Even before he ascended to power in May 2014, political pundits had been debating if Narendra Modi as Prime Minister would be different from what he was as Chief Minister of Gujarat. Since then experts have been queuing up to offer their assessment of the man, who was once, a pariah on the global political map. Today however, he seems to be much revered.
Liberals in India and abroad have decried Modi and his brand of politics for years. They have charged him with having presided over a government that is alleged to have looked the other way when thousands of Muslim minorities in his state of Gujarat were being massacred by Hindu mobs. Modi however, ascended to power in New Delhi despite the liberal opposition.
Now, with Modi in power, heading a government with an absolute majority, liberals in the country have been hard-pressed to look for addendums to describe the man they once hated. We have been looking for statements and actions by him as the Prime Minister to argue that the Modi in New Delhi is a new man from what we had of him as the Chief Minister of Gujarat. It is a peculiar strategy that liberals adopt. Abuse and decry the man all along his path to power. If he still happens to reach the top despite all the opposition, begin looking for indications to make believe that he is now a reformed man – a kind of co-opting the enemy. It gives us great satisfaction to now think that he is one among us, rather than a man responsible for the carnage of Gujarat 2002.
How do we separate the new man from the old?
In an era of software technology, the term “Modi 2.0” is thus a result of two fancies. Firstly the expectations that as Prime Minister, Modi he is a reformed and refined man from what he was in the past. Secondly, our tendency to oversimplify the characteristics of a human being derived from our technological fancy to provide a numerical suffix. Only if humans too could be periodically updated and upgraded!
Sadly that is not so.
I believe Modi as chief minister of Gujarat was never version 1.0, nor is he, as prime minister of India, version 2.0. He is just an astute politician, as one should be. To be able to climb up the political ladder in a party that has several heavyweights is no mean achievement. Modi achieved that feat, first in his home state of Gujarat, and then systematically planned and manipulated every opportunity to build his persona for the greater role as Prime Minister of India that he aspired for.
As he was being abhorred around the world, as much as a mass murderer would be, he repeatedly played up the card of Gujarati asmita (pride) in his state. Any insult directed at him was portrayed as an affront against the state and the Gujarati people around the world. This approach helped him to sidestep international human rights criticisms and national political pressure which he faced during that tough political period.
To achieve his prime ministerial ambition, the shrewd politician in Modi new that he would have to eschew the staunch Hindutva ideology of his Hindu right-wing party, the BJP. Even as several in his party spoke on their pet project of divisiveness; to Modi credit he stood steadfast on the development plank, promising voters that he would remake India into a prosperous country based on his Gujarat model of development. By doing so Modi left his detractors and opponents far behind, unable to match the crescendos of his thoughts and arguments.
What is admirable about Modi is the fact that he led his party from the front. From the time he had himself announced as the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP he took upon himself the burden to lead the party to victory. He did not shirk responsibility.
But, that story is, now old.
As the process of Modi taking power began, the nation waited with bated breath. Millions rejoiced at it, as a dawn of a new India, whereas an equal number or several more saw it as the advent of radical Hindu India. But Modi surprised both his detractors and his supporters. His conciliatory statements and inclusive pronouncements were soothing. Even with India’s neighbours, Modi moved away from the unabashed aggression that he showed during the election campaign, extending a hand of friendship and inviting them for his swearing in. It was a masterstroke that left his detractors confused and India’s neighbours impressed. The world’s liberals could not ignore Modi any longer.
It’s been over 2 years and political pundits have since been asking: is Modi a changed man. Has he left behind his sense of radicalism back in Gujarat and got an image makeover done. As Shashi Tharoor asks in his essay “Is There A Modi 2.0” published in India Shastra – Reflections of the Nation in our Time, “so does this all add up to Modi 2.0, a very different figure in government from the ogre some of us had feared and demonized for years?.” So is it Modi version 2.0 that we have now?
Today, Modi has grown beyond that limited role in Gujarat, into the national scene. In his political astuteness he realised that to occupy the national stage, his approach has to change. As Tharoor rightly points out, “An ambitions man Modi appears to realize that if he wants to make a success of his government, he will have to lead the nation from the centre and not from the extreme right where he has built his base in the BJP”. Modi realised well before the opposition, and even his own party members, that the political mantra for securing the victory he wanted, was – development.
Experts have since argued that the overwhelming majority that the BJP got in the elections of 2014 was a vote for the man, Narendra Modi, rather than for his party, the BJP. Either ways it worked to Modi’s advantage. He formed the government in New Delhi, and more importantly secured the unflinching respect of his party and adoration beyond. As Tharoor points out this overwhelming majority in parliament “has liberated him from the party’s and his own past positions.”
So is there is a Modi version 2.0. I do not think so, because there was never a Modi version 1.0 ever. Modi is the same today, as he was yesterday. Just that he knows his game, and plays it well.
Sunny Peter 