics and sectarian divide and chosen the path of inclusive development,” Rahmati Ali told Eastern Panorama at the venue of the fast.
A net savvy, Thomas Alex, a Christian was on a social network website saying, “Modi is correct. All are equal in the eyes of law. It is only a system of equitable benefits that can help India develop. The real culprits who brought the communal divide are Congress and opportunists communists.”
True, any concept of politicians behaving like saints in a selfless manner is simply senseless. Modi’s fast and speeches were therefore clearly tailor-made to suit his mission. In this endeavour, he has been strongly supported by BJP’s top brass especially L K Advani. The effort only got a major boost with the presence of Akali chief Parkash Singh Badal and two emissaries from Jayalalitha.
But things are still too early. Advani has given an indication of withdrawing himself from the candidature but Nitish Kumar-led JD(U), a principal NDA constituent, is still far from reconciling to the concept of agreeing to Modi’s role in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav mocked the fast, the party spokesman Shivanand Tiwari recalled Modi’s failure to protect minorities in 2002 and Nitish Kumar himself said, his alliance is with the BJP-led NDA and “not Gujarat BJP”.
A section of BJP leaders privately admit the limitations of the Modi brand in national politics. Though hyped more than once, Modi has failed to ensure victory for BJP candidates outside Gujarat. Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela, who also sat on a counter fast, rightly says, “Wherever Modi campaigned in 2009, BJP lost.”
Many see pragmatism in this analysis. “Advani’s rejection in 2009 was due to hardline Hindutva image as compared to Vajpayee’s pan-Indian acceptability. Modi campaigned even in the Assam assembly polls in 2011, but the result was failure,” points out New Delhi-based political commentrator H. Jaisingh.
Even in Gujarat, BJP’s performance in both Lok Sabha polls – 2004 and 2009 were not good. The message perhaps is: Gujaratis too could prefer him and BJP in the state; but not the same saffron party at the national level.
Thus, the moot question still is - Can Modi emerge as a vote catcher nationwide. Even Arun Jaitley does not commit.
The ghost of the 2002 indiscriminate anti-Muslim carnage will continue to cast its shadow on Modi’s career. But BJP insiders also feel that both 2009 Lok Sabha polls and assembly elections in Assam in 2011 took place prior to the Supreme Court reprieve for Modi as also the latest report by an US research team that Gujarat is the ‘best administered’ state in India.
None other than Advani has analyzed these well. “Now, American lawmakers and the State Department are being primed for the return of the BJP to power in New Delhi, with Modi at the helm as Prime Minister”. Echoing this spirit, BJP strategists think they would campaign well to highlight these points to change the equations. Moreover, the optimists also believe that by 2014 if the Gujarat trial court gives its order with a clean chit to Modi, then the battle will be more than half won.
The saffron party has thus to get into business of fetching more seats in states like Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Kerala, Odisha (Orissa), the entire North East and partly Bihar. No one should dream of becoming Prime Minister without acceptability in these states – totaling as many as 196 Lok Sabha seats.
Swati Deb
