What helped Modi Consolidate is Power?

 

Ram Puniyani

Historian Ramchandra Guha, in his article in digital news website Scroll, wrote: “Gandhi Family has helped Modi to consolidate his power”. This is a totally superficial analysis of the consolidation of the power of Narendra Modi-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the past over a decade. The points made by Guha of dynastic succession in Congress do no hold much water, as dynasts within the BJP and other parties are proliferating at equal pace.

Guha may have some point in criticising Rahul Gandhi for not pursuing issues more consistently, but that is also doubtful, Rahul Gandhi has consistently talked against the danger of BJP’s parent organisation and its Hindu nationalist politics that is damaging our democracy.

Rahul Gandhi may have taken to politics due to his mother, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s prodding, but what is definite is that he no longer is being instructed by his mother. He has interacted with all and sundry in national politics, and has met and seen the country through his magnificent Bharat Jodo Yatras. His sister, Priyanka, may be a better orator in Hindi but that does not matter in entirety as far as leading a movement or a party is concerned.

Rahul may be surrounded by some sycophants, but surely he has a mind of his own and he may be building a younger team to strengthen the party organisation on the basis of an ideology rooted in the principles of Gandhi, Nehru and Ambedkar.

Is it true that the Gandhi family has helped Modi consolidate his vice-like grip on the nation? Guha needs to see the mechanisms aiding Modi in coming to power and holding on to it, despite failures on economic front, on foreign policy etc. Modi is a fully trained Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) pracharak and was hand-picked by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to be the Chief Minister of Gujarat on this count alone, since he didn’t have any administrative experience.

The RSS ideology of Hindu nationalism runs in Modi’s blood. After the Gujarat communal carnage of 2002, perpetrated in the aftermath of the Godhra train burning, Modi, then the Gujarat Chief Minister, managed to consolidate his power in the state through communal polarisation. The entire RSS combine reportedly stood solidly behind him.

After visiting the refugee camp in Juhapura after the violence Vajpayee reminded Modi ablout following ‘Raj dharma’, to which Modi bluntly answered that that’s what he was doing. Reportedly, when Vajpayee wanted to remove him from Chief Ministership of Gujarat, top BJP members stood with Modi, forcing Vajpayee to whitewash the carnage.

Modi’s dog whistles against Muslims were too clever all through, pumping life into the Hindu nationalist politics of RSS, which is said to have been the “real force” behind Modi coming to power at the Centre. This was facilitated, as the other contender for Prime Ministership, Lal Krishna Advani, became persona non grata for RSS after his comments on Mohd. Ali Jinnah. While visiting Pakistan to inaugurate the Katas Raj Temple, Advani also visited Jinnah’s mausoleum and said that Jinnah’s 11th August 1947 speech in the Pakistan Constituent Assembly was the best definition of secularism. Jinnah had said in that speech that now that Pakistan had been formed, all religious communities were free to pursue their own religion.

The 2014 Lok Sabha elections saw Modi hiring global image-building agency APCO at State expense to prop him up as a “charismatic” figure. His promises of reducing the prices of commodities, Rs 15 lakh in everyone’s bank account and creation of two crore jobs every year, were magic for the people, especially in the backdrop of Anna-Kejriwal movement for Jan Lokpal. This movement was allegedly aimed to defame Congress and pave the way for Modi.

Having come to power in 2014, Modi converted all the Central agencies -- Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax Department, Cenyral Bureau of Investigation -- into parrots and the Opposition was mauled in various ways. In the use of these agencies and later a “helpful judiciary”, the role played by RSS-trained pracharaks, an intense and successful propaganda of Hindu nationalism was launched.

From 1978, the Janata Party days, when Advani was the Information and Broadcasting Minister, a large section of the media had started bending toward RSS ideology. This process became more or less complete when Modi started wooing the corporate world as Chief Minister of Gujarat. The corporate world not only projected Modi as the next Prime Minister but also went on a buying spree of major TV channels and other sections of the media. Modi put his eggs in the basket of social media and the IT cell as well.

Through mechanisms of repression and propaganda a la Goebbels (Hitler's propagandist), Modi soon had a vice-like grip on social common sense. His mantra was to repeat his success through ‘saam daam danda bhed’ (by hook or by crook). The Election Commission of India (ECI) was also brought under the total grip of the Prime Minister, as the process of selection of Election Commissioners was changed by replacing the Chief Justice of India (or his nominee) from the selection committee by one more cabinet minister.

With a helpful ECI and the judiciary, the circle was complete. Complaints about the abuse of EVMs (electronic voting machines) were already in the air. In the 2024 Lok Sabha election results, social activists Teesta Setalvad and Parkala Prabhakar proved by analysing the election data that 78 parliamentary seats were “stolen”.

With the ECI bringing in SIR (special intensive revision of electoral rolls), non-BJP voters were reportedly being deleted from electoral rolls. In the case of the recent West Bengal Assembly elections, 91 lakh voters were deleted during SIR. Of these, the case of 27 lakh voters’ who had appealed, was not taken up for proper review till the elections. The result is there for all to see.

Guha ignores the core reasons behind the consolidation of Modi’s power, and by giving superficial examples of Rahul’s foreign trips or Priyanka being a better orator in Hindi or Sonia Gandhi still controlling the ropes and Rahul meekly following her instructions, lower the level of analysis. The core reasons for Modi coming to power and retaining power are markedly different than the “weaknesses” of the Gandhi family or the other Opposition parties.

Yes, it is true that the politics and propaganda of RSS have not been countered and dealt with by the Opposition properly. The response to emotive issues like temple destructions, forcible conversions, beef eating or ‘love jihad’ has not been countered adequately, which is the reason for consolidation of power of Hindu nationalist Modi. The Opposition in general and the Gandhi family in particular need to mend their ways for sure, but the core infiltration of society by RSS ideology is the real elephant in the room! 

 

--

Regards,

Ram Puniyani