The Modi Mystique

WHAT MAKES A political leader? More to the point, what differentiates a political leader from a great political leader? I am sure I am not alone in wondering about these questions. During the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, as we recalled the galaxy of exceptional men and women who led us to freedom, I often found myself contemplating these questions.

Over the decades, I have seen many leaders, and I have had the opportunity to work with many remarkable leaders as well. When I was in college, Jayaprakash Narayan and his call for Total Revolution thrilled us, but I was rather young to appreciate the finer points of his politics. When I became active in student politics, Sarjoo Pandey in Ghazipur and Raj Narain in Varanasi impressed me as leaders cut above the rest. Though Pandey was a communist stalwart, his concern for people could not be fitted into any ideological straitjacket. He was a true darling of the toiling masses and depressed classes. When he died, it appeared as if the whole of Ghazipur had gathered at his funeral. From his example, I understood that there cannot be an exhaustive list of characteristics of an ideal leader. One has to intervene with contemporary reality in creative ways. This was equally true of Raj Narain, who steadfastly opposed the Emergency era. Raj Narain’s courage of conviction to stand up and be counted made him a much admired public figure. He had deep commitment to social equality, democracy and the values of public life.

In my public life, over the decades, I kept refining and reformulating my template of a great leader, a leader who bends the arc of history and changes the life of the nation. Needless to say, the one leader who comes closest to the ideal I had in mind is Narendra Modi. His politics is transformational in the true sense of the term. Equally important is the widespread popular support he continues to receive for his visionary initiatives. Much has been written about these two topics. But what makes him tick? That was a bit of a mystery for me even after working with him for many years.

Yes, many of Modi’s qualities are obvious. His dedication to work is legendary. His oratory has both depth and power. His ability to grasp issues and offer a new way of looking at them is uncanny. His charisma and connect with people are matchless. Analysts have listed these and many other traits to explain his success. Those who have worked closely with him will vouch for each of them and may even add a few more. Yet, the mystery persisted. Because there have been a number of leaders after Independence who, too, were blessed with these qualities in one or the other. What is the X factor with Modi?

I finally found the answer in a new book, The Architect of the New BJP: How Narendra Modi Transformed the Party by Ajay Singh, a veteran journalist. The answer, in short, is his innovative and pioneering strategies to expand the party. But this pithy formulation may not strike us as anything unusual, unless we appreciate the details of those strategies.

Ajay Singh, whom I know from our Banaras Hindu University days in the early 1980s, happens to be the right person to narrate the details as he has been a witness to many episodes in the recent history of Indian politics. He begins the story in 1979, when a dam-break disaster wiped out Morbi town in Gujarat. A young Modi led a team of volunteers from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for relief and rehabilitation. The work they carried out is still considered exemplary. There is good reason to believe that it was the final turning point for the widespread acceptance of RSS in Gujarat. Over the next 35 years or so, Modi has honed his skills to ideate most impactful solutions and execute them in the most efficient manner.

As for electoral democracy, after his induction into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1986-87, he broke the mould and created a new plan for the party to contest elections. It was hugely successful in the Ahmedabad municipal corporation polls, and continues to remain so at the national level today. During this journey, he has deployed many stratagems—some conventional, most unconventional—to strengthen not only the party’s bonds with voters but also the leadership’s bonds with the cadre. From his “tiffin picnics” with grassroots-level workers to a spectacular way of holding a show of strength before the seat-sharing discussions with future allies, much in this book will be useful to the next generation of BJP leaders—for that matter, of any party.

Reading the events of the past few decades backwards, it seems Modi’s starting point was what most political scientists miss out: that a party does not grow organically, like a tree, when the right conditions are available. Like any other organisation, a political party has to be built by making well-planned, deliberate efforts. Events, ideology, charismatic leadership and other conducive factors are helpful, but what really matters is the work done in the trenches. He has continued to do that, even when the winds were not favourable to him and that is precisely what is paying dividends today.

If we ask what lies behind his unique abilities as party organiser, The Architect of the New BJP helps us analyse his leadership even further. As I understand it, the secret behind the making of a great political leader is that he or she has to be much more than a political leader. One needs to have the mind of a social scientist to understand the psychology of the masses, as well as the managerial acumen of a corporate leader with an insatiable appetite for growth. One needs to be a creative artist when it comes to the use of words, symbols and imageries, and also a sharp pragmatist fully aware of the limitations of the situation. Modi is a great leader because he has invented these roles for himself and then excelled in each of them. In his style of leadership—and also in this book, there are lessons for life.

None of these qualities will prove fruitful if there is no passion to serve the motherland. As Singh writes, “Right since the beginning, Modi has kept on emphasizing three critical aspects of his working style to win the trust of the masses. First: ‘I will leave no stone unturned for the benefit of the people and the nation.’ Second: ‘I will do nothing for personal gain.’ Third: ‘I may make bona fide mistakes but won’t do anything with bad intentions.’”

Thus, ideology is only a platform or vehicle through which one serves the nation, and charisma is welcome if one has it; but what is indispensable is the obsessive striving to engage with the forces of history and make them work for the benefit of all.

Some commentators may not be comfortable with the ideological content of the Modi model, but they need to acknowledge the fact that, eight years into the most difficult job in the country, he remains the undisputed leader with no competition in sight. A large part of governance is ideologically agnostic and meant to promote the welfare of the people. There are facile explanations of this as the “Modi phenomenon” or harping on ideology and charisma (neither of which was missing in the previous BJP regimes), but for a meaningful explanation of it, The Architect of the New BJP is a must-read.

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