Beware of ‘Modi is India’ trap

With most minds focused on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s maiden Union Budget on July 5, it’s important to step back and review the Narendra Modi government’s policy priorities in its second term.  

Modi spent much of his first term getting to grips with Delhi’s Byzantine politics. His welfare schemes have been successful and contributed significantly to the BJP’s landslide victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.  

The mainstreaming of Hindutva by conflating it with nationalism (though the two are quite distinct) has given the BJP and its NDA allies a vice-like grip on around 45% of the electorate.  

The ground outreach of BJP and RSS cadre — right down to the booth level — promises to increase the party’s membership from 110 million today to 150 million by the 2024 Lok Sabha election. That’s nearly 25% of all voters (610 million) who exercised their franchise in the 2019 general election.   

 If all of this points to a continuing BJP electoral juggernaut, the disarray within the Opposition further strengthens the prospect of BJP domination. Along with that domination comes the deification of Modi himself, the most powerful Indian mass leader since Indira Gandhi — without her dynastic lineage.  

But just as the Congress’ sycophantic president Dev Kant Barooah declared in 1974 that “India is Indira and Indira is India”, the last thing a modern democracy needs is a replay of such sycophancy with the slogan “India is Modi and Modi is India.” Fortunately, Modi himself is shrewd enough to recognise the inherent dangers of such unbridled hero worship. He has the detachment of a monk though even monks can fall prey to relentless flattery.  

Modi left home in 1967 at the age of 17. He wandered in the Himalayas for two years before returning home. Overjoyed to see him, his mother asked him to unpack his few belongings and settle down back home. A 19-year-old Modi sought her and his father Damodardas’ blessings before telling them that he had come home not to stay, but to pack his remaining personal effects and join the RSS for life. His parents could do nothing to change his mind.

It was 1969. For the next 18 years, Modi washed the clothes of RSS pracharaks, cleaned toilets and did other menial work. In 1987, the RSS sent him to join the BJP. Within 14 years, he was chief minister of Gujarat and 13 years later, prime minister.   

It is important to understand this background to analyse what makes Modi tick, which economic and foreign policies he is likely to follow in his second term, and how his prime ministership will evolve over the next five years.  

Modi’s conduct in Parliament since the Budget session began has been instructive. He has adopted a more conciliatory posture to the bedraggled Opposition. And yet, the Congress with its 52 MPs should be under no delusion that the Prime Minister has suddenly discovered a softer side to his political persona. Quite the contrary. Modi’s style is to often lull an opponent into a false sense of security before striking back hard.  

The Congress, meanwhile, is repeating the mistakes that have haunted it for years: not trusting senior non-Gandhi Congress leaders enough to give them key positions in the party. In 2014, it appointed the nondescript Mallikarjun Kharge as leader of the party in the Lok Sabha. He posed no future threat to the Gandhis and owed his position to that singular quality of facelessness.  

The Congress’ choice of Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury as its leader in the current Lok Sabha follows the same pattern: promote a leader who poses no future threat to the party’s Gandhi dynasty. Had a Shashi Tharoor or Manish Tewari been chosen, their articulate performance would have made even the Congress faithful think: Well, there are competent alternative leaders beyond the Gandhi family after all. Such subversive thinking frightens the Gandhis, which is why a Tharoor or a Tewari is kept firmly in his place as a cheerleader of Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, never an alternative leader of the Congress. And knowing their place in the Congress’ hierarchy, the Tharoors and Tewaris to their everlasting discredit fall obediently into place.  

Modi though has other things to worry about than the dysfunctional Congress. The economy needs revival, jobs need to be created, over-regulation must be curbed and security challenges met.  

A key task for Modi will be to rebuild trust in institutions and make good his 2014 pledge of minimum government, maximum governance. Far more lateral talent needs to be inducted into the government. Ministers must be encouraged to speak up on the progress of their departments. The impression that this is a two-man Modi-Shah government is not healthy for a democracy.  

Modi himself recently declared that India needs a strong Opposition. Without one, democracy atrophies. And that poses a challenge for all, including the BJP. Anti-incumbency in 2024 will be stronger than most imagine. The idea that Modi will be Prime Minister for 15 years does Modi more harm than good. In politics, goodwill is a precious commodity. But like all commodities, its value can fall as rapidly as it rises. That is a lesson a teenage Modi absorbed while wandering in the Himalayas. It is unlikely he has forgotten it.

The writer is an author and publisher