New Delhi: There was a time when he welcomed hajjis and hosted interfaith meetings at his constituency in Datia. Today, with his signature red tilak on his forehead, Narottam Mishra has cultivated the image of a chieftain faithfully guarding the tenets of Hindutva.
Such is his zeal for the cause that the Madhya Pradesh home minister was the first — beating even the Bajrang Dal — to warn the hapless maker of Pathaan to change Deepika Padukone’s costume in the film, or else face a ban in the state.
“Costumes used in the song (‘Besharam Rang’) are objectionable. It is clear that this song has been filmed with a corrupt mentality. Anyway, in the JNU case, Deepika Padukone has been a supporter of the Tukde Tukde Gang,” the BJP minister said, before he issued the warning to the filmmaker.
Celebrity designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Bollywood actor Aamir Khan, producer-director Prakash Jha, FMCG major Dabur and now Shah Rukh Khan — all have faced the ire of the 62-year-old leader.
The minister has also said that the government plans to frame stringent rules whereby police verification will be mandatory ahead of a marriage for checking cases of “love jihad” in Madhya Pradesh.
It was back in 2008 that the BJP leader first came to the notice of the people, especially those outside his home state, when reports with same headline — ‘toh is liyae sabse alag han Narottam (This is why Narottam is different from the others) — were published in several dailies.
Later, the Election Commission found that it was a paid article and that he had given incorrect information about his poll expenses. The EC barred Mishra from contesting the state assembly election that year, but he got a stay from the MP High Court and the party never took action against him.
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The transformation of Mishra
Not too long ago — the years from 2008 to 2018 — the circumstances were different, with Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan himself enjoying a positive image among the Muslims in Madhya Pradesh.
It was during this period — during Chouhan’s second and third tenures — that Mishra used to welcome Muslims returning from the Hajj. Datia saw several interfaith meetings during 2016-17.
“Mishra’s avatar as a protector of Hindu culture is a new phenomenon. In his early years, he never took such a strong line…Kailash Vijayvargiya used to do it when he was number two in the Shivraj cabinet. After the change of guard in Delhi, Mishra realised that the whole ecosystem had changed with PM Modi’s Hindu Hriday Samrat image awakening a new India and Yogi (UP CM Yogi Adtiyanath) becoming another phenomenon,” a minister told ThePrint.
“He is a pandit. He realised his advantage and as the home minister, he started to mould his image as a hardliner politician who is not soft on love jihad, conversion or other issues that are central to the RSS and present-day BJP politics.”
Several BJP leaders from MP said this is a well-crafted strategy by Mishra to please the central leadership and establish himself as a polarising figure.
This, they asserted, was because Mishra knows he has no caste base in his favour as the BJP is increasingly dominated by OBCs. “Being a Brahmin did not fit with the party’s social outreach but his polarising image will always give him an advantage,” one of them said.
After beginning his political career in the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Bharatiya Jana Yuva Morcha (BJYM), he went on to become a minister for the first time in 2005 in the Babulal Gaur government.
His rise has been steady since then although he was initially low in the pecking order of the BJP leadership, which comprised the likes of Jayant Malaiya, Gauri Shankar Shejwar, Kailash Vijayvargiya, and Gopal Bhargava.
“Soon after he was allocated the information and PR department along with parliamentary affairs in 2013, Mishra established good ties with journalists and media owners by releasing government ads. This relationship stood him in good stead. When (Amit) Shah visited in 2017, he had breakfast at Narottam’s residence with editors of regional newspapers. This created a storm in Madhya Pradesh politics,” said the minister mentioned above.
Senior BJP leader Jayant Malaya, who was in the Shivraj cabinet from 2013 to 2018, said Mishra was “good in managing affairs, and a good manager with organisational capabilities”.
Bhopal-based political analyst Girija Shanker, too, acknowledged that Mishra cultivated a good relationship with owners of media houses.
“It also helped Shivraj in crisis management and when the Centre pushed its agenda. But now his image as a saviour of the culture resonates with the line of the BJP and the RSS. He wants to establish himself as a polarising figure like other politicians trying to emulate the Yogi model in other states,” Shanker told ThePrint.
Another BJP functionary, who knows Mishra from his nascent years in politics, described how the late Arun Jaitley helped the Datia MLA to carve out a space in the politics of Madhya Pradesh.
“When Jaitley was an influential figure in the BJP, those who didn’t get an audience with (L.K.) Advani used to meet Jaitley to present their case. Narottam was a regular visitor to Jaitley’s office, waiting for hours to get his advice for five minutes. As Shivraj (Chouhan) was Jaitley’s friend, he (Mishra) used to seek Jaitley’s blessing for his political aspirations.”
Apart from Jaitley, Union home minister Amit Shah is said to have been a major force in Mishra’s progress. Their ties date back to 2010, when Shah was going through some rough times, said a BJP district leader from Datia.
“Pitambara Shakti Peeth is an important peeth (pilgrimage site) in Datia where politicians from Indira Gandhi to Vasundhara Raje and Rajnath Singh visited during their crises. When Shah was facing his bad days in 2010 when he was ordered to stay out of Gujarat, he came to visit the peeth. Mishra organised the visit… That relationship continued over the years and when Shah came to Delhi, he began to promote Mishra. The minister also established good ties with others, too, by organising such visits in Datia,” the BJP district leader said.
The stars aligned favourably for Mishra after Amit Shah took over from Rajnath Singh as the BJP national president on 9 July, 2014.
Vijayvargiya and Mishra were among those from Madhya Pradesh who caught Shah’s eye, following which the former was made a BJP general secretary and the latter cultivated as number two in the Shivraj cabinet.
Over the years, Mishra was given various key responsibilities, the most important being as co-in-charge of UP for the 2019 Lok Sabha election with senior leader Govardhan Jhadpia.
Given his Brahmin background, Mishra was deputed to manage poll preparations in Kanpur, where the community wields considerable influence.
Kanpur kept the BJP brass worried as the party unceremoniously dropped veteran leader Murli Manohar Joshi and replaced him with UP minister Satyadev Pachauri. To everyone’s surprise, Pachauri comfortably won from the seat.
Mishra’s stocks further rose in the BJP ranks when Shah deputed him for ‘Operation Kamal’ to topple the Kamal Nath-led Congress government in 2020. Together with Vijayvargiya, Mishra smoothly ensured the defection of 22 Congress MLAs to make way for a BJP government in the state.
“Narottam camped in Delhi for three days as the BJP high command was contemplating the issue of leadership in MP. He was hopeful that the BJP was exploring an option beyond Shivraj. But the PM thought otherwise, knowing only Shivraj has a pan-state appeal that could ensure victory in the bypolls, which would be crucial for survival of the new government,” a former MP minister said, adding that Mishra is a contender to become CM if the party considers his credentials as a polarising figure.
Mishra’s popularity in media circles was well-summed up by a Bhopal-based television journalist. “He is easily accessible, His 10 am bulletin gives enough fodder to journalists. That keeps him in the news always,” the journalist said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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