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Talk Point: Indira wrote the ‘rules’ according to which India’s Game of Thrones is played

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Even the most ardent supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi say that there are many similarities between him and former PM Indira Gandhi. Her authoritarian style of leadership, the complete loyalty she demanded from her party members and cabinet, and the strong role of the state that she envisioned in her policies are just some commonalities. The cult-like following that she enjoyed — illustrated by the slogan ‘Indira is India, and India is Indira’— is mirrored in the sentiment of  ‘ghar ghar Modi’ and Modi bhakti that is present across many parts of the country today. 

On her 100th birthday anniversary, we ask experts: Is Modi the new Indira?

Indira Gandhi was India’s original “supremo” leader, the first High Command politician. Any politician today who strives to be supreme in government, supreme in the party and the administration, who wants to be a one-man or one-woman personality cult, who collides with institutions like the judiciary, the media and the bureaucracy is playing by what I call the Indira Gandhi playbook. She wrote the so-called “rules” according to which India’s Game of Thrones is played.

So, whether it is Mamata Banerjee, Naveen Patnaik, Nitish Kumar, or even Narendra Modi, they are all following in the footsteps of Indira Gandhi.

In many ways, Narendra Modi is Indira Gandhi’s true political heir. He is increasingly relying on a one-man personality cult; he is supreme in the party and the government like Indira Gandhi. Today, as in Indira’s day, the entire bureaucracy takes second place to an all-powerful PMO.

Indira Gandhi was a tough and courageous patriot and a staunch defender of India. Remember, she was the PM who won the most decisive military victory that India has ever achieved, in the 1971 Bangladesh war. Modi has not proved himself in that sphere, but I think he, too, is trying to define himself as an ultra-nationalist. Modi tries to borrow from the Indira Gandhi example, although she had a North-South-East-West acceptability and appeal that I don’t think he has. “Indiramma” was a huge phenomenon in South India, and the Congress remained dominant there even in the post-Emergency elections of 1977, when it was thrown out of North India. Modi is more of a North and Western-Indian figure.


Here are other sharp perspectives on the comparison between Indira Gandhi and Narendra Modi:

Zoya Hasan, Professor Emerita, JNU
Mridula Mukherjee, political historian
Sanjay Nirupam, president, Mumbai Congress Committee
Sangit K. Ragi, professor of political science, Delhi University


In terms of economic policies, Indira Gandhi’s policies were populist and nationalist, in the socialist mould, and she called herself the messiah of the poor. Her slogan, ‘Garibi Hatao’, took her to a huge victory in 1971. Modi is also trying to reinvent himself as a pro-poor messiah after his government was called a ‘suit boot ki sarkaar’. Now, he is trying to make it a ‘garibon ki sarkar’.

There are some similarities between demonetisation and bank nationalisation. In one stroke, the PM became the hero of the poor. But the effect of demonetisation on the economy has been much more disruptive than bank nationalisation; it took a human toll too. Demonetisation had more debilitating effects on the economy than bank nationalisation, which had long-term effects on breeding political monopoly over banks, but did not have a direct immediate impact on the common man.

The big difference between Indira and Modi is that Modi represents the polarising Right-wing Hindu nationalist ideology, whereas Indira Gandhi was far away from it. She banned the RSS several times and tried to unite more and more people under her own personality cult. Although there were charges that she played soft Hindu politics in Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab, she was not the representative of the Hindutva majoritarianism the way Modi is.

Sagarika Ghose is a journalist and author of the book ‘Indira, India’s Most Powerful Prime Minister’

TalkPoint compiled by Nikhil Rampal

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