OPINION: In the global sphere, only Barack Obama comes close to him.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: Before Narendra Damodardas Modi becomes officially the Prime Minister of India, and is gauged by critics on his performance thereafter, it should be underlined that he is the most charismatic, dynamic and shrewd politician India has ever produced in the modern, post-partition era, beating out the likes of the privileged Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, among others. His victory in the global political sphere can only be matched by that of President Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential elections.
If some of the readers don’t quite agree with that opinion, perhaps they might find this too a bit difficult to agree with: Modi is finally the global role model India has been looking for ages, not just in politics, but in other popular spheres as well: business, sports, films, the arts.
No Indian businessman, bar Ratan Tata, can come close to being a global icon – for Indian businesses believe more in the service sector to make money than in developing products like Bill Gates did; Sachin Tendulkar, for all of India’s pretensions, is still a (retired) cricket celebrity, not a global sports icon; ditto for Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan in the films arena, and the country’s real writers, the ones who make money and are critically successful at the same time, like Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh and Jhumpa Lahiri are NRIs and PIOs, so the types of Chetan Bhagat is confined to being a desi phenomenon only in India; while the country has never produced another Rabindranath Tagore or Satyajit Ray.
But take all those names bandied above, pitch them together, and even then they would be inadequate to beat Modi from the top spot. His name recognition globally today dwarfs all other personalities from India.
It’s not that India has not had its share of great politicians – with all their individual flaws – to choose from. From the likes of the erudite and sophisticated Jawaharlal Nehru to the reformist Narsimha Rao, whose liberalization policies was taken forward by the capable Atal Behari Vajpayee and Dr. Manmohan Singh to shape India’s aspirations to one day be a developed nation. No doubt, Modi’s endeavor would be to follow on that same path and goals.
But what makes Modi the greatest Indian politician and sterling global role model, one who commands instant respect, is the fact that he has done on a scale what only Obama has done to reach the White House. Beat out virtually all odds to make the impossible possible. Obama, and now Modi, with their calculated, successful campaigns and ultimate victory at the polls, have given hope to generations, inspired and will continue to inspire millions of youngsters to dream big, to overreach.
Modi campaigned for the BJP’s unsuccessful national campaign in 2009. But when entrusted with the party leadership spot for the 2014 polls, Modi, who will turn 64 this September, showed tremendous enthusiasm, energy, vigor and panache for the top job at hundreds of Presidential-type rallies all across the country, which would have made Obama proud.
For Obama, the hardest part was to win the Democratic primaries, beating Hillary Clinton. The rest was easier, as US votes state by state either Blue or Red. It was either going to be a narrow win or a narrow loss for him. Not so, for Modi. The challenge for him has been the same since the 2002 Gujarat riots. There was no way for him to know till the day the votes were counted how much the nation either hated or loved him.
The controversial Modi had not only to counter the opposition, and convince a sceptical nation of his worth, but top leaders from his own party, stalwarts like L K Advani and Sushma Swaraj, voiced their opposition to his charge of the party. A year ago, to brush aside Advani in the BJP was unthinkable, a cardinal sin.
Before Modi came on to take on the reins of the party, the BJP was in a shambles. The party was in no position to take charge of even a state government anywhere, forget sweeping polls nationally. Modi made it a cohesive national party again, gave it the badly needed stature and confidence it needed, got immediate results in Assembly elections in prominent states, and proved to be an astute leader who the young and the old voters of India could entrust their country to.
Till recently, Modi was the ‘Black Man’ of India – a tag Obama has had to face all through his life, but it never affected him, and if it did he has never shown it publicly. Coming from a humble, unglamorous background as the son of a tea seller, Modi was ostracized by not only his fellow Indians, but by a global community for the 2002 Gujarat riots.
In all those years as he was condemned and castigated, Modi could have exploded in public fury and disintegrated like an Arvind Kejriwal, or created a split within the party and formed a faction of his own, committed political hara kiri. But he bided his time, while he laid the foundation for his future job ahead, by developing Gujarat economically, as the chief minister for the past 13 years. He learnt from the mistakes the UPA government made.
Modi has had to deal for a decade with demons that most Indian politicians can only shudder at facing. Most would have retired in a similar situation: earmarked a global villain for his alleged culpability in the riots, denied a visa to travel to the US in 2005, despite him not even asking for it.
As supporters and detractors of Modi hyped up the situation, made it more than it really was, Modi showed one of his great strengths that’s come in good stead in his push for being the Prime Minister: he kept a calm front in the face of all the overt and passive aggression against him; didn’t denounce the lobbying-tilted action of the US or European nations.
The 2014 Lok Sabha elections were as personal for Modi as it was for Rajiv Gandhi in the wake of the assassination of his mother Indira Gandhi. The country may have voted for the first time in 30 years on the issue of the economy, but for Modi, it was not just that. It was about reinstating his identity as a secular Indian, to be embraced as an Indian.
A few days before the polls were announced, there were comments floating around in the State Department that Modi would be entitled to an A1 Visa, of a diplomatic variety. No doubt the US wanted to cover their bases in case the exit polls were incorrect and the BJP did not come to power. Modi ended up being the opposition leader.
No more. The US is now courting Modi: Obama has invited him to the White House; the State Department wants him to visit the US. The visa issue, it seems was white smoke. Modi, as has been his norm, has kept his usual cool self. The US has been chastised, more than it ever was during the entire Devyani Khobragade fiasco.
In politics, the hardest part is to succeed at polls in the face of adversity. The most difficult part, as Modi will soon come to know, is to succeed in the face of adversity, when governing the country.
If Modi succeeds in developing India economically, making it the engine of growth for a global economic recovery, initiate measures to punish corruption and eradicate it in India in the long run – and thereby shunt out the Congress and parties like the AAP and its caricatures for years to come – make the country more secular, despite the reservations of minorities; make its defence forces and borders stronger, he could one day be taken in the same breath as one would take Mahatma Gandhi’s name. As two of the greatest Indians the country has ever produced.
After all, one gave India freedom. The other could well give Indians freedom from its worries.
(Sujeet Rajan is the Editor-in-Chief of The American Bazaar)
9 Comments
Wonderful article… I agree that Modi is what India was waiting for a long time…
Again and again we are made to realize the deficit in our knowledge of history. It is conventional wisdom to attribute India’s freed to Gandhiji He was undoubtedly the major figure. But the violent freedom fighters were never quite absent, most important we tend to forget that the empire had become a liability which was becoming too costly to profit from. The turning point was the Naval Mutiny of 1946. That gave the clear signal that the Government could not quite depend on the defense forces to quell the movement This was mentioned by Clement Attlee to Richard Casey, one time Governor of Bengal, later Gov General of Australia. As for Mr Modi -I know little about him-we know that Gujarat elected him again and again and the people of India have just done that with overwhelming seats and votes. (The chatterati are wrong on votes as usual). i notice that commentators tend to substitute name calling and abuse when they have neither facts or logic. My accusation of corruption from 1980 onwards is based on personal knowledge as i was with Government of India in those days.
This Article is laughably childish at best.. MODI(BJP) is nothing but branded product of RSS Hindu extremists Agenda!! Yes, RSS is the same crazy party which was banned three times in recent past. Wait till you have taste of this “charismatic” MODI in real politics an you will understand what the hell India has signed-up for…. Congress is no saint either but would have been less disturbing choice than dictator MODI who is going to ruin everything!
It was the Mahatma who began our problems by blindly supporting the Muslims Khilafat movement which wanted to revive the ottoman Caliphate after seven or more centuries. it contributed to the bloodshed in malabar The genie was out of the bottle followed by the 2 nation theory and Jinnah Two Gujaratis divided India. Now we have a gujarati leader nurtured on the teachings of Vivekananda. If he delivers even half of what we expect it will be several multiples of what india received from the Congress kleptocrats.
This Article is laughably childish at best.. MODI(BJP) is nothing but branded product of RSS Hindu extremists Agenda!! Yes, RSS is the same crazy party which was banned three times in recent past. Wait till you have taste of this “charismatic” MODI in real politics an you will understand what the hell India has signed-up for…. Congress is no saint either but would have been less disturbing choice than dictator MODI who is going to ruin everything!././.
LOL PPl like you make me LOL , I have heard ppl can be stupid but now I know they can be BORN Stupid , ahhhhh your name explains all, I do not think I have to comment anymore than that
LOL PPl like you make me LOL , I have heard ppl can be stupid but now I know they can be BORN Stupid , ahhhhh your name explains all, I do not think I have to comment anymore than that
looser
No one s loser here … In our country each and everyone has right to produce their own views… Its our fundamental right guaranteed by article 19.. Before criticising someone try to give respect for ppls point of view… It may be against ur thoughts, but definitely can be a good critics for d public policy… Just keep it in mind!