Shiv Visvanathan
One has to ask if the Gujarat model of growth is good for
India. Mr Modi’s model of urbani- sation has been beneficial to corporations.
Narendra Modi’s victory for the
third time in Gujarat is a moment of triumph that is an invitation for
reflection. The question to ponder is not why Mr Modi won but what are the
consequences of Mr Modi’s victory. One has to ask what it means for Gujarat and
India.
Even a critic of Mr Modi has to
accept that he has won democratically, but the critic still has the right to
state his doubts.
Modi style of politics reflects what
I call the decline of the political in Gujarat. An entire society was faced
with a preemptive question wherein the future of Mr Modi was facilely equated
with the future of Gujarat. In a way Mr Modi de-institutionalised Gujarat by
turning party politics into an effete and ineffectual exercise.
The BJP was consigned to the
sidelines and the Congress was content with its impotence. What we watched in
Gujarat was not an election or even a referendum.
What was presented was an act of
acclamation.
Narcissism of the leader had
destroyed the dynamics of local-level politics. Democratic politics is about
struggle, debate, local issues and ideological rivalry. One rarely witnessed
any of this in Gujarat.
The Congress, after an initial burst
of politics, treated the state election as non-existent and was more content to
preview Rahul Gandhi as its leader for 2014. It was as if two scenarios for the
future — Mr Gandhi and Mr Modi as prime ministerial candidates — met in the
present called Gujarat. What one saw was a trailer for the future, rather than
a contest for the present.
The results might also be troubling
in another way. It reflected a middle-class majoritarian consensus which seems
to have little space for minorities, tribals or dalits. The latter three voted
for the Congress having virtually no other option. Reacting to the results, the
media virtually anointed Mr Modi as Prime Minister. Gujarat felt that Sardar
Vallabhbhai Patel and Morarji Desai were not treated fairly by Delhi and
recognises this as a moment for redressal. What the media often forgets is that
being chief minister and Prime Minister are two entirely separate games.
The scenarios, the expectations, the
grammar of politics and governance are radically different.
