How Modi is misreading nation's mood, losing chance to show up AAP

Aaya Ramvilas, Gaya Ramkripal. Why? We all know rats dive out of a sinking ship. But where do they go? If the current direction of the mad race is an indication, at least in politics they run towards the BJP. Over the past few days politicians have been racing towards the Narendra Modi hut. The Rams of Bihar—Vilas and Kripal—have done it; Jagdambika Pal is about to do it; a Congress candidate threw away his Lok Sabha ticket to become part of the Modi show and, just to give you an idea of what is happening on the ground, almost everybody in Rajasthan is dying to be part of Bhaag, Neta, Bhaag. It is easy to read the mind of Aaya Ramvilas Paswan and Gaya Ramkripal Yadav. A politician’s compass always points towards power, and everytime he strays from it, he makes a course correction. Moral compass? Leave your average politician in Kalahari Desert, his instincts would lead him to 7 RCR. [caption id=“attachment_1430997” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Should Modi really taking allies like Ram Vilas Paswan. PTI[/caption] Exhibit one. Rajasthan minister and Congress MLA Bhanwar Lal Sharma was quoted by newspapers on Tuesday saying he is joining the BJP. To buttress his claim, he called Rahul Gandhi some not-so-nice names and questioned the Congress VP’s political acumen. In the 90s, Sharma was a minister in the Bhairon Singh Shekhawat government, a result of his treacherous betrayal of the Janata Dal on whose ticket he had won in 1990. In 1997, when Shekhawat was in the US for a heart surgery, Sharma planned a coup with the help of some BJP and independent MLAs. To his misfortune, the coup was foiled as Shekhawat learnt of his chicanery and flew back to Jaipur just in time to checkmate him. Sharma has since then contested as an independent, joined the Congress, and threatened to leave and rejoin it often. He once tore up his kurta in front of 10 Janpath to demand a Vidhan Sabha ticket and used some colourful language against Sonia Gandhi. Now, he wants to join Modi’s bandwagon. All this after a chai pe charcha with Vasundhara Raje. The humble reason: he wants his son to shine in politics. Any resemblance here to the Paswans of Bihar is purely coincidental. The desire of opportunists like Sharma to take a dip in the holy water of power during the election Mahakumbh is understandable. But there is a more important question here. Why does Modi want to embrace the renegades? Is he a leader or a shepherd of the black sheep? Is Modi the new Pied Piper? The 2014 election, considering the promised all-India ‘Modi wave’, is a perfect opportunity for the BJP’s PM-in-waiting to cleanse politics of its traditional malaises. Just as he is trying to retire the old guard in his own party, Modi has the perfect opportunity to rid politics of its black sheep. If he can think of slighting LK Advani and MM Joshi, what stops him from throwing out opportunists? Not since Rajiv Gandhi won the 1984 election has anybody been so popular in India. Pre-poll surveys and pollsters are predicting a rout for the Congress and his other major rivals. This is a perfect opportunity for Modi to make a clean break from dal badlus and opportunists. Since he can afford to do it, Modi can use this opportunity to prop up candidates with greater commitment to ideology and policies. But he has no shown no signs of doing this, yet. Had he done this, and there is still time for it, Modi could have taken the sheen off the Aam Aadmi Party, which has generally shown better selection criteria despite its fascination for VIPs and media personalities. But the current open-door policy and everybody-is-welcome credo in the BJP shows that in spite of the tall claims being made by its leaders, the party still doesn’t have the confidence that it can win the election without trading in horses. Modi, it is clear, can’t afford to rewrite the traditional script of politics. By embracing the Yeddys, Reddys, Rams, Pals and Lals of politics, Modi is misreading the mood of the nation. A majority of voters want real change; they want politics to be washed of its sins and sinners. People don’t just want a new PM; they want a new code of ethics in politics. One day, once the euphoria around Modi settles down, when the anger against the UPA subsides, when jokes about Pappu become stale and when blasting Kejriwal and his muffler cease to remain the nation’s favourite pastime, people would look at Modi, his ministers, MPs and partners. Don’t blame them if they feel cheated by finding the same faces in new, saffron clothes. Yeddy as India’s mines minister, anyone? Somebody had once compared power with a banquet where the people at the table change but the chamche (read spoons, think sycophants) and pyale (read bowls, think fixers) remain the same. Modi’s banquet seems headed in that direction.