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Modi’s monumental mistake

ITS symbolism was devastating: the replacement of the familiar image of Mahatma Gandhi at the charkha in the traditional calendar and diaries of the main khadi institution by PM Narendra Modi.

Modi’s monumental mistake

In deed: There cannot be a substitute for the Mahatma.



S Nihal Singh

ITS symbolism was devastating: the replacement of the familiar image of Mahatma Gandhi at the charkha in the traditional calendar and diaries of the main khadi institution by PM Narendra Modi. What was intended to be left unsaid was made explicit by the Haryana Minister in the BJP government, Anil Vij. He declared that Modi was a better brand than Gandhi, forced though he was to withdraw his remarks under pressure from an embarrassed BJP.

 This was undoubtedly Modi’s biggest misstep in the domestic arena in his first three years in office. Having hogged space in the political arena and in social media, the Prime Minister has done himself no service to proclaim that he has arrived, to rub shoulders with one revered as the Father of the Nation.

 Assuming that the change in the calendar would not have been made without a nod from the Prime Minister’s office, it was a disastrous decision because it proclaimed Modi’s narcissism and desire to distinguish himself from other politicians across the political board. This comes after he has disregarded the convention that apart from a symbolic speech, the holder of the highest political office in the land does not get into campaigning for his or her party in Assembly elections.

 As we have seen in the past and continue to witness in campaigning for Uttar Pradesh and Punjab elections, Modi is the star campaigner lusty in his castigation of the Opposition and his party men are not shy in seeking votes for state Assemblies in his name. His persona is writ large in his election speeches, typically suggesting that the Opposition wants to remove Modi while he wants to remove black money.

 Modi has made two major mistakes in running his administration. In addition to wearing the crown of the Mahatma, his one mistake in foreign policy was to persist in seeking membership of the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group after China made it clear in private and publicly that it would block it. Beijing administered a clear snub by vetoing the move. Indeed, it is a mystery why Modi decided to declare a losing hand, rather than waiting to fight another day. This is not to denigrate the Prime Minister’s astute foreign policy moves in wooing former US president Barack Obama or making a dash to Lahore to greet Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif.

 However, Modi’s calendar move is of far greater import politically because he is in danger of living in a bubble glorifying his own prominence and the reverential tones his party men are adopting in referring to him are building an aura of invincibility. The Mahatma never held public office although he was the guiding spirit of the Independence movement in which the BJP’s mentor, RSS, played an ambiguous role.

In realpolitik terms, by transposing his picture for the Mahatma’s, Modi has peaked too early. Granted, he is thus far the unchallenged and tallest leader of the BJP, but the danger lurking in the background is his propensity to take major decisions alone.

 Take the demonetisation issue. The new man in charge at the Reserve Bank, Mr Arjit Patel, is suggesting that the demonetisation move was months in the making. If so, why was no homewok done on the urgent steps required to fill the gap after the old notes were withdrawn? The tussle with the judiciary establishment is another facet of the government’s desire to control as many levers of power as it can.

Is Modi then leading the country to a virtual president form of government? The Prime Minister appears uncomfortable with the parliamentary system, spending little time in participating in the cut and thrust of debate, unlike his predecessors. Indeed, his metier seems to be one-way communication — through tweets and Facebook — because there is no scope for hostile questioning.

The question to ask today is: where Modi’s caravan will go in the remaining term of his office. If he does not believe in the Oscar Wildean adage of “nothing succeeds like excess”, he must trim his sails as he reaches out for a second term. It is all very well to present the country’s problems as a contest between the rich and the poor, but there is a limit determined by credibility to how far you can reduce everything to this simplistic code. Bashing the Opposition parties as dens of the rich is likely to prove unproductive. In his armoury are the double-edged demonetisation issue for its boldness and of course the “surgical strikes” on Pakistan.

 The tipping point in Modi’s three years of rule at the Centre has arrived inadvertently. But it is a warning signal that there are treasured institutions that cannot be denigrated. Granted that Modi is the big chief, but even big chiefs have to respect icons of the age. There cannot be a substitute for the Mahatma.

 A presidential system is beyond the horizon of the next general election in 2019 and even when we arrive at that point there is bound to be stiff resistance to the idea. The framers of our Constitution had good reasons to opt for the parliamentary system because of the diversity of the nation. Indira Gandhi’s experiment with the Emergency showed the weaknesses of an over-centralised system of governance, apart from the very repugnance of the regime.

 What remains to be determined is how far Modi will seek to buttress his own powers even before he can change the parliamentary to a presidential system. The Prime Minister is capable of staking positions that involve risks such as the demonetisation measure. The danger, of course, is that he is so convinced of his own infallibility that he can overreach himself.

 The outcome of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections is important not only for the BJP, but also for Modi’s own political future. He is banking on his “magic touch” by failing to name a chief ministerial candidate. It is Modi all the way.

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