Proponents of strong Hindu nationalism view Gujarat chief minister
Mr Narendra Modi as their icon and India's future hope. Progressive
and secular forces view him as a dangerous threat to the nation's unity.
Both views seem to be misconceived. There seems to be a great difference
between Mr Modi's image and his reality. Either wittingly or otherwise,
his actions are harming the prospects of so-called Hindu nationalists
and helping those of so-called progressive and secular forces.
Mr Modi swung into an overdrive in the last week of May this year.
The pact he sealed with BJP president Mr Nitin Gadkari to enable the
latter get a second term was on the precondition that the party administer
humiliating treatment to BJP leader Mr Sanjay Joshi. The party's surrender
provoked three quick responses in these columns that predicted what
eventually occurred. Dissidence in the Gujarat BJP grew. Mr Joshi started
an anti-Modi poster campaign from which he dissociated himself only
after the damage was done in order to avoid disciplinary action by the
party. And, Mr Modi's growing stature as the future prime ministerial
candidate created serious misgivings both in the central parliamentary
leadership of the BJP as well as among the NDA allies.
Mr Modi bulldozing his party up to this point may be attributed to
nothing more than vaulting ambition. Corporate India that owns media
solidly backs him. Mainstream media commissions opinion polls that hail
him as India's greatest living vote-getter. It must be pointed out though
that his vote-getting prowess has never yet been demonstrated outside
Gujarat. Mr Modi's impatience to get ahead was understandable. What
is less understandable is his unprovoked attack on Bihar politicians
as recently as 11 June.
Mr Modi criticised Bihar's politics for being caste based and therefore
the reason of the state's backwardness. Surely Mr Modi knew that the
nation was in the thick of a Presidential election for which reason
unity within the NDA was absolutely essential? Even allowing for his
unconcealed ambition to be the prime ministerial candidate in the next
general election what need was there for Mr Modi's tearing hurry to
initiate a dispute with his chief rival, Bihar chief minister Mr Nitish
Kumar? Was he such a political novice as to be oblivious of the crucial
need for NDA unity at this point of time during the Presidential poll?
Inevitably, Mr Kumar responded to tear NDA unity to shreds. BJP's Bihar
leader Mr Sushil Modi's lame explanation that Mr Narendra Modi was referring
to the RJD and not the JD-U did not wash.
The question arises: is Mr Narendra Modi so apolitical as to be unaware
about the need for NDA unity at this point of time? Indeed there are
several past developments related to Mr Modi that continue to puzzle.
There was no compulsion for Mr Modi to allow Mrs Sonia Gandhi's political
secretary, and acquaintance of accused money launderer Hasan Ali, Mr
Ahmed Patel, to get elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat.
The fact that Mr Patel subsequently reciprocated by his intervention
to help Mr Modi get the Central government to lift the ban on cotton
export in March this year is another matter. The Karachi Chambers of
Commerce invited Mr Modi to address them in Pakistan to expound on Gujarat's
model of economic development. This invitation could not have been extended
without the blessing of the Pakistan army and the ISI. China's Ambassador
to India was feted in Gujarat where he promised substantial Chinese
investment in the state. This followed Mr Modi's several earlier trips
to China seeking investment. The Ambassador also expressed satisfaction
with Gujarat schools for teaching Mandarin to their students. Beijing,
of course, continues to violate its solemn written assurance given in
2005 that precluded China's claims on Indian territories with settled
populations as exist in Arunachal Pradesh. All this does not bother
Mr Modi. It seems not to bother self-professed proponents of strong
Hindu nationalism or cheer the self-professed proponents of secular
and progressive policies. One suggests that both sides review their
opinions. They should ask: whom does Mr Modi help, and whom does he
harm?
