Here’s something that should be deeply disconcerting for the Narendra Modi fan club. In none of his speeches has he made his ideological inclination evident. In no public uttering does he come across as a hardcore Hindutva fanatic and a compulsive Muslim hater. He has not so far conveyed the impression that he is a growth fundamentalist and great believer in the idea of trickle down economics. On all other issues he appears assertive, but not jingoistic.
It is clear that he is investing a great deal of effort to projecting himself as a leader who believes in the idea of inclusion. In short, he is consciously distancing himself from what he is perceived to be by his supporters, a bunch of characters with extreme, and often repulsive, worldviews. Curiously, the more he reveals his thought and ideas, the more it appears that he wants to cast himself in the Nehruvian mould. He might be making no secret of his hatred of the Gandhi-Nehru family and the Congress, but it is obvious that he is silently gravitating towards an ideology that is not too different from that of the Congress.
So has Modi finally traversed the distance from Gujarat to India both politically and ideologically? He has not fully but he will eventually, for the simple fact that he is trying hard. He is an incredibly smart politician. He understands the limitation of the ideology of the organization he represents. He also realizes that he won’t ever be the statesman he wants to be if he does not extricate himself from the rabid views, economic, religious and otherwise, of his diehard followers.
He is a man known to be elastic in his convictions and capable of making quick, opportunistic transitions. We have seen it in his shifts from being a hardcore Hindutva campaigner to the champion Gujarat asmita to the messiah of development in a span of less than ten years. As an outsider staking claim to the Nehruvian legacy minus the Congress, he would need to offload some of the baggage of the past and the present.
After establishing himself as a bona fide pan Indian leader, he would be required to dump many of his followers. The exercise might be some way off, but it is inevitable. From the look of it he has started the process already in a subtle way. However, like all things Modi nothing is as black and white as they might seem. Since there’s no clarity yet on how successful he would be in a deeply fragmented polity, he might still go on pandering to the extreme elements, both as matters of convenience and necessity.
There’s the other possibility of him turning into the hardcore champion of the Sangh Parivar ideology once he is in a position of strength nationally. However, given the degree to which he is investing his energies to being viewed as a secular leader with moderate views in all matters that seems to be an unlikely proposition. Where does that leave all Modi followers?
To put it differently, if Modi turns into a truly secular leader where does it leave his Hindutva fan base? If he espouses a moderate and inclusive economic policy – the hint of it is clear from his speeches – where does it leave his devotees who believe in capitalism in its crudest form? You cannot separate hatemongering from Modi’s supporters. What happens when Modi asserts he does not believe in it? Of course, you would have a lot of bitter people around with a heavy sense of betrayal.
He has raised expectations everywhere and he might find it difficult to meet these. How, for example, can he balance, the religious obscurantism of some sections of the mother organizations with liberal tendencies of his middle class supporters? Modi’s biggest challenge in future would involve fighting off rabid, ideology-driven supporters. It’s only a matter of time.
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