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Modi faces no political costs for suffering he causes. He’s just like Iran’s Ali Khamenei

It astounds many that Modi didn’t even acknowledge the migrant crisis or the loss of jobs in his Atmanirbhar Bharat speech. And yet there is no anger with him.

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If he was a normal politician, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity would have reached its nadir by now. Two out of three working Indians, according to a survey, have lost their jobs owing to the ham-fisted lockdown he declared on 24 March. The government has failed spectacularly to address a migrant crisis festering for over two months. Half of Indian households have reduced their number of meals since the lockdown. Yet, astonishingly, there seems to be no anger with Modi, who seems as popular as ever.

It astounds many that when Modi addressed the nation on 12 May, he didn’t acknowledge the migrant crisis even once, let alone offer empathy. He didn’t acknowledge the unprecedented loss of jobs, chronic shortage of essentials, nor the atmosphere of sheer desperation. Just like he didn’t acknowledge the massive destruction to livelihoods caused by demonetisation in 2016, a disaster no other political leader would have survived.

How does Modi face no political costs for the suffering he, in large part, causes? And how does he not come across as arrogant, out of touch, or simply cruel to most people, even as he consciously ignores their suffering?

Modi confounds normal political analysis because his appeal isn’t merely political. The appeal of Modi is quasi-religious, that of a messianic figure. Like M.K. Gandhi, Modi represents what political scientist Morris Jones referred to as the ‘saintly idiom’ of Indian politics. He is the self-described ‘fakir’, unattached to family and material possessions, who is here to lead India not just politically, but also socially, morally and spiritually. This is why he generates not mere following, but devotion. And this devotion is immune to the performance of the government he leads.


Also read: Why the Modi government gets away with lies, and how the opposition could change that


People’s suffering a trial of faith in Modi

When you are suffering, you don’t sack the messiah, much like you don’t sack God. You redouble your faith, because God tells you your suffering is for a higher cause, the thorny path towards salvation that only God can lead you to. The one time Modi mentioned the suffering of daily wage workers, he termed it as ‘tapasya’ (penance) —suffering for a higher cause, just like he had described his demonetisation move as “yagna against corruption”. When he extended the first lockdown on 14 April, he used the same spiritually imbued terms, calling for ‘tyag’ (sacrifice) and ‘tapasya’. Gandhi told people that India will achieve freedom through sacrifice and self-purification, which was the basis of satyagraha. Modi tells people he will build a ‘self-reliant nation’ — Atmanirbhar Bharat — on their sacrifices and penance.

This is why he began his speech with invocations of India’s ancient greatness. Modi is a messiah in a certain moral universe. In this universe, India was great, then we had “1200 years of slavery”, in his words (which includes the ‘slave mentality of post-Independence period’), until Modi arrived to lead us back to greatness. The coronavirus is not a crisis that calls for damage mitigation, the framework in which other world leaders place their measures; it is an ‘opportunity’ to fulfil his vision of regenerating India into a great nation.

But he requires unconditional faith. In this framework, the suffering of people is a trial of faith, similar to demonetisation. The faith of the people in the nation, and in the leadership of Modi. It is not unreasonable that many desperate people will cling on to this faith, which gives meaning to their suffering, rather than succumbing to total despair. Modi calls on them to transcend the banal, and increasingly wretched, existence, and be part of something bigger than themselves. Suffering strengthens faith, not weakens it, because that’s when you need it most.

This faith was recently consecrated with rituals, the thali and diya spectacles, participated in by tens of millions of people. Modi also administered seven vows to people, which included ‘taking care of elderly’, ‘taking care of poor people’, and ‘being compassionate to your workers’. Meanwhile, he also released his own animated videos doing yoga, viewed by millions of people. Through these measures, he was reinforcing his claim to the social, moral and spiritual leadership of India.


Also read: Covid lockdown has ended only opposition politics in India. BJP’s shop is very much open


Relief measures are personal benevolence 

Modi similarly packages his speeches with the aura of revelation. Unlike other democratic leaders, who are understandably communicating almost every day in the midst of a crisis, Modi communicates once every few weeks. He makes people wait for the new revelation, which is why he announces his appearance a day or two in advance. The gap is filled with wild speculation, with people airing their wishes and hopes, like prayers to an unpredictable deity.

Then he appears, at the appointed time. His speeches are part sermonising, part commandments. Often nestled in the midst is a big announcement, which is designed to shock or dazzle. The stimulus package, which was announced soberly as a crisis mitigation measure by other world leaders, was revealed by Modi like Sathya Sai Baba spitting out the golden egg. ‘Rs 20 lakh crore’, Modi kept repeating, wanting to mesmerise his audience with the scale of the package. He didn’t call it the ‘Modi package’ (those nomenclatures are left for a fawning media), but that’s how he presented it, as personal benevolence to the people, larger than they could have imagined.

“Modi’s package is equal to/bigger than the economy of Pakistan,” his missionaries on social media and mainstream media screamed out. The actual fiscal package, it turns out, would only amount to a few lakh crores, underwhelming by the standards of other countries or even India’s needs, consisting mostly of government secured loans and paying off government dues. It is an old trick that he had perfected during his days in Gujarat, when he rattled off staggering figures of lakhs of crores of investment in Vibrant Gujarat summits, which were actually MoUs seldom realised on the ground. But Modi, like religious men, only speaks in grand, symbolic terms.


Also read: Modi got all the credit for lockdown. Now, he wants states to share risk of unlocking India


Ministers may be accountable, Modi isn’t

The mundane work of crafting policies to realise his vision of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ was left to finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The reason Modi does not announce any policies or goes into specific details, is because he doesn’t want to be judged for those policies, but for his vision. When the policies fall short of expectations, his ministers take the fall for the shortcomings and failures. When migrants are charged for train tickets, it is the fault of railways minister Piyush Goyal. Even Right-wing supporters are critical of Nirmala Sitharaman, just like they were with her predecessor Arun Jaitley, for not just failing them but also failing Modi. Modi’s ministers are human and fallible, and therefore accountable, in contrast to the infallible and unaccountable demi-God figure of Modi.

Modi has staked a position for himself akin to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei. Another divinely guided, infallible leader, who has the final say over all government measures, sets the political direction of the country, embodies and enunciates the moral values of the nation, but is above political accountability for government failures, which rests with the elected officials subordinate to him. Modi occasionally earns democratic legitimacy at the ballot, but between elections, it is this transcendental legitimacy that makes him above press conferences, above transparency, above all the constraining and scrutinising procedures of democracy that he nonchalantly ignores, with popular acquiescence.

He ignores the plight of the migrants and the poor because he can’t admit to any faults or weaknesses or oversight. The core of his quasi-religious appeal is that he can never be wrong. Even if you don’t understand his plans, you trust him. In fact, it’s better if you don’t understand his plans because it deepens his mystique, the inaccessible ambiguity that characterise religious leaders. Which is why he is so miserly with actual communication, thriving instead on uplifting sermons. Even when spelling out government plans, Modi prefers alliterations and hands out acronyms to people like chantable mantras. His offerings are not only vague but come with no timeline of delivery. You just have to keep the faith.


Also read: Foolish to think Hindus who voted Modi twice will shift due to threat to Muslim citizenship


Hindus’ religion is at core

This quasi-religious appeal of Modi has been enabled by decades of propaganda by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). This propaganda has used Hindus’ religion to establish a cult of “national worship”, to delegitimise dissent, establish it as blasphemy, and excommunicate BJP-RSS’ opponents from the moral-national community as ‘anti-nationals’. Modi has inserted himself into this mythical, religious conception of India as the national messiah, with willing acceptance from large sections of the people.

The result is a democracy that faces a catastrophic crisis under a leader holding near absolute power, with no apparent accountability to respond to reality. In the real world, our economy, which was already reeling under demonetisation and GST, has suffered a devastating blow whose effects might last decades. Hunger deaths have already been reported and perhaps more are going unreported. But, have some of that opium of the new national faith, and we are steadily marching towards ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’. If Modi is indeed a false prophet, he has certainly glittered the path to hell in the most glorious light.

The author is a research associate at the Centre for Policy Research, Delhi. Views are personal.

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438 COMMENTS

  1. Asim has laced the article in fine English though in substance it reflects only a partisan perception. Modi is far bigger than the prophet that Asim would like to have us believe.

  2. Modi truly is ‘atmanirbhar’ due to the gullible & greedy masses who get swayed by his speeches. He sells them dreams. The people don’t realise that one wakes up after a dream or in this case a nightmare. Time and again none of his promises have been fulfilled. He speeches are a web of lies which people refuse to see.
    Another thing, he is ‘I ME & MYSELF’. No other Leader in BJP has the freedom to speak or say anything besides what he/she has been asked to say.
    Leave aside the people, the BJP leaders the EC, SC ED CBI have lost their identity & importance. They are all toothless tigers.
    This ‘atmanirbhar’ man is ensuring that his coffers are brimming over with whatever he wishes to.
    I have never come across such a man with no integrity, apathy or performance. His ‘mantra’ is keep lying, talk big & take credit for work done by others.

    • Ms Vijay Lakshmi Dikshit: An extremely accurate and apt analysis of the situation prevailing in India.

      PM Modi has succeeded in creating a cult where he is the Prophet and Messiah who knows everything and makes no mistakes. And above all, the Prophet must never be questioned or criticised – India’s own blasphemy laws kick in. Uncannily similar to what happens in the mullah-cum-military-cum-cricketer run country called Pakistan.

      Indeed, this Prophet knows more economics than the Raghuram Rajans of this world and hence can disregard their advice on the follies of demonetisation. He knows so much cosmetic surgery that he is sure that elephant heads can be grafted on to a man’s torso ! He knows the Gujarat Model inside out and believes that only Gujaratis can figure out everything for the rest of the poor sods who live in India, especially when it comes to solving complex issues of epidemiology. And besides, in the Gujarat Model, there is no place for inputs from the bloody Keralites and their Health Minister K.K. Shailaja ! And in any case, in the Gujarat Model, there is no scope for federalism as the Chief Ministers and state governments are all a bunch of know-nothings. True wisdom resides only in the heads of the Prophet and the vice Prophet – Gujaratis both. Modi and Shah i.e. MoSha will deliver “Moksha” !!!

      My sarcasm might seem exaggerated but in reality, the bulk of India’s middle-classes, particularly urban Hindus are convinced things have never been better for them thanks to the Prophet. Never mind the fact an objective comparison of the worst of the Manmohan Singh period with the best of the Modi period on 15 economic indicators reveals that the Punjabi trounces the Gujarati on 11 of the 15, ref: bit.ly/2yEyDXD.

      But then, who cares for facts in the post-truth world? Certainly not the middle-classes who are in thrall to the Indian version of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew, the benevolent dictator they have been waiting for all these years. And in any case, banging your utensils in “barthan bajaao” orgies or lighting “diya” stunts are more entertaining and effective than the dull, dreary, hard work of a Keralite school teacher turned Health Minister called K.K. Shailaja. And those

      Two quotes perhaps describe this peculiar situation in India where people allow themselves to be duped, lock stock and barrel.

      Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) the Italian philosopher:

      “One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived”

      H.L.Mencken (1880-1956, American satirist:

      “The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth”

      What Mencken said applies not only to Donald Trump And American but also to Narendra Modi and Indians.

      Hope to read more insightful comments from you Ms Dikhsit!

    • I like only one comment.
      Modi has his coffers brimming……

      Who’s selling dream, I think u r purchasing some.
      Modi’s coffers are not personal as the case is with your political Gods and a Goddess

  3. Mr Sanjeev Sehrawat: This is my response to your response to me dated 25th May wherein you defend demonetisation and GST. I am unable to reply directly , hence I am making it a separate post.

    Again, thanks very much for your sane, sober response Sir. It is always a delight to discuss facts with an educated man like you who does not resort to indulging in knee-jerk, jingoistic abuses shorn of substance.

    I will restrict myself to the 2 things you mention here – demonetisation (I will abbreviate this to DM) and GST. And let us stick to economics. I will strive to use simple, easy to understand economics, devoid of jargon. Indeed economics that any chaiwala would be able to grasp – regardless of whether or not he graduated from Delhi University !

    During one of the very first lectures in economics that I had when I was a student, the professor mentioned a few fundamental tenets of economics:

    1: When you deploy a policy measure and target a specific group – either to privilege this group or to punish the group – then, you must also study its effects on groups that are NOT targeted.

    2: When you deploy a punitive or privileging measure targeting a specific group, you must try to understand, not just the immediate effects of the measure, but also its long term effects.

    Applying this to PM Modi’s demonetisation.

    EFFECTS OF POLICY ON TARGETED vs NON-TARGETED GROUPS

    Let us assume that 10% of Indians i.e. 130 million Indians out of a population of 1.3 billions held black money. This is the target group that the Modi government went after.

    But tell me Mr Sehrawat, did not the other 90% who were utterly innocent suffer? Any guesses as to who suffered the most of these 2 groups? How many of the rich black money wallas died whilst waiting in bank queues? Did you see Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Gautam Adani or any of the 500 + Indians named in the Panama Papers* list of people with overseas funds stand in bank queues to change notes? How many of the 1200 Indians who were in the HSBC list of Indian with Swiss assets compiled by Herve Falciani** stand in queues?

    As regards your defence of DM using the weak, limp excuses compiled by PM Modi, mostly as an afterthought were mere rubbish.
    – Terrorism: Cannot be stopped by DM, the Chinese (not the Pakistanis) who print fake notes would quickly have started making the new notes;
    – Hawala: This system has existed for about 1300 years and it cannot be stopped. it has traditionally served a legitimate banking need in many rural, unbanked communities in India and developing countries. Indeed, many countries, recognising the banking needs of their populations now allow a form of hawala. Examples would be M-Pesa in Kenya and Paga in Nigeria.
    – Tax Evasion: Cannot be tackled by DM

    Indeed, exactly as Dr Raghuram Rajan predicted, Indians had found ways to launder their black money – for a fee – and get it back to the RBI. Nearly 98% of the notes came back to the RBI. Paradoxically but predictably, Modi’s demonetisation actually helped black money wallas to whitewash their money !!!!

    But then, PM Modi, like President Trump, surrounds himself, not by world-class economists like Dr Rajan but by RSS apparatchiks and yes-men.

    As someone said:

    “To kill the few crocodiles in the pond, the pond was drained but sadly, all the fish in the pond died. But the crocodiles got away as they can live in water and on land” !!!!

    LONG TERM EFFECTS

    Once bitten, twice shy. By now, black money holders would have redoubled their efforts to get their money out of India or keep it in more safer forms. I do not have figures, but anecdotally, capital flight from India has increased. Sadly, instead of collecting money from foreign accounts and putting 15 lac Rs in the accounts of Indians as candidate Modi promised*** before being elected, he has inadvertently increased money leaving India !

    Today India’s foolish demonetisation is being taught in economics classes as an example of perverse policymaking that hurts the weakest.

    GST

    Excellent in theory. But the GST idea, like demonetisation, does not build upon an understanding of the Indian economy with its small formal sector and its large informal sector The vast informal sector which employs 82% of Indians and consists of the millions of maids, dhobis, auto-drivers, waiters, farm hands, coolies etc. etc. This sector is the very backbone of the Indian economy and is more capable of absorbing the many Indians entering the labour force. It consists of myriads of single person and 4-5 person outfits producing many goods and services.

    Indeed, in the informal sector, the average firm size is 2 employees. As an example, in the middle class flats in Madras where my parents live, they have an “ironing service”. Every morning a lady collects the clothes and takes it down to the road where her husband does the ironing using a coal operated iron. This elderly couple who live on the pavement also look after their granddaughter whose parents were no more. How the hell can these impoverished mom-and-pop outfits make the necessary investments in IT infra-structure to be able to file forms etc. for GST compliance? In fact, they are semi-literate, do not use electricity, do not have bank accounts and live hand to mouth. And there are millions of such small family firms all over India. Onerous GST requirements, perversely, force many such firms to remain in the informal sector.

    None of these massive Modi-made missteps have made any impact on the man’s popularity. And bhakths regard that as vindication of the man’s decisions. But let us not forget that Adolf Hitler too was immensely popular, right to the end of the Third Reich; Rodrigo Duterte, President of the Philippines who unabashedly sends death squads to the slums to kill the poor is popular; Donald Trump, despite prescribing Dettol to cure COVID might get re-elected. Which makes to conclude:

    Charisma is not the same as competence.

    *bit.ly/2LUNS1N

    **bit.ly/2zkF1Uw

    ***bit.ly/2X2qVjB

  4. I agree with the thrust of the article.

    But the comparison of Modi with Ayothollah Khamenei was uncalled for. That has predictably made some Muslims veer off at a tangent due to the Shia-Sunni rift. Smart idea to choose non-religious figures when making such comparisons.

    • Politics is primarily based upon perception. Asim chose this analogy since the only other analogy would be Gandhi (which he also used).

      It would have the totally opposite effect of what he desired (criticizing Modi), had he only compared Modi with Gandhi, even if he wrote the exact same article except the Ayatollah part because Gandhi is universally revered in India, except among a small group of people you described as “Godse worshippers” in some other post. (These “Godse fans” do with Gandhi what Indian internet SJWs do with Modi… point out his disastrous mistakes.)

      Of course, this whole fiasco about naming Khomeini shows the duplicity/ignorance of a section of people opposing Modi (which self-proclaimed liberals always ignore) and also gives credence to Veer Savarkar’s idea of split loyalty.

  5. This article shows that media and even opposition have not yet figured out what Modi is?
    I believed, at least after 2019 they will figure it out, but it seems Modi is going to stay here for longer time.
    I don’t understand when Modi gets elected, they say people are fools. But the same fools were electing earlier govt.
    More you bash Modi and people for electing him, his mandate is going to be even bigger.
    I am not saying he is doing the best job. But He is definitely better than any option available.
    And after Gandhi, the original MK, he is the first leader who knows common pulse of Indians and not ashamed of Indian culture. Hence similar to Gandhi ppl love him with his faults and failures.

    • Mr Rohit Lande: In democracies, the voice of the voter must be respected, even though the verdict may not always be respectable. History, past and past is littered with examples of the people’s verdict returning absolute charlatans and crooks to power.

      Some examples:

      – A. Hitler, who vowed to exterminate Jews, won an election quite convincingly. In the anti-Semitic environment of the 1930s, anybody who was
      – A.Raja, the kleptocrat who pulled off the gargantuan 2G scam has been re-elected by a thumping margin from Nilgiris. He represents the DMK.
      – Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, accused in the Malegoan blasts, Godse worshipper and proponent of the stroking-cows-kills-breast-cancer school of medical thought was voted as BJP MP from Indore.
      – Dean Kuriakose (Congress) has 204 cases against his name and yet wins from Kerala
      – Donald Trump, crook, misogynist, defaulter of loans, liar is elected President of the USA. Indeed, as the Daily Beast Reports, white Republicans people vote for Trump because he is white and because he cheats !
      – CM Modi, dismissed by the Vajpayee government due to his role in the 2002 Godhra pogroms nonetheless wins a thumping majority. If you thrash innocent Muslims in Gujarat, you can count on Hindu votes.
      – Bal Thackeray of the Shiv Sena who thrashed the “kaala madrasi” in the 60s and 70s because they stole the livelihoods of the “marathi manoos” was always in power. Of course the “marathi manoos” didn’t care for the fact that Hitler admirer Thackaray brought ZERO economic development for said “manoos”.

      As to your claim that PM Modi knows “common pulse of Indians”, well I hope he realises that millions of Indians not only do not have pulses to eat, their pulses will soon stop due to hunger.

      As the French lawyer and diplomat Joseph de Maistres (1753-1821) said:

      “Every country has the government it deserves”

    • Abc: Should articles only be written if they praise Modi? If you want Pro-Modi propaganda, you can always go and inhale the hot air emanating from Arnab Goswami’s orifices in Republic TV …

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