The Man and the Mission

For many young people a career in the corporate world might have seemed a natural progression after a professional education. But for more than one youth a meeting with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi changed the course of their lives. A brief appointment with the chief minister resulted in their abilities being put to the task of policy and governance which brought with it a different but more satisfying set of challenges. Many young people found Modi’s articulation of the “Gujarat model” a more organic alternative to caste and communal mobilisation adopted by many parties. Modi’s unapologetic advocacy of Hindutva, as against the cultural evisceration of ‘secular’ politics practised by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) rivals. Modi rekindled a pride in culture and tradition, but it was not just that. Even within BJP, Modi stood out for a fierce determination to pursue economic development and address social schisms with a strong hand. The chief minister’s fellowship he instituted attracted dozens of young talents who provided a fresh pair of eyes when attached to departments of the Gujarat government. University students and graduates who met the chief minister were often asked to take up a task, such as delivering a report on enrolment and dropouts in schools or access to housing. This reflected Modi’s keenly felt view that all sections, particularly women, Dalits and tribals, needed to feel they had a stake in development and progress. 

According to people who have interacted with the prime minister over the years, spotting the right person for the right job is a distinctive aspect of Modi’s leadership. This can mean being patient and persuasive. His years as a party organiser and functionary provided an opportunity to meet hundreds of people from diverse backgrounds and Modi remembers a surprisingly large number of them. Ahead of the 2017 Gujarat Assembly election, which proved to a serious challenge, BJP released audio clips of Modi’s phone calls to party workers and private individuals. The exercise was overtly political but the connect with the people he spoke to, their delight over a call from ‘Saheb’, was not manufactured. He was chief organiser during the 1991-92 Ekta Yatra led by then BJP President Murli Manohar Joshi and while the enterprise presented several challenges, Modi met a spectrum of Sangh Parivar members and common people. The finale of hoisting the Indian flag at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on January 26, 1992 could be achieved mostly due to Modi’s intrepidity and pragmatism, and the journey proved to a lesson in political mobilisation and the need to be wary of overreach. 

During the yatra’s passage through Nagpur, Modi bumped into Vijay Chauthaiwale, currently in-charge of BJP’s foreign affairs department who was then making plans to travel to the US. A year later he met Modi in the US where the leader attended a Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) programme to mark the centenary of Swami Vivekananda’s speech to the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago in 1893. Modi made an impression there. On his return to India, Chauthaiwale moved to Ahmedabad and met Modi again and this time the association jelled. Although trained in biochemistry and microbiology, Chauthaiwale found himself in a more political role and, for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, he was parked at the BJP office in New Delhi as a point person for the Modi campaign. Modi’s connections with India Global Forum founder and thought leader Manoj Ladwa and film producer Sandeep Singh followed a similar trajectory. Those familiar with Modi’s style and the warmth his brings to interactions point to his ability to attract talent and bind them to his team. Many members of his office go back several years and this brings out another aspect of the man—he invests in people and does not chop and change staff. 

A near-encyclopaedic memory helps Modi retain names and faces and, aided by a capacity to size up people, form lasting relations. This is the case within BJP as well where disappointment over being overlooked for a ministerial berth or party post does not necessarily mean exclusion. Former ministers have been selected to head parliamentary committees examining important Bills or lead delegations to foreign countries. BJP President JP Nadda interacted with Modi closely when he was in-charge of the Himachal Pradesh BJP organisation. The prime minister shared a rare relationship with Arun Jaitley and understood the latter’s knack for framing legal-political issues and the utility of contacts across political divides. 

Some of the choices have worked and others not so much. But Modi is prepared to give people a chance. The choice of Manohar Lal Khattar as Haryana chief minister took many by surprise after BJP won the state polls in 2014. But the decision was an inspired one as Khattar stamped out the state’s infamous kharchi-parchi culture of bribes and recommendations for jobs and other benefits, setting the foundations of the party’s three consecutive electoral wins. Khattar is one of few leaders who can make a point directly to Modi without hesitation. This is not to say the prime minister does not encourage feedback—officials testify to his ability to listen closely and ask pertinent questions—but Khattar has been an ally over decades. At the same time, when it came to making way for a younger leader in Haryana, a decision was taken keeping party interests in mind.

For a very public figure, Modi’s private side is not always visible but it is not obscured either. After returning to office in 2019, he spent 17 hours in solitude in a holy cave near the Kedarnath shrine in Uttarakhand’s Rudraprayag. Photographs of the prime minister meditating in a saffron shawl swept the internet and Modi’s comment that he wanted to ponder the connections between nature and environment did not seem either forced or mere smart bites. The act of private contemplation made public could have seemed a publicity feat. Modi’s communion with his inner self did not seem an imposition because he has consistently promoted a cultural connectedness and embraced the spiritualism of Hindu tradition. Modi wandered the Himalayas as a youth seeking a path in life, an experience he says helped define his goals. Offering prayers at the Kedarnath temple and meditating in a cave seemed perfectly natural. The prime minister has an instinctive appreciation for the power of symbolism. At the end of the 2017 Gujarat campaign, he travelled on a sea plane to the Dharoi dam to visit the Ambaji temple. The act was at once an appeal to the state’s aspirations and a salutation to a famous pilgrimage site representing custom and faith. 

Even before he held public office, Modi was a popular figure among the overseas Indian community. People who have hosted him in the US and other nations speak of his curiosity and appetite for absorbing new experiences. These connections all over the globe have endured and help the leader seek assistance as he did during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that left 22,000 Indians, mainly students, trapped in a war zone. His personal calls to organisations such as ISKCON, which has a sizeable presence in Ukraine, provided shelter to students awaiting evacuation. Bharat Barai, a successful medical practitioner in the US, has become disenchanted with the Democrats he once supported. But he unhesitatingly recognised Modi as a leader with a future. Soon after Modi became prime minister in 2014, Barai spoke at an event at Harvard Kennedy School, telling his audience what to expect from the incoming administration. 

After he left home in search of a life-defining mission, Modi’s family has largely been in the background. His affection and regard for mother Heeraben was always evident and her death in 2022 was the closing of a chapter. Their deep emotional bond shaped Modi’s sensibilities and he never forgot her hardships.

Just as he is encouraging and prepared to give leeway, Modi can be forthright in his assessments which he puts forth without mincing words. If there is a slip-up, he will say it in as many words though he will not hold it as a grudge forever. Careful about making up his mind, it is not easy to alter an opinion once it is formed. After BJP won a third term in office but with a reduced tally, a decision was quickly reached to avoid drastic changes in government. The consideration was pragmatic as new ministers and officials would take time to settle into changed roles while the need of the hour was to get off the blocks. A decline from 303 seats to 240 might have unnerved any leader but Modi put the results behind him and resisted the temptation to hastily change or reverse political strategies and priorities. The course correction, by way of greater attention to the BJP organisation in poll-bound states and sharper messaging, led to a rebound. Modi’s familiarity with the rural idiom and popularity with the middle class were endorsed in back-to-back victories in Haryana and Maharashtra and a gratifying one in Delhi. Modi receives a wide array of feedback and scans social media to pick up indicators of the popular mood and the arguments of a discussion. Binding people to him is a manifestation of the prime minister’s light touch, one that improves the counsel he receives.

A quest for spiritual salvation was the start of Modi’s personal odyssey but while renunciation and sacrifice strike a chord with him, a public life was his true calling. A rejection of personal accumulation of wealth—no mean feat for anyone who wields influence and power—and steadfast devotion to a cause have made for a karmayogi driven by the duality of public purpose and private conviction.

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