One year of PM Modi: He's still Mr Clean but no longer India's sweetheart

Popular politicians aren’t ordinary people. They are an idea, an image and a brand that is the combination of their own political, intellectual and marketing skills and the perception people have of them. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, like all successful mass leaders, isn’t any different. Modi, too, is the convergence of many things he means to many people. What are they; what are the parts that make Modi? [caption id=“attachment_2252098” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Prime Minister Narendra Modi completes one year in office on 26 May. PTI[/caption] Think of it as a variation of the parable of the blind men and the elephant. A politician is the elephant we imagine after encountering parts of him, based on our hopes, aspirations, biases and fears. Prime Minister Modi is no different. His gigantic electoral victory was built on his ability to front different parts of himself to different constituencies, whose imagination then filled in the rest. Social commentator Shiv Vishvanathan writes in The Times of India, “I think the greatest achievement of year one of the Modi regime is the creation, invention and selling of Modi himself. He’s the new persona India seeks to embody, and his performances are events in themselves. In a deep way, the sales pitch is the policy and this regime has been salesman for a man and his world.” But, Modi wasn’t invented, created and hard-sold in the first year of his regime. He has been a work-in-progress for almost a decade before the 2014 election. Since he became the Gujarat chief minister, several key events and his own performance conspired to turn Modi into a mix of Mr Hindutva, Mr Development, Mr Clean, Mr Patriotic and Mr Terminator of the Congress and its corrupt, dynastic, incompetent culture. Think of these then as the legs, trunk or tail of that metaphorical elephant. The absence of competition and alternatives proved fortuitous. Within the BJP, LK Advani was old and politically washed-up and Sushma Swaraj didn’t have a mass base or a history of administrative distinction. Outside, Manmohan Singh was weak, meek and discredited, Rahul Gandhi was unacceptable because of his dynastic past, and made even more disagreeable because of pathetic track record; regional leaders were political minnows. The political space and popular mindspace was ripe for invasion. Modi became Mr Right (in every sense of the word), who swept the nation off its feet and captured the throne and the title of Indian hriday samrat. So is he still India’s sweetheart? What has changed in the past one year?  Has the elephant managed to keep his various parts intact, or has the hologram dissolved into pixelated, disconnected parts? Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyar points out in The Economic Times that Modi’s greatest achievement is that his image of Mr Clean is still intact. In his first year in power, there has been no scandal. Modi and his men have shown no signs of continuing the UPA culture of a scam-a-month. Even while following the UPA template of governance, implementing some of his predecessor’s decisions, Modi has ensured that his government remains free of taint with a simple yet effective ploy: complete centralization of power and making his ministers powerless. In a government, money can be made only if decision-making is decentralized and people down the administrative ladder have the power to grant favours. In the Modi raj, since the PM is the fount of all important decisions, none of his ministerial colleagues are in a position to grant favours and seek money in return. So, Mr Clean has survived. Mr Hindutva has undergone a minor makeover; some of it is for his own good. Before the election, many had feared that Modi will follow a sectarian agenda; his government will actively divide to ensure that it rules for many years. There were fears of more Godhras and Gujarats. But Modi has, at worst, just been guilty of being silent on such issues and letting off the loonies in his government lightly for raising the communal temperature. Yet, he retains the title of Hindu Hriday Samart, primarily because of his past and his position on the spectrum of secular and Hindutva politics. As long as the Congress and regional parties like Janata Dal, Trinamool Congress and Samajwadi Party are perceived as anti-Hindutva, Modi will remain the choice of the rightwingers by default. So, Mr Hindutva also lives on. The title of Mr Development, the harbinger of achche din, however, is under serious threat. Electoral jumlas like smart cities, bullet trains, double-digit GDP growth and more employment opportunities have remained just slogans. On the economic front, inflation is down, the government has met its fiscal deficit targets, and industrial production and GDP have shown a minor increase. Modi has been barely able to save his reputation of Mr Development because of his naseeb and his tenure coinciding with low crude prices. But this year, if oil goes up, Mr Development too will slide into trouble. If Mr Development is flailing, Mr Patriot has disappeared. There is little sign of the one who vowed to bring rival nations to their knees, stare down Pakistan, compete with China, solve the Kashmir conundrum. Modi’s foreign policy has been more about business deals and NRI events rather than the expected but ill-advised machismo that was meant to bully neighbours into submission. So this vanishing act may, in fact, be counted as a victory. It is good that Modi has turned out to be a pragmatic statesman than a rabble-rouser; a polite businessman in sharp suits and boots than a tough-talking war lord in battle fatigues. On the flip side, Kashmir is a fragile mess. In the Valley, the BJP is purring like a docile partner who is unusually quiet just to ensure its alliance with the PDP lasts as long as possible. Article 370, is in the cold storage and a party that favours soft-separatism is in full control. Modi had vowed to terminate the Congress, rid India of the ma-beta sarkar. For a while, it appeared Mr Terminator had achieved the dream of a Congress-mukt Bharat. But the GOP simply refuses to die. It may still not be an electoral force, but in the Parliament, the Congress is putting up a spirited show, blocking Bills it wants to delay, helping Modi pass the laws it wants. But here’s the good news: Modi is still the undisputed leader of India. Arvind Kejriwal has been cut down to size; he is more a state leader fighting petty battles than a man cut-out for a larger role.  Rahul Gandhi is like a fighter trying to make his way back into the ring after being knocked out in the first round in the previous bout. In the battle of personalities, Rahul needs to do a lot before he is able to climb back into the ring with Modi. While idea of Modi is no longer as compelling and powerful as it was in 2014, he is still India’s Mr Right. But if he allows himself to become just Mr Development or Mr Hindutva, he will become just another neta playing to his base. As long as he continues to remain greater than the sum total of his parts – elephant not just a tail or leg – he will thrive, perhaps remain invincible.