Aakar Patel | Six Decades From Now, What Will Modi’s Legacy Be Remembered For?

Ram Madhav, a friend, has written a fine piece (“Modi’s road is distinct as he passes Nehru’s milestone”) on Prime Minister Narendra Modi seemingly reaching an important milestone. On June 10, Madhav writes, Mr Modi would complete 4,399 days in office “uninterruptedly” as Prime Minister, apparently “overtaking” Jawaharlal Nehru’s record of 4,398 days. It is unclear how Ram Madhav arrived at this number because Nehru was in office for over 6,000 days, from August 15, 1947 till May 27, 1964, the day he died.

Indira Gandhi was also in office for almost 6,000 days, which is likely the reason that awkward word “uninterruptedly” has been used.

But let us set all the quibbling aside. There appears little doubt that our leader will cross that number in time as well. What is more interesting here is Madhav’s assertion that “Modi, undoubtedly, will be remembered as the most effective and successful Prime Minister of India”. Madhav is, of course, a longtime associate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and might be expected to look on the bright side of this.

His reason for writing what he does is that Mr Modi “is midway through his third term as Prime Minister. Yet, his dominance over the Indian political landscape remains towering and unchallenged. He is certain to break more records as he continues to lead the country for many more years to come”.

Yes, it is true that longevity is important and staying on the crease for an extended period is also important to some people. But from the audience’s perspective, what is relevant is what is on the scoreboard. Here the problem is that unlike longevity, the data on the Mr Modi’s performance is unclear. Madhav says among Mr Modi’s achievements are that India’s GDP doubled in the past decade. But the fact is that it doubled each decade since Independence; certainly, it has every decade since 1960 (which is the period in which we have World Bank data).

What else can we see here? Madhav says that “in foreign policy, Modi scripted a glorious history”. How? That we do not know. Looking at what is happening in the world today, it would be difficult not to conclude that India is an irrelevant actor in the great events and the accusation can be accurately made that India’s policy is often servile, especially to US President Donald Trump. However, we need not go there today because our focus is different.

The question to ask is this: How will Mr Modi be remembered six decades after he’s gone? In the India of 2086, what will people be writing and speaking of Mr Modi as we speak and write of Nehru today, 62 years after his passing? My concern is that we (those of us who are still around then, and those born here on) may not be referring to Mr Modi at all and he might be as relevant as Deve Gowda or Inder Gujral or Rajiv Gandhi will be in that era. One reason is that things, people and events that are current fade very quickly. Gavaskar gives way to Tendulkar, who gives way to Kohli, who gives way to Vaibhav. There is always a shiny new thing on offer and the relationship that the present generation has to current stars is always more fresh and intense than they have to things of the past.

But if this is true, then why has Nehru not faded and why is Madhav and those who are fans of this PM still exhuming the old Jawaharlal so long after he has gone into the ether?

That brings us to the second reason why Nehru is still with us in spirit. It is because of what he left behind. The first is institutions of every sort -- educational, scientific, cultural, medical -- that he conceived and built. It is rare in the world, and especially rare in our parts, for this achievement. Compare the legion of things Nehru built with what Narendra Modi has conceived and executed. One is hard-pressed to come up with any. Perhaps the hapless Niti Aayog (is it still around?) might be one thing Mr Modi gifts to the India of the future, but what else? Hard to say.

The second thing Nehru left behind is, like his institutions, still around us and associated with him: what is called the “Idea of India”. Meaning a pluralist society that has a pathway to modernity.

Here we can concede that Mr Modi has made a difference and parted ways with the past in a way that may be longer lasting than his non-existing institutions. Madhav concludes by writing that “it is not just the numbers that distinguish Modi from others. It is the quality of governance, ideological vision and effective development agenda that he brought to the table as the leader of the world’s largest democracy that makes him the shining star of Indian politics”.

This India around us that has made him the shining star is one dominated by laws and policies of exclusion and persecution. Bulldozers, lynchings, Special Intensive Revisions and so on. And on. Much of it is not new, of course, but the intensity is new and it is Mr Modi’s gift to India.

One is not sure whether what we have experienced will last till 2086. One hopes it does not, but then it is irrelevant for me because I will not be around to see it. My guess, which is based on the evidence of what Mr Modi has left behind in the last dozen years, is that if this continues for just another decade or so, leave along another six decades, Mr Modi will indeed be remembered but not for the reasons Ram Madhav would like him to be.

The writer is the chair of Amnesty International India. Twitter: @aakar_patel