What began as a silent whisper after the 2002 atrocities in Gujarat
has reached a crescendo over the past six months: Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi as a serious contender for the post of the prime minister
of India. The powerful (and dubious) media management strategies of
Modi have made him, in the eyes of his followers, a front-runner six
months ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha
elections. A high profile also brings
with it greater scrutiny, and what is coming out week after week is
adding up to an authoritarian personality who is narrow in his vision
for India, who does not care to reach out to all Indians, who can
subvert the law for personal ends, and, who, in the nature of US-style
politicians, can be economical with facts (often to hilarious effect)
and focused only on building an image.
Not once has Narendra Modi sought to dispel the notion that he has
benefited in Gujarat from a cynical consolidation of the Hindu vote that
followed the events of 2002. (Let us, for the moment, set aside the
accusation that there is evidence of Modi’s complicity in the bloodbath
of Muslims in the state.) The constitutional head of the government in
Gujarat has not once apologised for the inability of his administration
to protect citizens from violence; at best he has said that one feels
sorry just as when “puppies” are accidentally crushed by a moving car.
It required the intervention of the Supreme Court to obtain a measure of
justice for the victims of 2002 because Modi’s government did not show
any seriousness about getting justice done. Modi has not once nominated a
Muslim to stand for election to the state assembly on behalf of the
Bharatiya Janata Party and not once in his recent campaigns outside the
state has he specifically called on all groups and classes to join him
in a journey to build a better India. There can be no question that Modi
is the most aggressive face of Hindutva that an elected holder of
constitutional office has ever exhibited.
If the strong undercurrent of Narendra Modi’s politics has been
hard-core Hindutva, the message he now sells is “development”.
Election-style packaging in India has been taken to new heights in
recent months by portraying Modi as an administrator of growth and
development. It would seem that facts do not matter. As far as growth is
concerned, Gujarat has always been a high performer and has done no
better since 2001 under Modi than it did in the previous decade. When it
comes to social indicators of health, education and nutrition, Gujarat
under Modi has remained in the middle rung despite high growth rates. As
far as future investment is concerned, the annual “Vibrant Gujarat”
business summits have generated proposals of tens of thousands of crores
of fresh investments but only a tiny fraction has been converted into
actual outlays. The list of myths is endless. About the only significant
achievement of Modi in Gujarat is the reform of electricity
distribution, where, with the creation of separate feeder lines for
agriculture and rural households, the reliability and quality of power
to both sub-sectors has improved. Big business of course loves Modi
because he carries an aura of authority and he has been quick to hand
over land and dole out tax concessions to everyone from the Adanis to
the Tatas.
The packaging of Narendra Modi has been so successful that it does
not seem to matter that nowhere else in India do so many senior police
officers stand guilty of illegal use of the law to take people’s lives
(pace Ishrat Jahan, Sohrabuddin Sheikh, and Tulsiram Prajapati). And in
recent weeks we have had the astonishing revelation that Modi’s
right-hand man, Amit Shah, was personally directing police officers, on
behalf of
“Saheb”, to follow and report on every single step
taken by an adult woman. Narendra Modi’s government does not seem to
know that citizens are to be protected by law and not intruded upon by
officials of the law, in this case supposedly (and unconvincingly, one
must state) because one parent was concerned about his adult daughter.
This is not the first time that politicians have shown strong streaks
of authoritarianism. Until now the best-known example has been Sanjay
Gandhi and his actions during the Emergency. But what is new this time
is that the minds of powerful sections of Indian society have been
captured by the aura of authority, action and promise with which the
image-makers have managed to surround Narendra Modi. Now we have
revelations by the investigating news site, Cobrapost, that many
information technology companies have been closely involved in
manufacturing the Modi image with the use of fake information that he
has widespread support. This has only substantiated earlier reports of
an extremely well-oiled machinery operating under the direct supervision
of a centralised command that is overseeing India’s first social media
election campaign.
Narendra Modi’s rise in the public imagination as a man of
development has of course been possible entirely because a venal and
increasingly incompetent government has been in office since 2004,
headed by a party that has been converted into the fiefdom of one
nuclear family. But it has also taken place at a time when big business
and a vocal urban salariat have shown an open distrust of democratic
politics and a simultaneous thirst for faster economic growth. These two
groups have tasted the fruits of rapid growth after liberalisation and
they are impatient for more. Democratic politics calls for an
accommodation of all classes and such an accommodation may well slow
growth and require what are disparagingly described as “populist”
measures, both anathema to big business and the urban salariat. Modi
promises to clear all that stands in the way of a “strong and
prosperous” India. Some of us do not want to see that it is a lie of a
promise and the promised path is dangerously narrow and sectarian
