Modi is back. It took J&K, Haryana elections to make the PM break his self-imposed silence

Has the PM misplaced Modi magic or are we less enchanted? It will take many more Modi speeches to answer that but for now, there is something missing.

PM Modi addresses Lakhpati Didi Sammelan in Maharashtra's Jalgaon | Credit: ANI

Modi is back.

Perhaps not with a bang but certainly with some serious swag. At public meetings in Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana, Gujarat, Jharkhand, and Odisha, the Prime Minister walked tall and talked big. His movements, gestures, and words had the muscle memory of a PM leading a majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party government, not a National Democratic Alliance.

(Significantly, he barely referred to the coalition in his speeches.)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been unusually absent from the public arena since he took office for a third time in June 2024. Besides his parliamentary speeches in July, he has been seen and heard at official functions in India, or during official visits abroad (Russia, Ukraine, Austria, Brunei, Singapore) but very little at his favorite hunting ground — the political theatre.

As I wrote last week, the newly anointed Leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, has been the ‘star’, often dominating media coverage. Days have gone by without a mention of the PM on television news or the newspapers.

The PM admitted as much: In Ahmedabad on Monday, he said he had been working “silently” for the people in his first 100 days in office while the Opposition mocked and insulted him. He had chosen to ignore them.

It has taken the assembly elections in J&K, Haryana to bring the PM back in the limelight – and for him to break his self-imposed silence.

A bit of both

When you watch the PM speak in public, what you want to know is this: Has anything changed in his political messaging after a reduced mandate in the Lok Sabha election — 240 seats instead of “400 paar’’? Or is it the same “tukde-tukde’ line of attack on the Opposition that we can recite in our sleep?

A bit of both: As a media spectacle, it’s by turns different and much the same. Besides attacks on the Opposition, Modi projects a rather muted version of himself. That or we, the audience, are now seeing him differently. Has our attitude to the PM changed since the Lok Sabha election – has he misplaced Modi magic or are we less enchanted?

It will take many more Modi speeches to answer that but for now, there is something missing.

Rather like the 15 August Red Fort address to the nation, Modi’s campaigning in J&K, Haryana and speeches in Jharkhand or Odisha were long lists of achievements since 2014 or in the last 100 days. The same “Modi ki Guarantee” was promised. Well, it’s difficult to make lists sound like poetry but they don’t hold the crowds spellbound either.

At the RE-Invest meeting in Gandhinagar on 16 September, he looked and sounded tired. The audience applauded half-heartedly. There were shouts of “Modi! Modi! Modi!’’ when he launched the Subhadra Scheme in Odisha, but most of the people were far more excited to see TV cameras focusing on them.

Only when he attacked the Opposition did he really come alive.

The Modi we know

In the last week, we have seen flashes of the Narendra Modi we know so well when he attacks his political opponents. However, the Modi Special is always reserved for Congress. The very mention of the grand old party lights up his eyes, his tone turns passionate and his remarks scornful.

So too now: At Kurukshetra, Haryana, during a campaign speech, he roared almost menacingly — there is no greater “fraud’’ in politics than Congress. “Doob maro, Congress ke log…’’ he said. He returned to his favourite targets — the Nehru-Gandhi family.

In Doda, Jammu, he was speaking calmly about the achievements of his government, J&K’s tourism prospects before he brought up Congress. Then, he was on fire: He sneered at its boasts about upholding the Constitution, love in politics, and freedom of the press while mistreating a journalist, “a Hindustan ke bete…” on American soil (during Rahul Gandhi’s recent visit to the United States). Aha, you said to yourself, this is more like Modi, the scourge of the Opposition.

Onto Jharkhand and Odisha—much the same story: He became most animated when speaking about “those who steal from the nation..’’, “forces” undermining the country, the “power hungry’’, “the Congress and its ecosystem…’’

For his audiences and for us watching him on live TV, this is the same old ‘tukde-tukde gang’ playbook that Modi and BJP have been selling to the public for the last decade. That the PM still quotes from it could reassure his supporters — a reduced mandate hasn’t altered his political agenda.

But could it mean the PM lacks a new vision—that he needs a new storybook?

Birthday celebrations

The PM’s 74th birthday Tuesday coincided with 100 days of his new government. Ordinarily, television news channels would have celebrated his birthday with much fanfare—DD News did a special programme on his decade of achievements, and Bharat24 did ‘The Making of Narendra Modi’—but TV news decided to celebrate 100 days in office instead.

And they did it by telecasting interviews with Union ministers: At least seven, including Piyush Goyal, S Jaishanker, Arjun Meghwal, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, were invited.

However, it was Nitin Gadkari on NDTV who stole the show – he was understated, matter of fact but clear about one thing. Asked by the anchor if he would move to Maharashtra (as chief minister), he firmly said he was staying in Delhi.

Asked about Modi’s qualities, Gadkari said he was very hardworking and committed.

Modi’s birthday, his campaigning were overshadowed by the K factor: Arvind Kejriwal announced his resignation as Delhi’s chief minister on Sunday and chose Modi’s birthday to resign and hand over the reins of the capital to Atishi.

Talk about timing.

The author tweets @shailajabajpai. Views are personal.

(Edited by Humra Laeeq)