Yechury, Noorani obits show Modi has redefined political ideology more than Indira

Narendra Modi has brought the old left and right together. Once bitter ideological opponents have joined hands and are pushing back, trying hard to protect their vision of India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a public meeting ahead of the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections, in Doda district | PTI

On Narendra Modi’s birthday on Tuesday, the celebrations followed the predictable path of joy, flattery, reverence, and a recounting of the great man’s adventures since he took over as prime minister.

But as I listened to the prime minister’s admirers list his glorious achievements, it struck me that his fans had missed one significant contribution: Narendra Modi has not only shifted the terms of Indian political discourse but has also moved the goalposts and completely redefined the competing ideologies of Indian politics.

No other prime minister, not even Indira Gandhi, managed to achieve this.

This thought first struck me when I read the obituaries of AG Noorani, the distinguished lawyer and political commentator, and was reinforced when I read the obituaries of Sitaram Yechury.

Let’s start with Noorani. In the 1980s, I knew him extremely well. I edited a monthly features magazine called Imprint, and he was one of our star regular contributors. From the time he began writing for us, people would often ask me about him. Some of this was due to his unforgiving, stubborn nature and his habit of suddenly falling out with people who, he believed, did not measure up to his exacting standards. Every time I met Soli Sorabji, for instance, he would ask, “So, have you fallen out with Noorani yet?”

Noorani’s brilliance was undeniable, but his politics were not always popular in the context of the 1980s. He was extremely right-wing and often expressed a pitying contempt for communists. His idol and role model was AD Gorwala, a former civil servant who ran Opinion, a small circulation journal that was consistently critical of Jawaharlal Nehru and Nehruvian thought. Gorwala was a man of unimpeachable integrity, both financial and intellectual, and often took positions that alienated his friends.

Noorani was a little like that. Although not an old-style Parsi intellectual like Gorwala (he was a Gujarati Muslim), he shared a similar impatience with the left-leaning consensus of that era. For instance, he strongly supported America’s involvement in Vietnam and had a withering contempt for its opponents.

I disagreed with Noorani on most things, viewing his policies (such as his strong pro-death penalty stance) as conforming to a classic right-wing mentality. But he was painstaking and hard-working. I respected him, spent many hours discussing various topics with him, and regularly featured his articles.

While I lost touch with Noorani over the decades, I remained aware of Sitaram Yechury’s activities. I  first heard of him as a firebrand student leader at JNU, where he had bravely opposed the Emergency (during which he had been arrested). He had also asked Indira Gandhi to step down as chancellor of JNU.

Later, as a major CPM leader, Yechury continued to oppose the Gandhis. In keeping with his ideology, he was a harsh critic of the US and its involvement in world affairs. Yet he was never blinkered in his worldview. He was not, despite his antipathy toward America, as rabidly opposed to the India-US nuclear deal as many of his colleagues were. And he was willing to work with other parties to push governments to do more for the poor.

Most unusual: he had no desire for a position or ministerial office. He was not from Kerala or Bengal, where the CPM often formed governments, Yechury turned down offers to join the Congress where he would almost certainly have become a minister. He was committed to his own party and its communist ideology and refused to switch sides.

The coming together of left and right

In the 1990s, when I knew both Noorani and Yechury, I saw them as being at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. Yechury was horrified by what America was doing to the world, just as he had been appalled by its involvement in Vietnam and Nicaragua. When he moved even slightly away from his Marxist moorings, it was towards a Nehruvian vision of India.

Noorani, on the other hand, had no patience for communists, believed that America had been unfairly targeted by the left, and trusted the capitalist system.

And yet, here’s the thing. When both men died within a month of each other, the same people paid similar tributes to both. There was very little in their obituaries to suggest that they were ideologically opposed to each other or the fact that they existed on different ends of the political spectrum.

Why was this?

I put it down to just one factor: the role of the BJP and especially Narendra Modi in shifting the axis of Indian politics. Before the rise of the Advani-Modi BJP, it was possible to draw (with some tweaks) a distinction between left and right in Indian politics. But as the BJP has grown stronger, the term ‘right-wing’ (still used by BJP supporters to describe themselves) has lost its meaning.

The traditional definitions of left and right involve concepts such as big government (supported by the left and opposed by the right), free enterprise (favoured by the right but regarded sceptically by the left), and liberal economic policies (an article of faith for the right-wing but not popular with the left).

If you use these distinctions, then there is nothing ‘right-wing’ about the current government. The BJP believes in big government, put its faith in various repressive agencies that Lavrentiy Beria would have been proud of, depends on welfare benefits to gain popularity, and prefers oligopoly over a competitive market. Most right-wing governments encourage the middle class; this government taxes the hell out of them.

In the Modi era, ‘right-wing’ has been completely redefined. Being right-wing now means you are pro-Hindu or anti-Muslim. Everything else is negotiable.

Those who believe in pluralism oppose the BJP, while those who support a Hindu vision of India support the BJP. That’s why Noorani and Yechury are now spoken of in the same breath: they may have disagreed on everything, but they both believed in a diverse and secular India.

That perhaps is Narendra Modi’s greatest long-term contribution to India. Long after the fancy trains have derailed, the new highways have cracked, the expensive Parliament building has flooded, and our neighbours have stopped talking to us, this contribution will endure.

By resetting the terms of discourse, Narendra Modi has brought the old left and right together. Once bitter ideological opponents have joined hands and are pushing back, trying hard to sustain and protect their vision of India.

They may not agree on many things. But they agree on the kind of nation India should be.

Vir Sanghvi is a print and television journalist, and talk show host. He tweets @virsanghvi. Views are personal.

(Edited by Prashant)