In the mid-1990s, despairing over repeated defeats at the hands of the Conservatives led by Margaret Thatcher, and the obvious success of ‘Thatcherism’ in aspirational Britain, Tony Blair decided to do the unthinkable: amend Clause 4 of the Labour Party’s constitution. And so it was that Labour’s defining militant, union-dominated ideology was recast in a Thatcherite mould. Blair led ‘New Labour’ to victory and the rest is history. 

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Back home in India, unable to accept defeat in the 2004 Lok Sabha election and in denial about the reasons that led to the Vajpayee Government’s fall – India was not quite shining and the BJP was in a shambles, to cite just two of the many factors – LK Advani set himself to the task of fixing the problem. Egged on by laptop-toting bright sparks with no sense of realpolitik, the BJP’s Great Helmsman decided to do a Tony Blair. 

In the run-up to the 2009 Lok Sabha election, with Advani as the party’s prime ministerial candidate, much was heard about a ‘New BJP’ which was ideologically neither fish nor fowl, or if you prefer vegetarian similes, neither rajma nor chana. Like Blair, it was Advani’s ‘Clause Four moment’. But unlike Blair, victory eluded him and the BJP suffered further erosion in its Lok Sabha tally. Advani stepped back, though unrepentant and, as some would say, unforgiving.

Meanwhile, in Gandhinagar, a man with a razor sharp mind and an uncanny sense of the popular impulse worked on figuring out what aspirational India wanted, what would bring the BJP back into the race for power, and what would enable it to win the race. Disruption of the status quo had worked in Gujarat, propelling the State’s development and growth, without diluting the core identity of the BJP. 

Using Gujarat as the launch pad, Narendra Modi leapfrogged into the national political arena. This single disruption of the party’s settled leadership and the BJP’s ‘New Delhi Consensus’ gave him a head start over competitors. His articulation of what he stood for, both in terms of ideology and governance, which together disrupted the traditional, indistinguishable campaign styles of the BJP and its opponents, made him the clear winner. Patchwork effort to repair and revive the party organisation helped but was incidental.

The 2014 election is important to contextualise Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s subsequent decisions based in his belief that ‘New India’ is looking for new disruptive ideas, a paradigm shift from the business-as-usual politics of the past, while remaining rooted in India and Indianness, as opposed to the hocus pocus ‘Idea of India’ that has been tested for seven decades and has come to signify all that is rotten with the ‘New Delhi Consensus’.

This ‘New India’ loathes elitism. It essentially marks the rise of the ‘subalterns’ – eager for change, aspiring for better lives not through redistribution of wealth but opportunities to create personal wealth. It’s a ‘New India’ which proudly wears its cultural nationalism on its sleeves and thinks dimly of the deracinated elite. In this ‘New India’ manufactured victimhood is spurned, equality is welcomed and divisive identity politics repudiated.

The BJP’s sweeping victory in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election is the biggest ever disruption of settled electoral politics in the heartland. It signalled the need for a break with the past predictable pattern of post-election politics. Modi’s choice of Yogi Adityanath as Chief Minister marks this break. It’s in keeping with his choice of chief ministers in other States where the BJP has won after the summer of 2014 -- Manohar Lal Khattar in Haryana, Devendra Phadnavis in Maharashtra, Raghubar Das in Jharkhand, Sarbananda Sonowal in Assam and Trivendra Singh Rawat in Uttarakhand.

What Modi expects is that his nominees will deliver with the same speed, determination and integrity that the Government headed by him at the Centre delivers. We could modify that to: with the same speed, determination and integrity that he has maintained, mindful of his slogan “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas”. Hence Yogi Adityanath’s 150 decisions in 50 hours, and his repeated assertion that his Government will live by the principle of development for all, appeasement of none. 

Once the Augean stables are cleaned, Yogi Adityanath’s performance will be on test. And make no mistake, Modi is not fooled by false report cards. Ministers in his government have learned that the hard way, as have senior bureaucrats. Modi does not suffer fools or failures easily as that would be a comment on his leadership. More important, to the delight of ‘New India’, he knows how to seamlessly weld BJP’s ‘Clause Four’ with economic growth and development.

The author is a political commentator. He tweets @kanchangupta