Despite Naroda Patiya, Brand Modi is itching to go national

On a day when a trial court ordered a 28-year jail sentence to former Gujarat minister and BJP MLA Maya Kodnani in the Naroda Patiya massacre case, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi chose to be on a live Google+ Hangout and sell a dream to the country with him at the helm - at least to those who believed in him.

By engaging with the people through a digital medium, he has sought to send out three messages: that he remains unperturbed over judicial pronouncements on the 2002 riots; that he is much ahead of his compatriots in reaching out to the younger generation of rising India who are more hooked to social media than conventional media; and that he continues to press ahead with his image makeover despite setbacks in public perceptions on his suitability for leadership of the country.

His reply to the last question from an Indian caller in Japan said a lot without saying anything. “Modi_ji_, everyone feels and talks about you being a future Prime Minister. What is your road ahead?” came the question. “Yeh aisi baat hai jispar kuch nahi bol sakta (This is something on which I can’t say anything)”, Modi replied in one line.

The import of his statement is this. In the past he has always talked about his commitment to Gujarat. But this time Modi did not say he still had a lot of work to do in Guajart. However, in his reply to a previous query, he did maintain his common philosophical refrain. “I never wanted to become something, I always wanted to be doing something.”

But the most significant point was the one not made. There was no word on the 2002 riots, something which no Modi interview can’t be complete without. But there was nothing about 2002. Perhaps it came too close to the Naroda Patiya verdict for Modi to make a statement on it.

Modi’s opening remarks at this two-hour session had, however, generated hopes that there would be some answers on what could be considered tough or difficult questions for him. “Whatever you ask, I will respond from heart. I will not hide anything. You have a democratic right to ask questions and I have the obligation to respond to that,” Modi said. But all questions (which were apparently selected by Modi’s team and Google from thousands of them) related to governance issue. Brand Modi was under pleasure to give a boost to his well-crafted image of a strong, innovative, technology-savvy and “workaholic” (as he described himself) leader.

Modi knew this webcast was being viewed by Indians in other parts of the world and sought to turn them into his voters. He urged them to vote by filling up Form 6 in the next parliamentary general elections and Gujaratis should do so in the Gujarat assembly elections scheduled for November-December this year.

He did not limit his vision to Gujarat but, quoting Swami Vivekananda, he said the vision was to “make India a world leader (Vishwa Guru). Make it so developed that a Narendra Modi did not need to seek a visa from the USA but all Americans vied to get an Indian visa. For India visa, Americans (should) make a long queue.”

The American visa denial to him clearly hurts. He also had a formula for a new electronic passport format that would be better than the current booklet format.

He gave us a peep into his heart when he talked about how he responded to criticism. “I feel pained but I don’t allow that to reflect (in my work). I am not afraid of criticism, rather welcome it. But there is hardly any criticism, there are only allegations. They would like to throw stones at me. That hurts. But as people start knowing me, the strength of such people (the critics) will get diluted.”

This is not the right time to give a verdict on Modi’s Google+ show. But the fact that so may were hooked to it—due to “traffic overload” it started about an hour late—indicates that he has a committed fan following. Will that expand to make him a “future Prime Minister”?

The script on that is still to be written and there could be many a twist to the tale. But popular Hindi movie star Ajay Devgn, who played the host, declared Modi a “people’s leader”.