For Modi, appropriation is the name of the game
BY RK MISRA
When you hear hoof beats, think
of horses. So, when the results of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi’s strategic gamble in Maharashtra and Haryana are the stuff of screaming headlines, it
is his
‘hostile takeover’ and ‘acquisitions’ imagery , played with panache on
the Indian political chessboard, that needs dissemination.
An artful imagery is at work,
and repeatedly so, inviting comparisons with late Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi in conjuring up a cause. Whether it was the abolition of princely privy
purse, bank nationalization or the portrayal of her own party veterans of the Sixties-Morarji
Desai, Atulya Ghosh and Sanjiva Reddy who formed into the Syndicate in the
Congress-as archaic gasbags, she successfully portrayed them as old hats hindering
her progressive policies and ‘Garibi Hatao’
programmes, thus ensuring a mandate for herself for life.
In some ways, Modi has done
one up on Indira. He has not only carried forward the imagery, but even fleshed
out the phenomenon. After assuming power for the first time in an earthquake-
battered Gujarat in 2001, Modi consolidated his hold through a landslide
victory in the state Assembly elections that followed the Godhra train carnage and the communal riots thereafter.
Battling the worldwide uproar
over the communal cleaving, the Gujarat chief minister resorted to a
diversionary measure that sought to take the fight straight into the rival
camp. He aggressively targeted the Congress- led UPA government at the Centre, holding
it responsible for all the ills plaguing
his government. “It is an attack on the five crore Gujaratis (their asmita)”, he
thundered while railing at the CBI as
the Congress Bureau of Investigations. The chief minister is now the Prime
Minister, but not a word is heard now, though the CBI continues almost in the
same vein what with West Bengal Chief
Minister, Mamta Bannerji caught in it’s cross-hairs, a La the Sardha chit fund
scam, besides numerous others-all of Opposition stock.
A strong votary of
combative politics, the hindu hriday samrat
provided first glimpses of his national ambitions in September 2011 when he
went on a three- day ‘sadbhavana’ fast for communal harmony .While the professed purpose
was to expose Gujarat’s detractors, his absence on the initial days of the
party national executive identified veteran L.K.Advani and party president
Nitin Gadkari as the targets of his ire. One has since been put in the ‘old man’s
house’ and the other sits docile in his cabinet.
Projecting the image of
a forward thinking, development-oriented,
aggressive political leader with
leadership qualities, Modi caught the imagination of a country sick of coalition
politics and propelled the BJP to a majority in the 2014 general elections. In
gay abandon, Modi has been nonchalantly
indulging in ‘hostile’ image takeovers and acquisitions. While he was still the Gujarat chief minister, he shrewdly appropriated the
legacy of iconic Sardar Vallabhbhai
Patel from the Congress. Besides riling
on a daily basis on how the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty had denied the ‘Gujarati’ Sardar his due, Modi
promptly announced a statue twice the size of the Statue of Liberty-what
awed him in his first US visit many
years ago- for the Sardar in the state .No sooner did he become the party’s
prime ministerial candidate, than this project turned into an elaborate national election
exercise though hardly anything is heard about it these days.
Thereafter it was the turn of
Gandhian imagery, aligned with the ‘Clean India ‘ drive and launched big time on October 2, the birth
anniversary of the Mahatma. What
was an article of faith with the father
of the nation once, is now wholly appropriated by Prime Minister Modi.
India’s first Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi have also been brought into the
ambit of Modi’s image appropriation. The two persons he riled against and even
had their names removed from the two UPA government schemes-JNURM and Indira
Awas Yojna-were picked up by Modi at a Haryana
election rally to announce a
cleanliness drive beginning from
the 125th birthday of Nehru
on, Nov 14 to November 19, the birthday of Mrs Gandhi. Genuine or campaign
stunt, the fact is that Modi appropriates with ease and discards at leisure. The
Maharashtra Assembly elections also saw him
similarly basking in the reflected glory of Chhatrapati Shivaji
Maharaj leaving the BJP’s estranged ally,
Shiv Sena, chaffing, red-faced, and provoking a bitter war of words.
Though Modi has spent a
lifetime baiting the Nehru-Gandhi family, his move to observe Nehru’s 125th birth
anniversary, one presumes, was more tactical in nature. The Congress has made
it known that it intends to celebrate the event in a big way so the
announcement was made as much to appropriate legacy as to deflect public
attention. While merely linking the
Nehru celebration with the cleanliness drive, Modi has already announced grand
plans to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
In hindsight, it seems the Prime Minister is locked in a game
of strip poker with the Congress. One by
one, he is peeling off both- their
greats and governments. Old birds may be
hard to pluck, but when the fox teaches, count your geese!
Wonderful analysis sir as usual
ReplyDeleteGood analysis..
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