MODI IN US: VENI, VIDI, BUT VICI?

One must never visit America for the first time.

Jawaharlal Nehru summed up his misgivings about his first visit to the USA in 1949.

The socialist in Nehru, the Economic Times informs, was never given in to the ostentatious display of wealth in that country.

1949 is not 2014. And Narendra Modi is no Nehru.

Nehru assiduously cultivated the image of a sophisticated person.

Modi is the quintessential sophist.

He reasons with clever arguments, though his critics say some of his arguments are false.

All that is besides the point.

Modi is the Prime Minister of India. For good or bad. He was elected with a clear majority.

He told America he was representing 1.25 billion Indians.

Nearly that many Indians sat in front of their television sets and watched him take his stand on a revolving pedestal at the Madison Square Garden in mid-town Manhattan on Sunday, September 28, 2014.

As he entered the innards of The Garden, the leader of over a billion people reduced himself to the colossal status of being one of a mere, dozen-odd people to have been the cynosure of all at the venue. Like Muhammad Ali, the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Elton John, to name a few. Modi is the only international politician among them.

Incidentally, if The Garden is real home to any one celebrity, it is the dog. A pedigree dog at that. The Garden has hosted, without interruption every year, the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, since 1877.  Millions watch the two-day show across America, as Fox Terriers vie with the Pekinese, the Clumber Spaniel, the Beagle, etc, for the coveted to prize. For two days this February, all American attention was on a Wire Fox Terrier which eventually ran away with the top prize.

On Sunday, September 28, Modi was the centre of attraction at The Garden. Those who watched him broadly fall into four categories.

The tribe of Indian Americans who think they are influential enough to influence American foreign policy and hoping that Modi will help them become more influential.

The Indian media contingent which though sad that Modi gave two hoots to them and did not take them on his plane had no option but to cover every move of Modi who happens to be the highest TRP grosser in India.

A battery of analysts from both Democratic and Republican parties who were monitoring Modi closely, awed at the temerity of the man to enter America by ensuring that his position as the head of the world’s largest democracy was enough to get him a visa denied him for his alleged manhandling of the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat.

The last group, of course, was the Indian population waiting to see how Modi would sell their dreams to the Americans.

Modi looked quite relaxed for the first time during the visit, with around 20,000 fawning faces around him. At the United Nations, as he emulated Atal Behari Vajpayee and PV Narasimha Rao and addressed the general assembly in Hindi – even though he repeatedly mis-pronounced a couple of words – he was not in his element. Perhaps, even a bit nervous. But not at The Gardens. Certainly not.

Here he was the seller of dreams, the purveyor of India’s fate, the charmer of the Americans, the quintessential world leader desperate, if at all, to show America how wrong it was to deny him the visa because of some vague human rights violations some years ago.

Unfortunately, he was the victim of sheer time. Everything and anything that he had to say in praise of India came with a déjà vu feeling attacheed. Vivekananda had talked about it over a century ago.  Every Prime Minister who preceded Modi to the USA had said the same thing. Modi had no new insight to offer about India’s past glory.

He did not have much of a list of accomplishments of his government. But that was expected as his government is just over a 100 days old. But he could not have shared that truth with the audience. Why come across as a forthright and honest leader when he could take credit for the success of the Mission to Mars? He did so.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and parent Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh activists left no stone unturned in their attempts to ensure nothing but naked admiration for Modi during his visit. The Gujaratis were present in full strength. There were so many Gujaratis in New York this Sunday that the presence of a controversial industrialist, also a Gujarati and who is said to be close to Modi, went literally unnoticed.

It is this segment of America – the Indian American minority – that Modi focused on. He congratulated them for their sacrifices. A couple of eye brows went up. Sacrifice? They were the brain drain generation with bitter memories of India. He congratulated them for ploughing back money to their mother country. The audience beamed, even though the fact is real remittances back to India from abroad come not from the Indians in American but from that vast segment of the Indian population which works for daily wages in inhuman conditions in over a 100 countries.

Modi wanted the Indian Americans to come home. Back to India. The cheers were there, but a bit subdued.

What else was there to tell the audience? Could he have talked about his economic or social or cultural vision? That would have led to the opening of the Pandorrah’s Box. Could he have talked about the problems India is facing? That would dampen any spirit the Indians Americans may have left for returning home. So, no go. Could he have talked about terrorism in India? That would have opened the biggest Pandorrrah’s Box and all the accompanying talk of communalism, riots, killings, 2002, etc, etc.

Cornered thus, Modi put on his best face in front of a live television audience watched by millions across the world. He became what he does best. The talker. The talkative man. And he talked about his pet subject – the 2014 electoral result in India – in his pet manner as a rallying politician. He reminisced. And reminisced. And reminisced.

The audience at The Gardens were still all smiles. As people with decent civic sense they heard him in peace, clapped at the right moments and bid him a grand farewell at the end of his address.

I was not born when Nehru went to America. But I did accompany Vajpayee. This Sunday, I was watching Modi on television. You know what struck me? Some leaders are events in themselves. Some need an event to make them leaders.

MODI IN AMERICA: VENI, VIDI BUT VICI?

One must never visit America for the first time. Jawahar Lal Nehru summed up his misgivings about his first visit to the USA in 1949. The socialist in Nehru, the Economic Times informs, was never given in to the ostentatious display of wealth in that country. 1949 is not 2014. And Narendra Modi is no Nehru. Nehru assiduously cultivated the image of a sophisticated person. Modi is the quintessential sophist. He reasons with clever arguments, though his critics say some of his arguments are false. All that is besides the point. Modi is the Prime Minister of India. For good or bad. He was elected with a clear majority. He told America he was representing 1.25 billion Indians. Nearly that many Indians sat in front of their television sets and watched him take his stand on a revolving pedestal at the Madison Square Garden in mid-town Manhattan on Sunday, September 28, 2014. As he entered the innards of The Garden, the leader of over a billion people reduced himself to the colossal status of being one of a mere, dozen-odd people to have been the cynosure of all at the venue. Like Muhammad Ali, the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Elton John, to name a few. Modi is the only international politician among them. Incidentally, if The Garden is real home to any one celebrity, it is the dog. A pedigree dog at that. The Garden has hosted, without interruption every year, the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, since 1877. Millions watch the two-day show across America, as Fox Terriers vie with the Pekinese, the Clumber Spaniel, the Beagle, etc, for the coveted to prize. For two days this February, all American attention was on a Wire Fox Terrier which eventually ran away with the top prize. On Sunday, September 28, Modi was the centre of attraction at The Garden. Those who watched him broadly fall into four categories. The tribe of Indian Americans who think they are influential enough to influence American foreign policy and hoping that Modi will help them become more influential. The Indian media contingent which though sad that Modi gave two hoots to them and did not take them on his plane had no option but to cover every move of Modi who happens to be the highest TRP grosser in India. A battery of analysts from both Democratic and Republican parties who were monitoring Modi closely, awed at the temerity of the man to enter America by ensuring that his position as the head of the world’s largest democracy was enough to get him a visa denied him for his alleged manhandling of the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat. The last group, of course, was the Indian population waiting to see how Modi would sell their dreams to the Americans. Modi looked quite relaxed for the first time during the visit, with around 20,000 fawning faces around him. At the United Nations, as he emulated Atal Behari Vajpayee and PV Narasimha Rao and addressed the general assembly in Hindi – even though he repeatedly mis-pronounced a couple of words – he was not in his element. Perhaps, even a bit nervous. But not at The Gardens. Certainly not. Here he was the seller of dreams, the purveyor of India’s fate, the charmer of the Americans, the quintessential world leader desperate, if at all, to show America how wrong it was to deny him the visa because of some vague human rights violations some years ago. Unfortunately, he was the victim of sheer time. Everything and anything that he had to say in praise of India came with a déjà vu feeling attacheed. Vivekananda had talked about it over a century ago. Every Prime Minister who preceded Modi to the USA had said the same thing. Modi had no new insight to offer about India’s past glory. He did not have much of a list of accomplishments of his government. But that was expected as his government is just over a 100 days old. But he could not have shared that truth with the audience. Why come across as a forthright and honest leader when he could take credit for the success of the Mission to Mars? He did so. The Bharatiya Janata Party and parent Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh activists left no stone unturned in their attempts to ensure nothing but naked admiration for Modi during his visit. The Gujaratis were present in full strength. There were so many Gujaratis in New York this Sunday that the presence of a controversial industrialist, also a Gujarati and who is said to be close to Modi, went literally unnoticed. It is this segment of America – the Indian American minority – that Modi focused on. He congratulated them for their sacrifices. A couple of eye brows went up. Sacrifice? They were the brain drain generation with bitter memories of India. He congratulated them for ploughing back money to their mother country. The audience beamed, even though the fact is real remittances back to India from abroad come not from the Indians in American but from that vast segment of the Indian population which works for daily wages in inhuman conditions in over a 100 countries. Modi wanted the Indian Americans to come home. Back to India. The cheers were there, but a bit subdued. What else was there to tell the audience? Could he have talked about his economic or social or cultural vision? That would have led to the opening of the Pandorrah’s Box. Could he have talked about the problems India is facing? That would dampen any spirit the Indians Americans may have left for returning home. So, no go. Could he have talked about terrorism in India? That would have opened the biggest Pandorrrah’s Box and all the accompanying talk of communalism, riots, killings, 2002, etc, etc. Cornered thus, Modi put on his best face in front of a live television audience watched by millions across the world. He became what he does best. The talker. The talkative man. And he talked about his pet subject – the 2014 electoral result in India – in his pet manner as a rallying politician. He reminisced. And reminisced. And reminisced. The audience at The Gardens were still all smiles. As people with decent civic sense they heard him in peace, clapped at the right moments and bid him a grand farewell at the end of his address. I was not born when Nehru went to America. But I did accompany Vajpayee. This Sunday, I was watching Modi on television. You know what struck me? Some leaders are events in themselves. Some need an event to make them leaders.

BYPOLL RESULTS: A CAUTION TO MODI ON BIRTHDAY EVE

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will have a sober birthday tomorrow, September 17. For a man whose hopes of a resounding encore of the general elections in the bypolls results of which were out today were mercilessly shattered, sobriety is the forced reprieve. The chronicle of how today unfolded in the collective consciousness of India will be re-told for some time to come. The question the Modi-besotten or Modi-fearing media asked even as the counting of votes began in the three Lok Sabha seats and 33 assembly seats which went to by-elections on September 13 was not ‘’how many seats’’ but ‘’how much margin’’. For them, a full encore was a foregone conclusion. Until things began to unfold. The BJP lost two seats in Gujarat where Modi had vowed that no seat would ever go to the opposition, specially the Congress. The BJP lost three in Rajasthan, where the BJP secured a brute majority in the assembly elections and topped it by winning all Lok Sabha seats. The chunks in the armour were beginning to show. The counting was in high gear, the media and political pundits hastily began to look for new logic to explain the reversal. The BJP spokespersons were looking for convincing answers. Those of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party were equally clueless; it took them time to register that the trends were in their favour. So deep was the nadir the general election results threw them in in May, 2014 that their reflexes were slow in coming to grips with the faint but firm indication of a reversal. Oridinarily, results of by-elections are to be taken in stride. For any political party, they are rarely a reflection or a continuation of a previous electoral success. In assembly by-elections in particular, local issues come to the fore and determine the outcome to a large extent. The “national” is not really an issue. However, this time the BJP needlessly made an issue out of it. Coming as the by-elections did immediately after the Modi government completed 100 days in office, the BJP was intent on using every opportunity as a referendum on what it thought to be an irrefutable allegiance of the Indian people to the ways of Modi. Falling from such a vantage height really hurts. The hurt is specially vile in the case of Uttar Pradesh. The state had given 73 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats to BJP, nay, Modi. The Akhilesh Yadav government in the state was humbled beyond recognition, denuded of any reputation at all, and pummelled into political submission. Of the 11 assembly seats which went for by-elections, the Samajwadi Party romped home in eight. The BJP in 3. The figures don’t tell the whole story. To quickly elaborate, the BJP lost in Rohaniya, which is in the district of Varanasi, Modi’s new electoral citadel. It lost in Charkhari, which falls in the area of influence of the BJP’s rabble-rouser, Uma Bharathi. Why? Quite easy to answer if you are not a contaminated political pundit or a media person. Let’s run through them. These are initial explanations, but let’s leave the reflections for later. One, The BJP went into the by-elections as an over-confident, even arrogant, contender. The New BJP president, Amit Shah, showed his true colours of a lumpen, as he bawled his way through the state, specially in western Uttar Pradesh, unafraid of rousing communal sentiments. Shah and his cohorts, of the variety of Laxmi Kant Bajpeyi, were quite candid that they did not need the Muslim vote to win the by-elections. But they did not see the glitch in their assumption. Shah, who escaped prison, thanks to certain political and investigative coincidences, failed to realise that BJP and Modi were two separate entities in the minds of a large section of the Indian population which propelled him to power in May, 2014. The segment of the secular voter in Uttar Pradesh which was too enamoured of him and his promise of a new India chose to back him despite his credentials as a BJP-ite. That secular voter had in the last 100-odd days had enough time to reflect, concluding largely that Modi’s party continued to be communal, brazenly anti-secular and least interested in issues not related to its right-wing ideology. That voter was angry. Two, a sizeable section of the people which voted for Modi in May, 2014 were carried away by his “achche din” promises. However, that was not the case even after 100 days in power. The BJP had conveniently forgotten how within a week – seven days – of Arvind Kejriwal becoming chief minister of Delhi it had publicly humiliated him, asking to explain why he had not fulfilled his promises. The BJP must now be realising that a week is much more than 100 days. Three, by May, 2014 Modi had generated a sentiment of raw awe in his favour. He could do no wrong. He could achieve anything if brought to power. He was the panacea for all ills. He alone deliver them out of their decade-long misery. You are riding a tiger if you escalate people’s expectations beyond logical limits There may have been some saner elements within the BJP, but even collectively they perhaps did not have the courage to tell Modi to tone down. The BJP will certainly come up with some logical explanations for the defeats. But once the media mikes have left the BJP headquarters, once the leaders are back in a huddle behind locked doors, once Modi lives through his birthday explaining to the visiting Chinese President Gujarat’s links to Buddhism, chopsticks and for good measure, oyster sauce, the time for real reckoning will come. It is then that Modi and BJP will have to get their act together with just one end in mind: not to throw away the people’s gift of power. The by-election results are the amber at the ideological traffic junction.