There was a touch of inevitability about last week’s decision by the BJP high command to make a clean breast of its 2014 plans with Narendra Modi at the centre. But more real steps like giving him the levers of the election machinery may be in the offing
If the organisational reshuffle within the BJP after Rajnath Singh returned as President seemed less like an internal realignment of talent and more like sending a message to a larger audience of cadre, constituents and citizens, well, it was just that.
And it seems to have worked. Thanks in almost complete measure to the overarching symbolism of inducting Narendra Modi into the party’s Parliamentary Board. There was no ambiguity in the messaging either - Modi’s inexorable rise to national salience.
There is an unexplainable satisfaction in inevitability. The incessant attention to Modi, his spoken word, his work and his world has turned Modi-watching into a vocation, as a number of his (smitten or bitten) friends and foes would accept. This coalescing cloud of support across constituent domains has come together in a mysterious correspondence of stellar arrangements, pitchforking him to a vaunted position just around the juncture when the UPA is at sixes and sevens with itself, the economy is gasping and the India story is at a low ebb.
No brand carries itself effortlessly. It must have a story, it must have context, and it must have dimensions. It must become something we all want to own a part of, and choose to imbue with properties we want it to possess. Modi has thus become a product of his time, almost customised to the electoral market at hand, he reflects the precise aspects that the electorate wants to see in a leader at a time like this. The contributors to his rise, ironically are his bête noir, the Congress and other factions of the UPA, particularly those that pander to minority vote blocks, the uncivil civil society which has made it their bread and butter to berate or target him and the media, largely populated as it is by left liberals acting in a spasmodic orchestra of hate and disdain.
The contextual lionisation of Modi, first as a protector of Gurjarati asmita to its transformation into Hindu asmita, and now in the throes of turning itself into Bharat asmita is a modulation that is rare in such a short time. Usually such transformation is manifested in irregular bursts, in fits and starts and comes together in a fortuitous combination of time and circumstances which propel people into a new orbit. With Modi, the sequencing of events has been as seamless as an emergence from a chrysalis.
It is no myth that Modi had to fight his devils, within and outside the structural arrangements of his own organisation. That is normal. Nobody vacates a seat voluntarily and it cannot be denied that Modi has, by dint of his personality and the conjoined imagery around it, forced the hand of the party. Modi has today become a mascot for good governance. Unable to pin him down on that, his opponents fall back on the ghosts of 2002 for small comforts. But this has only strengthened his support base, made his supporters more vehement and his victimhood more credible.
The BJP has clearly woken up to the merits of extending his brand and its values and it may not just be a result of the growing clamour at its gates, but a more nuanced engagement with reality and stratagem. For one, the act of elevating him to the national platform was a cathartic exercise — it purged the antipathy within and it has re-ordered the power pyramid at the party’s core. This realignment is testament to both, the larger than life image Modi has acquired over the last decade and the fact that the BJP cadre is unwilling to accept him on the sidelines.
Outside of the party, on the street and plush drawing rooms the conversation is veering around to the “Modi-effect”, a new phenomenon that seems to unite opposite poles from BMW drivers to cart pushers and from Kochi to Kolkata. This level of acceptability is rare and has been noticed sparingly, but to achieve it today is greater merit just for the variegated constituencies of electors, influencers and activists we deal with today and the push and pulls of local and regional political brinksmanship.
The BJP has found a champion for its brand of politics and that the party has grasped this is no accident. Cooler heads have concluded that Modi is on a roll and chosen to cast him the role of an aggregator ahead of the general elections in 2014, or indeed earlier. Modi, on his part, has donned the mantle of the commander of BJP’s forces and the indications were available for some time. At the National Council held recently at Delhi, the theatre was set for his anointment, albeit unspoken thus far, for his rightful place as the one who would lead the cadres into battle. To that extent his elevation to the Parliamentary Board is merely a formality. The more decisive moves will be when he takes control over the election preparedness and the paraphernalia surrounding it all.
Even his detractors admit that Modi has run a ruthlessly efficient election campaign in his stints in Gujarat, dropping candidates and selecting them on purely their ability to win. That sort of surgical precision in battle readiness has not been often seen in the party which still ambles between networks, protégés and people who whose sentiments we don’t want to hurt. That this will be the trend going forward is clear if Modi is handed over the reins and though this might rile some old timers, it is unlikely to stand in the way of the momentum he enjoys at this point.
The caustic refrain of opposition and media to his final nomination as the Prime Ministerial candidate is, however, another matter. Given that there is the cloud of alignments and allies hovering constantly over the issue, and although it would be easy to rule out some of it as plain bluster and most other as an internal issue, the fact is that the NDA’s cohabitive strain will be tested closer to elections and not before.
Even as things stand, the party’s first priority remains the acquisition of lok Sabha seats in a range that outpaces the Congress as the single largest contender. Alliances have a habit of forming themselves and consolidating around the best fits, which in turn in our first-past-the-post system invariably comes down to numbers. The question about a declared PM candidate will continue, owing mostly to the proclivities of analysts and content hungry media but that is unlikely to queer the pitch for the BJP. The organisational DNA of the party will not allow any unilateral decision on the issue in a hurry and whether to declare a candidate or not will also rest heavily on the posture of allies, competitive parties and politics, the timing, strategy and tactics.
Having that figured, the BJP will need to focus on the real work at hand of securing a majority that puts it in the centre of government formation. Irrespective of how we look at it, the message is clear. Modi has become the talisman for a new, resurgent BJP and if he can lead the party to a win, everything is possible.
Sanjay Kaul | (Sanjay Kaul is a spokesperson for the BJP at Delhi)