Shikha Mukerjee | Is The ‘Zing’ Missing? Modi Might Need Strategy Reset
The only reason Mr Modi has to be down is that the BJP is in a minority in the Lok Sabha after the 2024 general election. He has cause to be satisfied that the NDA has a majority, is in a stable equilibrium, to keep him in power till 2029
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a mesmerising speaker. His mastery over the message has the masses entrapped. His high-voltage calls in praise of the motherland, Bharat Mata Ki Jai, prompts his audience to respond, usually, with a roar of support. Following his speech in Bihar’s Nalanda, after Operation Sindoor, where he declared that “sindoor” (vermillion powder) ran in his veins and Pakistan would be inflicted with unimaginable punishment, his recent speeches are strangely bereft of that spark that ignites the popular imagination.
It is a puzzle. Mr Modi sounds dull and hackneyed. Or else, the masses and us have grown jaded, listening to him speak over the past 11 years. Or, there are reasons why the spark is missing and we have not a clue as to why.
The optics are all there; but the messaging is flat. In Kashmir, there are images of the PM waving an enormous Indian flag to launch the all-weather rail link from Katra to Srinagar, open the world’s highest railway arch bridge and send the first of Vande Bharat trains rolling in the Valley. The J&K trip was historic for two reasons; it was Mr Modi’s first visit to the region after the Pahalgam killings by terrorists, who, incidentally, have not yet been found and neutralised.
Down in the plains, the PM has been seen flagging off EV buses in New Delhi and planting a sindoor (Bixa Orellana) sapling in his official residence’s garden, flagging off trains and opening, in one go, a total of 103 refurbished Amrit Bharat railway stations, to signal that all is well.
With the invitation now obtained for the G-7 summit, thanks to Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney, who came under fire for reaching out to Mr Modi, there cannot be many reasons why he sounds so off colour. If the yardstick of rationality is applied, he should have no reason to be this way. Canada was right in saying that as the world’s “fifth (ouch! India is now in fourth place, surpassing Japan) largest economy”, Mr Modi couldn’t be missing from the table.
Mr Modi has even better reasons to be happy; the World Bank has just certified that India’s extreme poverty rate has fallen in the last 10 years, under the PM’s watch, to 5.3 per cent from 27.1 per cent in 2011-2012. As the PM has repeatedly pointed out, India has a free food programme to keep people out of extreme poverty, covering 80 crore individuals. Clearly, his efforts at keeping extreme poverty under control have worked; the economy is growing, per capita income is moving up and his vision of inclusive development, Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, has succeeded.
The only reason Mr Modi has to be down is that the BJP is in a minority in the Lok Sabha after the 2024 general election. He has cause to be satisfied that the NDA has a majority, is in a stable equilibrium, to keep him in power till 2029. Is it that the cost of maintaining the equilibrium is proving to be a drag? From the looks of it, probably not; despite being a minority government, the BJP has successfully pushed through its agenda of passing the hugely controversial (if the Opposition is to be believed, unconstitutional) Waqf Amendment Act. It has rolled out the overhauled criminal and civil code with the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita coming into effect from July 1, 2024.
It has pulled off a great political finesse by announcing that the caste census would be done simultaneously with the regular Census, a demand for which the Congress and the Opposition has been clamouring. The start date for the Census and caste census has been announced. The probability is high that the delimitation of constituencies will follow after the numbers are tallied and women will get one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies at the same time.
With the optics all good, a stable coalition in place and a government that appears to be running like a well-oiled machine, giving the PM time to plant trees (even if this is the wrong time of year to do so) and wave off EV buses to celebrate World Environment Day, the zing is missing. Is it because the PM is missing the gruelling labour needed to fight to win in challenging elections? Are the months between now and the Bihar election, to be followed soon after with Assembly elections in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, a sort of hiatus, when he is in suspended motion? Is it because the routines of governance, after 11 years in office, present few surprises that he could find challenging?
Or is the reality that the BJP is not inclusive, in its ability to represent a nation as diverse as India, has now kicked in? In order to ensure that the delegations to represent India overseas included enough Muslim leaders of substance, the Modi government had to depend on its sworn political adversaries. The seven delegations India sent out to represent the nation’s unity and display to the world were representative of the differences that exist in India’s democracy. The differences include the Muslim minority that the BJP, as a political party, has assiduously denied representation in their lists of candidates for the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. The Opposition has done him a huge favour and he knows that there are no free lunches. Rahul Gandhi and the Congress may be Mr Modi’s favourite punching bag in election season and out of it, but the Congress and other Opposition parties have supplied the diversity that the Modi government needed to be credible to the world as a democracy with diversity.
Having indulged in name calling, branding Rahul Gandhi and multiple Opposition leaders as anti-nationals, working on an agenda taken out of Jinnah’s playbook on communalising and dividing the nation, declaring that the “mangalsutra” worn by married women would be snatched if the Congress won the elections, describing the Congress as a den of “Urban Naxals”, the Modi government could end up sounding terribly ungrateful if it continues to use the same playbook to trash the competition.
The Opposition, weak, fragmented and fractious as it is, should be able to extract a political price from the solidarity it has demonstrated to bail out the Modi government in a moment of national crisis.
That could be why Mr Modi, as the BJP’s star campaigner and the persona who leads a Hindu majority nation, is looking and sounding so different from his usual abrasive-aggressive self.