Could Modi Be Grounded Before Take Off?
Saeed Naqvi
Recently, the Indian Express published two news items on the same page.
On top of the page, across five columns, is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s
appeal: “All Secular Forces Must Unite Against Modi” the BJP’s Prime
Ministerial candidate.
Bottom of the same page has a two column headline in which Arun Jaitley is
urging the Prime Minister to “Probe Motivated Investigation” against Narendra
Modi and his political soulmate, Amit Shah. The leader of the opposition in the
Rajya Sabha has accused the Congress of misusing Investigating Agencies like
the CBI and NIA against BJP leaders “including it Prime Ministerial candidate”.
So, it seems the probes on Modi are closing in.
Juxtapose the two news items, one against the other, and a kind of pattern
emerges of Modi’s menacing, vertical rise and the UPA’s horizontal mopping up
operations of the scared “secular” formations. Without one, the other has no
game to play.
In a column written in mid July, I had explained my understanding of the
game. What was the hurry in projecting Modi as the BJP’s Hindu mascot for the
political season upto the 2014 parliament election? Atleast those eager to
promote him could have waited for the Assembly elections in Delhi, Madhya
Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh, in atleast three of which the BJP has major
stakes.
Would it not be the Hindutva’s vote of no confidence in the BJP Chief
Ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh, when they are preparing for the
November assembly elections, to have the Chief Minister of Gujarat sail above
their heads? Agreed, Shivraj Chauhan, Raman Singh and Vasundhara Raje Scindia
do not owe their lives to the RSS as Modi does, but even so what would have
been lost if the RSS-BJP had waited until the November elections? What was the
urgency? Were the cases closing in on Modi and the Gujarat model? That being
the case Modi had to be boosted sky high, like a rocket, so that he can be cast
as a martyr just in case the investigating agencies ground him. The very first
sentence of Jaitley’s letter to the PM is: “The Congress cannot fight Narendra
Modi politically. Defeat stares them in the face”. Hence, the “misuse of
intelligence agencies” to ground Modi. Was this the mantra whispered in the
ears of the BJP stalwarts who had thrown a fit at his elevation?
It was quite startling how the senior leaders, in a state of collective
convulsion at Modi’s elevation in Goa in June, had very rapidly composed
themselves and begun to see light over the horizon. Modi was anointed PM
candidate in September and they tamely watched. Suddenly they had changed. Why?
Brecht’s spoof on Hitler, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, does come to
mind but the Indian media have decided that Modi is not resistible. There he
floats above the firmament, irresistible in his designer kurtas, beard in
perfect trim, once or twice I could have sworn he wore lipstick, positioning
himself before a lotus here, a parapet there in admirable imitation of Sohrab
Modi of the Parsee theatre fame.
During practice sessions boxers do no really hit hard. They spar, jab
gently, float around for footwork but never land a punch on the chin. This is what
is going on between the vertical Modi and the horizontal UPA.
In July I had written:
“Since 2007, just before the state assembly elections, Modi’s public
relations has been globally managed by APCO Worldwide which boasts of former US
ambassador to New Delhi, Timothy Roemer, as a hands on manager with offices in
Mumbai and New Delhi. APCO has an impressive record of servicing dictators like
Sani Abacha of Nigeria.”
If the UPA were in serious combat with Modi, there would have been atleast
a whisper about APCO among the UPA publicists. But there has been nothing of
the sort. The sides are not fighting; they are jousting. The real knockout
punch was administered by Rahul Gandhi not on the opponents but on his own
party when he rubbished the Ordinance on convicted law makers.
Chastise me for my perverse thought, but the real effect of Modi as a Hindu
mascot, coming with things like Muzaffarnagar in his train, is two fold: it
enables the BJP-RSS to measure its appeal nationwide for some future round.
This aggressive Hindutva is designed to drive anything which is not hard core
Hindutva towards the creation of a possible UPA III because Manmohan Singh, P.
Chidambaram and Montek Singh Ahluwalia are still trusted by India Inc in Mumbai
and their Multinational links who have identified India as a trillion dollar
market and essential for global recovery.
“Another reason why Modi’s support team have been able to impose a fait
accompli on the BJP”, I wrote, “is because of an acute fear that Modi and his
Sancho Panza will, sooner or later, trip up in the course of investigations
under way in Gujarat. Modi’s fall will then be the BJP’s fall too; it will be
the fatal collapse of the Gujarat model. But if Modi is allowed to fly high on
a platform of Hindu nationalism, his being grounded will be blamed on intrigue
by the forces of “pseudo secularism”. This pits Modi as an embodiment of an
idea shaded in dark saffron, projected in Presidential style, against the
secular formations, pale and wan, poised precariously on a rickety
Parliamentary platform.”
The real battle, then, is not being envisaged for 2014 but more like 2016 –
mid term.
Jaitley’s 15 page letter, giving details of all the cases that are zeroing
in on Modi and Shah is the beginning of an almighty cat and mouse between the
BJP and the UPA. Is there a real fear that Modi will be grounded before take
off?
#
#
#
#
# #
No comments:
Post a Comment