The chink in Narendra Modi's armour

It was the time when the UPA had newly discovered social media. They were on Twitter, the Prime Minister was on Twitter, the Press Information Bureau was sending out links to outcomes of Cabinet meetings, the President of India was generating videos on YouTube and there were plans that Dr Manmohan Singh would do that too. “They keep saying he doesn’t say anything, that he’s silent,” explained one strategist about the plans to upload the PM’s speeches online. “This way he’ll be seen talking much more.”

I couldn’t really see the efficacy of such a strategy. But I thought it interesting that the UPA was fighting to counter this oft-repeated criticism. That they had accepted that their leader couldn’t count on oratory as his strongest skill. They could sell Dr Manmohan Singh’s skills as an economist, they could sell his international standing as a respected world leader, but they couldn’t really say that the Prime Minister could hold an audience spellbound with his words. In fact, this was a drawback that the entire top leadership of the UPA was grappling with.

The BJP has a star performer in the form of Narendra Modi, who doesn’t need any piece of paper to prompt him during his public speeches, who makes his audience laugh and nod in agreement, and who has an innate sense of timing with his punchlines. In contrast, the UPA’s counter, Rahul Gandhi, is either MIA (missing in action), silent like Dr Singh, or presenting awkward metaphors comparing our country to beehives.

Yes, if the battle between the BJP and Congress led by Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi respectively was fought only along the lines of ‘Who’s a better communicator?’, there was no doubt in my mind as to who would win. Until now.

Narendra Modi’s very first interview after being appointed poll panel chief to the news agency Reuters makes you wonder if his communication skills are all that great.

Let’s leave aside for now the infamous ‘puppy’ comment and look at his words on 2002. Modi says: “I would feel guilty if I did something wrong. Frustration comes when you think ‘I got caught. I was stealing and I got caught.’ That’s not my case.”

Wait a minute, what is the Gujarat chief minister saying? Is he saying that he doesn’t feel guilty because he never got caught? Does that mean that there may be something to hide that just hasn’t been ‘caught’ out yet? I don’t know, I’m just trying to understand the words of the man who is billed as the next leader of our country. And honestly, these words aren’t exactly reassuring to me.

Maybe, I’m being too tough and maybe Narendra Modi just becomes a little defensive and less eloquent when it comes to the issue of 2002 riots. That is his Achilles’ heel. Everyone has one, so one could argue that Modi has the right to lose his usual, composed self because he has been attacked so much on that issue despite a clean chit from the Supreme Court-appointed SIT.

But even when the interview moves to other areas, Modi’s message is a bit mixed. Just after he’s asked about his image as an authoritarian figure, and his popularity in polls, he relates an incident where he had to call a magazine editor to exclude him from a poll, so that others could win! He says he told the editor: “Next time please drop Gujarat, so someone else gets a chance. Or else I’m just winning. Please keep me out of the competition. And besides me, give someone else a shot at it.”

I have no doubt that this is a true story. But if you were trying to play down your ‘full-of-yourself’ image, would you tell this story? It doesn’t sound modest. Neither does the fact that he stops short of saying that he emulates anyone else in history from Vajpayee to Sardar Patel!

Which is why, for the first time, the BJP’s group of eloquent leaders are struggling to defend Narendra Modi. You can see the desperation of defence when Rajiv Pratap Rudy puts down the puppy comment to compassion and the fuzzy feelings that children have for their pets. The Congress Party is used to such faux pas — they’ve had to defend Rahul Gandhi who flashed a Rs 1,000 note to a boy trying to make a living by selling a newspaper worth a few rupees.

They’ve had to run for cover when Rahul claimed credit for his grandmother for the creation of Bangladesh and when he claimed that many had been raped and killed in Bhatta Parsaul. But this must be new for the BJP. Their big hope for 2014 just lost one big point.