Modi’s Paradox: At 70, His 7 Deadly Sins For ‘Liberals’ Are The Reason His Followers Love Him

If the Indian left and liberals ever deign to introspect on where they have failed to understand Narendra Modi politically, November 8, 2016 is a good date to start. The day the demonetization occurred.

It was the world’s largest banknote scrapping exercise, as India eliminated 86 percent of its cash in circulation.

It took even the most seasoned economic experts to recover from the shock and begin to weigh the pros and cons. Political experts took longer to raise their jaws. It was inconceivable for a prime minister to be so self-destructive, especially with the country’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh, going to elections in less than three months.

When a much softer demonetization plan was brought to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1971, she had harshly ignored it: “Won’t there be more elections for the Congress party?”

So left-wing liberal commentators embarked on predicting how DeMo will be Modi’s political grave. The mainstream media published reports of people fainting and dying in queues at ATMs, and the Opposition led by Rahul Gandhi thought they had won the elections. brahmastra.

The BJP swept the elections in Uttar Pradesh on February 11, 2017, without projecting the face of a chief minister. Modi returned to the Center with a larger majority in 2019.

DeMo was the turning point for an organization historically perceived as a bania-brahmin match. The poor and the backward flocked. While the commentator lashed out at Modi for the suffering of the poor in the queues, the poor were glad that the rich couldn’t hide their riches, and many of them were in those same queues.

When the prime minister turns 70, the most interesting, albeit daunting for many, part of the Modi phenomenon is that his base of support grows and backs him more strongly for the exact reasons why a section of the English-speaking urban intelligentsia hates it.

Modi is authoritative, hawkish

The most common complaint from left liberals is that Modi crushes dissent and has fascist tendencies.

Yet the millions who vote for him see a rare determination and willingness to take risks. They see someone who is capable of making decisions that he believes are good for the nation.

The fascist insult doesn’t hold up because Modi is cunning enough to make even the most impressive and disruptive decisions, such as repeal of Article 377 or passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) through a proper constitutional mechanism.

While the pacifists lamented their aggressive diplomacy, India’s surgical strikes and the Doklam resolution made the difference between the defeat of Congress in 2019 and a beating.

Modi a Hindu fanatic, hates Muslims

It started with the 2002 riots and fully crystallized with Modi’s refusal to wear a hat. The smear of Modi as an anti-Muslim tyrant was complete among the “seculars.”

Yet this is what his core voters and even many on the sidelines admire about him. It does not appease Muslims. It does not give the Islamists an inch.

While liberals focus on the aftermath, their admirers tell you privately that secularism was so perverted that the Islamist mob had the recklessness to openly burn 59 Hindus on that train in Godhra. For them, Modi’s policy represents a bulwark against violent and malevolent Islamism.

The prime minister wears Hindutva on his sleeves. Proudly perform puja in saffron robes in Varanasi or Kedarnath, embellish your speeches with Sanskrit shlokas, and has never been concerned about the public display of his dharma.

The more this annoys the uprooted intellectual class, the more they sympathize with Modi among his followers. A silent majority have seen their traditions and way of life slighted and belittled for decades, even centuries, and now a strongman at the top has reversed that.

The Modi government has done quiet work despite these perceptions. It obtained scholarships of Rs 3.14 million for minority students between 2014 and 2019, 20 lakh more than the Rs 2.94 million grants during UPA-2. It has spent 22 billion rupees in the last six years on minority welfare. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the largest evacuation campaign in the Vande Bharat Mission has been of Indian workers in Islamic countries.

Modi is a king of drama

The prime minister has been patronizingly called an “event manager,” “nautanki“AND”madari”By his critics. But it’s this consummate showmanship that his audience connects with. It’s the grandeur of their rallies, the predictable unpredictability of their 8 p.m. announcements, the flamboyant ethnic dresses, the hugs with world leaders, the break up at an event with Mark Zuckerberg, or the sound of colony after colony across the country. clapping and thanking COVID. 19 warriors who have made the Modi brand surpass the Nehru-Gandhi brand, built over eight to nine decades, in just six or seven years.

Indians love drama. It is part of their popular tradition, their culture. Modi agrees.

Modi is ruthless to his rivals

Critics of the prime minister attack him for being ruthless to rivals and dissenting voices. From hints about the murder of his Gujarati colleague Haren Pandya to his relentless attack on the Nehru-Gandhi family, they have built a narrative about the cold executioner around him.

His followers love that. The more the narrative gets stronger, the more they resemble what an Australian cricketer once said about then-Indian captain Sourav Ganguly: “He’s a bastard. But what a magnificent bastard. “

For them, Modi is their man to end dynastic politics, appeasement, real and imagined slights to their culture, faith and tradition.

Modi is a rude self-promoter

Videos abound of the prime minister pushing security personnel and even international leaders out of the frame to hog the camera’s time. He is accused of taking center stage even at local project openings. The adulatory comics about his childhood and his cloud cover theory of Balakot’s air raids have caused much joy.

But ask the autowallah, the taxi driver, or the guy from the paan shop, and they will tell you that the world has started to fear and respect India only after Modi’s arrival. This is how their actions unfold in the mass psyche.

Modi’s economy is a mess

Not only his rivals, but many within the BJP such as Subramanian Swamy or those on the ideological right in India are extremely critical of his approach to economics. They call him an incrementalist and a covert socialist and not a visionary of the free economy.

But their socio-economic schemes like Jan Dhan, Ujjwala and Prime Minister Awas Yojana have changed the rules of the game on the ground. And even as the Indian industry has been thwarted by “tax terror” and certain late market reforms, the middle and lower-middle classes have rejoiced that it has brought in a host of socially smart plans like Ayushman Bharat.

Modi inspires an army of trolls

The prime minister is the Voldemort of liberal social media. They see their dark brand every time the ‘Death Eaters’ disarm them on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. Liberals think that every pro-Modi voice on social media is part of BJP’s TI cell.

However, an overwhelming majority of these ‘Death Eaters’ are ordinary young Indians fed up with what they see as the elite clique that ruled the nation. Social media gave them a voice for the first time to challenge “smug” Bollywood writers, presenters and stars who weren’t used to two-way communication.

The more this wrapped club threw out each questioning voice like “troll”, the bigger this army grew. Spontaneously, without the help of the Modi regime, but drawing inspiration from him.

The more the left and liberals beat this faceless mass, the more they relate to the prime minister. “He faced from them what we are facing,” they infer.

That keeps Modi growing in strength into the 70s. It’s a more potent political potion than the one Getafix the Druid can cook.