The man who once served fresh buns and tea at a roadside stall in Ahmedabad is today emerging as the most potent brew to come out of Sangh stables
In the late 1960s, Narendra Modi used to help his brother run a tea-stall at the Gita Mandir bus stand in Ahmedabad, serving fresh buns and hot cups of tea. Among the regular clients were a bunch of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leaders who used to animatedly discuss political developments for hours at a stretch. Then in his late teens, the Sangh idealogy left a lasting impression on this youngster who was studying political science at that time.
He quit the tea stall to become a swayamsevak and later a full-time pracharak. Forty years later, Modi is emerging as the most potent brew to come out of the Sangh’s stables, with even stalwarts of India Inc fuelling his political ambition to look beyond the boundaries of Gujarat.
There was shock and surprise in January this year when Anil Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal, impressed by the fact that the Vibrant Gujarat investment summit had clocked pledges worth $250 billion in these depressed economic conditions, publicly endorsed this “future Prime Minister”.
Other second-rung Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, who are wary of the growing stature of the Gujarat chief minister, reacted with indignation. Modi was quick to declare that his only focus was to see L K Advani as the next prime minister. But then, many in the BJP see Modi’s emergence at the national level as the writing on the wall, given Advani’s advancing age and the absence of any other mass leader and masterstrategist in their midst, especially after the demise of Pramod Mahajan.
Advani is right in a way. The BJP’s PM-candidate is no longer seen as the face of Hindutva, a plank the BJP was forced to shed in order to gain acceptability among allies in an era of coalition politics. At the same time, the BJP is keen to use Modi’s exceptional oratorial skills, organisational capacity and image as Hindutva’s poster-boy in other states.
That’s an image which came with his dubious handling of the Gujarat riots of 2002 and helped Modi to win two successive assembly elections in Gujarat — both with two-thirds majority. But he would like to be seen now as India Inc. sees him — as a man who has put the development of Gujarat on the fast track and has the potential of replicating it across the country.
While he steps up the ante on Islamic terror, conscious efforts have been made to shed the Hindu ‘hriday samrat’ tag, with a demolition spree against illegal temples in Gandhinagar and the recent appointment of Shabbir Khandwawala as head of Gujarat police.
It only helped his image make-over when Vishwa Hindu Parishad general secretary Ashok Singhal compared him with Mahmud Ghazni over the temple demolition move.
Add to that the huge participation of Muslim countries at the last Vibrant Gujarat meet, which surprised much of the western world which still treats Modi as a pariah.
The party has given Modi charge of the BJP’s election campaign in the entire western region, covering Maharashtra, Goa and the Union Territories. This means Modi will effectively have control of 78 constituencies, including seats which ally Shiv Sena will contest.
Party sources say state units from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa and others are also desperately seeking election rallies by Modi who is expected to be a bigger crowd-puller than Advani who, in a recent interview, admitted that Modi was perhaps more popular than him.
“This is BJP’s timetested formula of presenting a moderate and hardline face simultaneously. Modi is seeking the same role which Advani used to earlier play for Vajpayee as the star campaigner,” said a senior BJP leader.
Govindacharya, the former BJP leader who was thrown out by the party some years back for calling Atal BihariVajpayee “the BJP’s secular mask”, says: “His (Narednra Modi’s) time will come. It is just a matter of time.”
Well, everyone knows by now the role of the mask in Narendra Modi’s political career.
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