At 5.47 am Saturday, one obvious political reality became further reinforced – Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are obsessed with power. Their singular aim in politics is to win the throne, whatever it takes to achieve that. This era of 24×7 social media and public glare, one may have thought, would bring more probity or transparency in their methods. Ironically, the constant public gaze only acts as some sort of drug, and gives them a platform through which they can project their all-consuming work toward power.
In politics, there is love for power, there is hunger for power and there is greed for power – different categories apply to different political leaders in varying forms and degrees. For Prime Minister Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah, however, it can at times become an unhealthy and toxic fixation.
Their unapologetic quest for power is also a sharp contrast to three politicians from the Congress party. Sonia Gandhi’s ‘amazing grace’ narrative of relinquishing power in 2004, Manmohan Singh’s light and almost invisible need for power, and Rahul Gandhi’s “power is poison” template. This contrast seems to be working well for Modi and Shah, not denting their image among their supporters, at least for now. They are seen as consummate winners who are in complete control, and an India enfeebled by a decade of weak, silent leadership of Manmohan Singh, appears to be lapping it up hungrily. It was also the decade that Indians looked wistfully at China leaping ahead under a strong, centralised, authoritarian decision-making system.
Politics in India, or anywhere for that matter, is hardly about being squeaky clean. Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s power games culminating in the imposition of the Emergency, the devoid-of-ethics patchwork coalition politics of the late 1980s and 1990s – which saw even the Left and the BJP come together – the violent political culture of states like West Bengal and Kerala, the disgraceful attack on Mayawati by Samajwadi Party goons in the infamous ‘guest house’ incident, the innumerable scams, the demolition of the Babri Masjid with mainstream politicians leading the way – these were just some of the absolute dirty lows of Indian politics.
Under Modi and Shah, however, something has shifted. The public gaze is far more constant and pervasive, and yet, the brazenness of their actions has only increased with time. The voter, meanwhile, hardly seems to mind.
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The power games
Of course, this is not to say all of Modi and Shah’s journeys towards power have been questionable. Both have proved their electoral mettle, legitimately winning election one after another, and stunning India with a magical combination of massive popularity and goodwill (Modi) and clever strategising (Shah) – topped with a heavy dose of hard work by both.
But behind their election wins are substantially uncomfortable methods. The desire for votes has led the two leaders to deploy some of the most polarising, unacceptable concepts in Indian politics in recent memory. From ‘kabristaan-shamshaan‘ remark and accusing a former PM of ‘conspiring’ with Pakistan to openly going around announcing that ‘infiltrators’ are “termites” and should be “thrown into the Bay of Bengal” and more – Modi and Shah’s election campaigns are hardly the stuff political morality is made of.
But what stands out the most is the extent to, and the defiance with, which they are willing to use underhand tactics in the quest for power – whether it is about managing the Election Commission, using investigative agencies as political tools, or manipulating due processes. To be sure, all political parties in Indian upon attaining power have and will continue to use less than honourable methods, but Modi and Shah’s frequency, extent and ability to do so absolutely unapologetically is something else.
Goa, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka, the announcement of election schedules to best suit the PM – the list is long, and Maharashtra and the 5 am drama is just the latest example.
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The constant gaze an enabler
Both Modi and Shah have cleverly used this 24×7 attention to their advantage. What better than having Indians know how ‘sincere’ they are while being in power and driven towards ‘serving’ the public, especially since the opposition – primarily the Congress – seems least interested in making any serious effort to catapult itself to the throne. In fact, by constantly playing the chaiwala card and underscoring that he has risen up the ranks – unlike the ‘naamdaars‘ – Modi is even able to gain public empathy for his fixation for power.
As India woke up on a lazy Saturday morning assuming Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray would become the next chief minister of Maharashtra, Modi cheekily tweeted at 8:16 am congratulating Devendra Fadnavis and NCP’s Ajit Pawar after their swearing-in as the CM and the deputy CM. If the PM owning up an operation as clandestine as Maharashtra’s overnight political coup and being quick to project it as an achievement isn’t a brazen instance of this unapologetic obsession for power, then what is?
Among former Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s many weaknesses is his perceptible lack of interest, almost contempt, for being in power. His other streak has been to desperately want to seem like the ‘good guy’ in the constant social media glare, someone who doesn’t want to be seen as being ‘immoral’. Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are polar opposites – guided primarily by their absolute lust for power with absolutely no qualms if the world sees that. For these two, all that matters is being in power – means and methods be damned.
The curious irony is that Modi manages to balance his Machiavellian lust for power with his ‘fakiri’, man-meditating-in-a-cave persona. For all the vipassana sessions that Rahul Gandhi escapes to, he is neither seen as a saint nor as a focused winner – Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh election results notwithstanding.