Modi can’t hope to fight love guru Rahul with the chaiwalla narrative

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Lok Sabha | PTI

If the opposition party makes anti-Moditva its central plank, a smart counter-strategy would be a constant evolution of Moditva.

How do you respond when Congress chief Rahul Gandhi proclaims himself a love guru in Parliament and croons Bryan Adams’ song from the opposition bench: “Look into my eyes, you will see what you mean to me…?”

If you are Prime Minister Narendra Modi, you will need to change your narrative. Never was it as apparent as on Friday when a mere hug seemed to have a smothering effect on his usual rhapsody about his humble origin and the unprecedented transformation of the country under his leadership.

You may give sardonic smiles and be didactic about an opposition leader eyeing your chair. But you can’t be so predictable – a poor mother’s son from a backward caste and a kaamdaar ranged against a naamdaar. The narrative fitted well when a ‘chaiwalla’ was aspiring to become the Prime Minister of the country. It may sound hypocritical and evasive if a Prime Minister talks like this when accused of crony capitalism by the president of the principal opposition party.

There is a method in Rahul’s repeated suit-boot barbs at Modi or insinuations of corruption in defence deals. The Congress party seems to have concluded that since the BJP’s narrative revolves around Modi, its own narrative has to be built around anti-Moditva.

So, it is raising questions about everything Moditva is supposed to represent. If it is about a strong leader, project him as a dictator who is bent on throttling all opposition voices and sending them to jail, an arrogant leader who finds everyone else a ‘Pappu’, and an unreliable leader who has reduced his solemn promises to people to mere ‘jumlas’. Another prong of the Congress party’s strategy is if Moditva thrives on the fine blend of development and Hindutva, expose the fault lines and inherent contradictions and show how the two can’t go together.

If it is about probity and transparency, raise doubts about it by hurling allegations of corruption, however unsubstantiated and baseless they may be. The grand old party had been at the receiving end of such campaigns for decades and now it seems to have decided to adopt the same strategy to target its adversaries.

If a V.P. Singh could show people a chit purportedly with then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s Swiss bank account number and win, if a Narendra Modi could paint the entire Congress as corrupt, promise to deposit Rs 15 lakh of recovered black money in everyone’s bank accounts and win, why can’t Rahul Gandhi try out the same? What narrative did the Congress have in 2004, anyway?

If the opposition party makes anti-Moditva its central plank, a smart counter-strategy would be a constant evolution of Moditva. It can’t remain stuck with its anti-Congressism narrative.

For instance, every time a Congress leader speaks about surgical strikes, Doklam standoff or security scenario in Kashmir, Modi and other BJP leaders jump to question his or her patriotism. The anti-national allegation has become too repetitive to make the nation feel outraged over and over again.

Modi and his colleagues are given to enumerating long lists of achievements, not leaving any numerals or decimals. Hapless people often get a sense of deja vu. Remember those growth figures in Manmohan Singh’s and P. Chidambaram’s speeches? Remember how then-UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s repeated references to Central funds (read largesse) to states used to sound feudal in those days!

These numbers are important for a country but how much they translate into votes is a matter of debate. Blame it on the growing sense of entitlement all around – thanks also to those freebies and waivers that are now part of every government’s welfare agenda – that the more a ruling party offers, the more are the expectations. And, it’s more so in Modi’s case.

A ruling party has to talk about its achievements, but it can’t be a boisterous 24×7, seven-days-a-week and 365-days-a-year celebration. It may be jarring to even Modi voters who are still waiting for their turn to get the benefits. And there may be millions of such voters even though there may be million others whose lives have been touched by the NDA government’s schemes and programmes. It was okay to promise the moon to the people before the elections, but you can’t promise them the sun to keep them hooked on to you post elections.

That’s why Modi needs to change the narrative. And, he knows it better than any commentariat. But carrying the entire burden of the party and the government alone may be taking a toll.

His minders also seem to be growing tired. Why else would they not alert him about Rahul’s not-so-veiled threat to him and BJP president Amit Shah on the floor of the Lok Sabha? The Amethi MP said Modi and Shah are scared of losing power because if they do, “other processes” will start against them. Rahul who is under investigation in National Herald case left nothing to imagination.

There was no response from Modi or any other BJP MP. In old days, Modi would have made hay of his threat and his wink post the hug. On Friday, the master orator and strategist was found wanting, leaving many wondering about the reasons.