The Dispensables

MANY IN INDIA have been hoping that one day Narendra Modi will decide to go to Khan Market to buy an opposition. In fact, many blame him for the state of India’s opposition which, apart from being illogical, is eminently laughable. Why on earth would a sitting prime minister be anxious about ensuring the birth of a viable opposition? And it gets worse. The tragedy of India’s political parties is that they are to blame for their current predicament. None of them uses a brain as it should be used; they lack both the dexterity and the guile that has been forced upon them by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and believe nirvana lies in abusing Narendra Modi.

These folks don’t realise that abuse helps Modi. Every time he has been abused and/or humiliated, he has worn it as a badge of honour and then gone on to win. Right from the time of Godhra. Modi is not just the prime minister of India. He has evolved into the symbol of a modern, confident, and arrived Indian. So, when you abuse him, he ensures that vast swathes of Indians also feel insulted and this is the mistake that the opposition keeps making. I have said this in these very columns: Rahul Gandhi had an admirable makeover after the Bharat Jodo Yatra but lacked both the stamina and the strategy to see it through. Apart from the fact that he didn’t bother to take other opposition parties along.

Over the last 10 years or so, Modi has constantly thrown the gauntlet at these blokes and they have been unable to rise to the occasion. They have failed miserably owing to a lack of cohesion and compatibility. Elections are fought with only one thing in mind: winnability, and nothing else. BJP has made that even more of a truism. So, when people (and rightly so) accuse BJP of being a washing machine, it doesn’t stick. I believe Modi has realised that the India of today does not have clean politicians and to win the war, at times it is important to lose a few battles on the way, which is why they don’t care about the media either.

Over the last 10 years or so, Modi has constantly thrown the gauntlet at the Opposition and they have been unable to rise to the occasion. They have failed miserably owing to a lack of cohesion and compatibility

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A prime example of this is the media. People are again wrong to say that Modi controls the media today. He may have controlled the media five years ago but doesn’t need to any longer. The media is begging BJP to allow them to be controlled by it. This is how bizarre the equation is. The media is now trying to be more loyal than the king and each is outstripping the other to curry favour and be seen as malleable. Listen to some speeches by the so-called purveyors of independent media and you will see how they fawn. I am reminded of this line I always used for the advertising agency HTA (in the good old days) saying their account executives crawled when asked to walk. So, if this is the level of sycophancy that the media is displaying, why would you blame Modi?

Any prime minister would love a compliant media, and have we forgotten Indira and Rajiv Gandhi and their media courtiers?

My worry is not the lack of an opposition. I worry that even neutral parties have sacrificed all objectivity and are willing to be supplicants only to remain relevant. The silence of the few is in effect the complicity of the many. And that flies smack in the face of what India is and what our civilisational legacy is. I have said this and will repeat it here: Narendra Modi will be prime minister again. And only because he will work hard to win an election. He won’t be the quintessential cynic or someone constantly whining his way through life.

The methodology adopted by today’s opposition in India will only strengthen Modi’s hand. He has deftly managed to project his success as the success of the average Indian. His victories are emblematic of those Indians who are in aspirational mode. For the elite, he may be spending time amidst cute cows, but to 80 per cent of India’s population, he is saintly when he does that.

The problem is Rahul Gandhi is an activist. And Narendra Modi remains a politician. This is why the former will address 120 people at Oxford while Narendra Modi will be livestreamed on January 22, 2024 installing the deity of Lord Ram.

People remember those who impact their social being. Not their ideological state of mind.

About The Author

Suhel Seth

Suhel Seth is Managing Partner of Counselage India and can be reached at suhel@counselage.com

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