Why Modi's 'Ma Ganga' rhetoric should make us cringe

My childhood memories of Doordarshan news brim with images of Indira Gandhi on one her innumerable temple hops. She was even famously turned away by the Jaganath Temple in Puri and the Gurvayur temple in Kerala for having married outside her faith. Her daughter-in-law, Sonia, has faithfully followed in her steps, traipsing from Tirupati to the Ramakrishna Mission albeit in an attempt to establish her “Indian-ness”. This year, she performed the traditional puja in Rae Bareily after filing her nomination papers, much as she took a dip in the Kumbh before the UP elections in 2001. A certain level of “devout” Hindu posturing is part and parcel of the Indian political landscape, as much as those church-going photo-ops required of every politician in America. And yet something inside me cringed when I heard Narendra Modi in Varanasi declare , “First I thought the BJP sent me here, then I thought I am going to Kashi, but after I came here, I feel Maa Ganga has called me. I feel like a child who has returned to his mother’s lap.” Now political pundits will decode his words as they will, whether as a dog whistle to Hindutva or just smart political messaging. But as an Indian, I can’t help but worry about a future prime minister who on almost every occasion rubs his faith in his audience’s face. Modi can’t address the ladies of FICCI without referencing the navaratras . A message to NRIs in America starts with a meditation on the importance of Shivratri, followed by remarks on global warming framed by references to Hindu worship of Mother Nature, and then an example of the Maha Kumbh of India’s potential for achievement.  On the campaign trail in Gujarat, hitting back at his critics becomes an excuse to compare himself to Hanuman and Ganapati’s mouse. It doesn’t help that his supporters – not content with such humble analogies – choose to deify him as Lord Shiva himself. An association the BJP cemented with its tasteless Har Har Modi chant. A chant that, despite the grumblings of a shankaracharya, no less, resounded on the streets of Varanasi, chanted with feverish enthusiasm by supporters drenched in saffron. There’s something very wrong with this picture. Setting aside all the rants about Godhra and counter-rants about sickularism, a country as plural and diverse as India cannot be complacent about electing a leader who is so unabashed and insistent in flaunting his faith in one religion – and to the exclusion of all others. Unlike other national leaders, Modi doesn’t make it a point to visit other places of worship, or reference other religious traditions or precepts in his speeches. The one non-Hindu religious photo-op of him is at a rally wearing a Sikh turban. In Kerala, Modi met with Kerala bishops who endorsed him but at his guest house and not at their church. Modi’s celebration of his religion and its traditions is all the more glaring given his obvious discomfort with those of others. A discomfort that leaked through in his efforts to explain why he won’t wear a Muslim skullcap. “If wearing a cap were to be seen as a symbol of unity, then I never saw Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel or Pt Jawaharlal Nehru wearing such caps… Actually a bad practice of appeasement has crept into Indian politics. My job is to respect all religions and traditions of all. I live my tradition and respect tradition of others. This is why I cannot fool people by posing for photographs wearing a cap.” [caption id=“attachment_1496857” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Narendra Modi wearing a Sikh turban at a rally in Jagraon in Ludhiana, Reuters[/caption] But was he fooling people when he wore the Sikh turban then? Double standards aside, the comparisons to the Founding Fathers don’t hold much water. Of the three, only Gandhi wore his faith on his sleeve, but did so while constantly referencing the religious traditions of others. His favourite bhajan was not coincidentally included the line, “Ishwar, Allah tero naam…” For all of Modi’s talk about respecting all religions, he speaks only of one – and unceasingly so. In his worldview, to reference Hinduism is a legitimate expression of his faith, but to pay due deference to any other other faith is “appeasement.” Modi is right to insist that wearing a skullcap proves little. But to refuse to do so while conspicuously omitting the importance and value of other faiths, and while invoking the entire pantheon of Hindu gods at every turn reveals far more. Modi’s secularism appears to consist of ignoring all other faiths while tomtoming his. Indira Gandhi’s temple hops were carefully calibrated with dutiful visits to dargahs, churches and gurudwaras. It was just de rigeur for any national politician, and even Vajpayee embraced the task with equal enthusiasm. Yes, these “pilgrimages” were likely all just PR fluff, every bit as trite and empty as those old national integration ads featuring beaming minorities of every stripe. But sometimes form matters more than intent. Symbolic respect is still respect. And no aspiring leader should believe that he is exempt from the requirement to pay it to his own people. There is nothing wrong with Modi aspiring to be the Hindu Prime Minister of India. But there is everything is wrong if Modi wants to be the Prime Minister of Hindu India. If he wants to be the former, then he needs to give us less of ‘har, har Modi’ and more of ‘ghar, ghar Modi – including those that pray to other gods.