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Hook line– Personal targeting of Modi will give the opposition nothing except the loud cheering of their core supporters. It is the countering of his policies with facts and figures that can help it to some extent.
With nearly a month left for the Lok sabha polls to conclude, the election fever of India has reached new heights. Principally because of the ruling party’s astounding confidence of securing not only a chest thumping majority for itself, but a 400 plus mark for the alliance, it is leading. Meanwhile opposition parties are fighting tooth and nail to prevent the BJP from getting a clear majority, if not to form their own government. For Congress, it has become a question of survival in its bid to stay relevant at the national level.
The focus of this election is indisputably Narendra Modi, the incumbent Prime Minister of India. His invincible power kingdom can remind the octogenarians of their forties, when Indira Gandhi used to be at the center stage. However, other than the different time frame, one thing that separates Indira Gandhi from Narendra Modi is the ‘inherent legacy’.
Mahatma Gandhi’s stamp of approval on the family and Jawahar Lal Nehru’s undisputed leadership of seventeen years had left a rich legacy for Indira, which ultimately worked as a source of legitimacy for her. Of course her work as the Prime Minister also enhanced this legitimacy, but legacy always formed the backbone.
But in the case of Narendra Modi, there is no such inherent legacy.
So, what becomes his source of legitimacy? This question has forced the opposition to dig deeper, so that it can have at least a way to target this. But all attempts are in vain. There can be several reasons for the opposition’s failure, but the principal reason seems to be the ‘narrow outlook’ that it carries.
From the very beginning, they equated every electoral result with Modi’s legitimacy. If BJP loses in Bihar and Delhi in 2015, the Modi factor is gone for them. Come 2017 UP assembly election result, the same Modi factor again becomes their nightmare, and the cycle goes on.
They never bothered to see Modi in separation with the electoral results. But that is actually where the solution to their problem lies.
Narendra Modi is a leader who doesn’t separate the present from the future. Almost all his present decisions have a consideration for the future. What political messaging he did in his Rath Yatras during his organizational days (in RSS and BJP), now forms a basis for his present decisions. Whether it is the abrogation of Article 370 or the consecration of Ram temple. Similarly the statements like ‘Bharat ke vikas ke liye, Gujarat ka vikas’ made by him while being Gujarat’s CM, now justifies his idea of ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat’.
This track record when seen through the lenses of his humble background and struggling life, and combined with the developmental works he has done as an administrator, generates his self-made legacy, and thus legitimacy. And that is what makes Modi, a brand. It is now a proven fact, that if someone tries to target this brand for the mere sake of targeting, it would hardly serve the desired purpose.
Take Tamil Nadu in case. ‘Modi is visiting the state to make up for the loss in North’ or ‘Modi will get zero from here’, this is how the opposition is targeting the frequent outreach of the PM in the southernmost state. Their ‘narrow outlook’ fails them to notice that what the PM is doing is not just for the electoral purpose.
Even if the BJP fails to get a single seat in Tamil Nadu, the state is certainly going to find a mention in the PM’s victory speech, if he wins. Because it is not the seats that matter for Modi, but the goodwill that he is earning. This goodwill will further enhance his legitimacy, and would be helpful while dealing with thorny issues such as delimitation and One Nation- One Election.
Thus personal targeting of Modi will give the opposition nothing except the loud cheering of their core supporters. It is the countering of his policies, decisions and schemes, with facts and figures, detached from his personal targeting, that can help the opposition to some extent.
But for that to happen they need to come out of their narrow outlook where tarnishing the personal image of PM Modi appears to be their only goal.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint