At this point in his rule, depending on your political leanings, you could term Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s inclusivist politics of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas” – the official slogan of the Modi-led BJP – or “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vote”, as tactics of a shrewd opportunist. But the speed, and it must be acknowledged, skill, at which he is firing salvo after salvo, is leaving the Opposition in a tizzy.
The latest shot was the British band Coldplay’s concert in Mumbai under the banner of Global Citizen Festival, whose gathering Modi had addressed at Central Park in New York during his first visit to the US after becoming Prime Minister. The popular alternative rock band can be seen as far from Hindutva politics that we could expect in the Modi reign.
A massive crowd of 80,000 young men and women, addressed via video by Modi in Delhi, who quoted Bob Dylan to boot and plugged Swachchh Bharat while at it too, turned up to sway and swing to a brilliant performance by the band. Among the highlights of the concert was lead singer Chris Martin jamming with AR Rahman who sang Vande Mataram. Martin joined in, and later waved the Indian Tricolour on stage as he belted out the hit “A Sky Full of Stars”.
As far as messaging goes, this was a spectacular display of trendy, benign nationalism, a global humanism and patriotism, a secular, liberal concert made possible by Modi, far removed from the cow-politics in the hinterland also unfolding under him and which dominated the discourse, especially in the first phase of his prime ministership.
No doubt, Modi has, with this move, made an impression on the young, trendy cashless crowd who would anyway buy their tickets via plastic cards and couldn’t be too bothered by the noise Opposition leaders like the CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury is making on ATM queues where people are seen lining up after demonetisation was announced. A seemingly stunned Opposition is seen shooting itself in the foot in response.
The Congress vice-president tweeted even as the Friday night concert in Mumbai was on: “The cold play while the poor suffer”, a rather lacklustre pun on the band’s name, which will not help to endear him or his party to evidently what looks like a huge number of young Coldplay fans and the VH1 crowd which, ironically, is seen as the support base of the preppy “youth icon” Gandhi.
But this is only the latest salvo. The demonetisation of 500 and 1000 denomination notes was another surprise unleashed only last week. Seen as a risky and bold move, the economic benefits or fallouts of which can only be ascertained in the long term, it again was politically unexpected as it stands the risk of alienating the BJP’s loyal supporters of traders, and aims to target as allies the poor and the middle classes. The move is being sold by the BJP as a means of targeting black money in the economy and, as Rajnath Singh said, to “decrease the gap between the haves and the have-nots.” This section was previously the vote domain of the Left-leaning Congress and the emerging and ambitious new party from Delhi, AAP.
Before that, it was the announcement of ‘surgical strikes’ against terror camps in Pakistan, again pleasing the ‘nationalists’ demanding action on Pakistan as well as the peaceniks, who were assured it was not an act of war against the people of Pakistan but terror camps within territory it controls.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister, who quotes Bob Dylan and pushes for a modern plastic and cashless economy – the way another “modern” Prime Minister, the late Rajiv Gandhi of the Congress, pushed for computers – has not distanced himself from the Hindutva base either. Some of it addresses Hindu sentiments within the framework of a secular Constitution – for example the controversial cow protection promised by the BJP and accommodated in the Constitution.
However, in BJP rule this has crossed over into dangerous and sinister territory with Hindutva supporters or Gau Rakshaks, as well as members of the Government, using it to target and harass minorities as we have seen across the country from Dadri to Haryana. The Prime Minister only gave a stern warning to fake gau rakshaks and some say that was too little too late.
Moreover, the Prime Minister, far from taking action against BJP members promoting divisiveness, is often seen publicly praising them – for instance his sound backing of Yogi Adityanath who made incendiary speeches after the incident at Dadri after a Muslim was killed on the suspicion of eating beef. In poll-headed states, the BJP has employed communally charged campaigns, from Ghar Wapsi to Love Jihad.
This hard-selling of Hindutva has continued under Modi who, while himself never seen using or publicly endorsing the tactics, is perceived as turning a blind eye to them, thereby keeping this base of voters intact as well.
We are witnessing therefore a Prime Minister who quotes Star Wars “May the Force Be With You”, to and audience in New York, appears to seek the friendship and approval of the liberal Barack Obama who he calls ‘Barack’ while sending more hard-line nationalist messages with ‘surgical strikes’, and moral messages of internal strikes on black money, even as he chants “Jai Shri Ram” on Diwali.
He professes admiration for Mahatma Gandhi, murdered by Godse, even as his close aides like Amit Shah sing praise of Hindutva icon Veer Savarkar. Modi champions the economic empowerment of the Muslim community and their dignity as equal citizens, even as Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan in Madhya Pradesh makes ‘biryani’ taunts in the aftermath of the controversial Bhopal encounter
Prime Minister Modi is turning out to be a swift mover, changing the game every moment, expanding his areas of influence even as keeping others intact, pursuing modernism while retaining traditionalism, wooing the liberal while assuring the conservative. His politics is a mix of the moral and the administrative, seeking to address both the past and the future, at a pace that is leaving the combined Opposition hapless in pursuit.
While this disruptive politics makes a grand spectacle as it plays out, the real Prime Minister will have to stand up sooner or later: the politics of hate and divisiveness, tolerance and inclusion, can only be played out together so long, before both vote-banks will demand to know which side he is exactly on when they head to the ballot in 2019.