The writing is already on the wall. The
portents are there for those who want to see them. It is a wonder how our crack
political analysts continue to ignore their message, why they refuse to take
the final leap of imagination. (That’s not strictly accurate: on Saturday, 29
March 2014, Kanti Bajpai in his Times of India article on Page 16, “Journey
Towards Soft Fascism” did hint at the shape of things to come. There may be
more such comments I have not read.)
NaMo, pronounced the proper way (“Na” as in
“Narendra”, “Mo” as in “Modi”) is a command in Sanskrit to bow down, to worship.
Make no mistake. You are being told in no uncertain terms to change your
behaviour, to perform an act of supplication. Ignore the message at your own
peril, boys and girls.
Modi brooks no opposition to his relentless
march to 7 Racecourse Road in Lutyens’ Delhi. He has already put all his
potential rivals in BJP (Big Guns one and all, mind you) in their place – in
the shade – out of reckoning – so demoralized that it will take them quite a
while to recover, let alone even think of retaliating. In this respect, he
reminds me of Indira Gandhi versus The Syndicate, c. 1969, a modern reenactment of the legendary David versus Goliath
encounter. And, all this notwithstanding
all his talk about being a strict follower of party discipline and so forth. http://bit.ly/1lxr2eG
In a smart move to lend legitimacy and glamour to NaMo,
they have even commissioned his “authorized” political biography launched close
to the date of the general elections. The 310-page tome is written by a
little-known British (our former masters, remember? Clever, clever!) author and
filmmaker, Andy Marino. Marino’s provenance seems at best somewhat sketchy (PhD
in Eng. Lit.). (Are there such creatures in the world as literary mercenaries?)
His “literary” output consists of obscure non-fiction (A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry and Hershel: The Boy Who Started World War Two).
If one were to take him at his word, though, he has had “a long relationship
with India” and has been “interested in its politics and history as far back as
I can recall.”
Be
that as it may, in his Hindustan Times interview http://bit.ly/Pc9S8A
Marino certified Modi’s straightforwardness adding that he was “complex” and “a
better administrator or anybody so completely possessed with enthusiasm for
what he does. His brain runs non-stop thinking about ways to improve
everything, and there’s an incredible energy.” As far as Modi’s honesty is concerned, Marino
says that he checked and cross-checked his answers and found them above
reproach. (For the convenience of the dyslexic as well as book-hating readers,
Rannade Prakashan and Blue Snail Animation have published a 45-page NaMo comic
book, Bal Narendra, apparently in the
Bal Hanuman vein. So, no efforts have been spared in nurturing the NaMo mythology.)
The
BJP campaign slogan is “Agli baar Modi
Sarkar” (Coming next: Modi Government). This has the same shade of the
recent abject capitulation by Penguin and Aleph about Wendy Doniger’s books on
Hinduism. Of course, the reason for not promising a BJP Sarkar may be twofold:
(1) The earlier BJP rule was not entirely free from taints of corruption and
scams. (2) If Modi comes to power, it will be most likely as the leader of a coalition.
Like Manmohan Singh, he too will have to face the vagaries of running a
coalition government. Eventually, given his popular support and, more
important, his forceful and aggressive personality, he may be able to drive a
tougher bargain with his partners. As time passes, NaMo will begin to better
appreciate the systemic impediments in his path. Once again his inherent nature
will not allow him to accept defeat meekly. His only option then will be to
take matters in his own two capable hands.
As
liberal conventional wisdom would have it, NaMo’s final ascension to absolute
no-holds power, if it ever comes to pass, may seem a disaster. The other way to
see it is as a happening belonging to the class of what Robert and Elizabeth
Bjork of UCLA Bjork Learning & Forgetting Lab have called “desirable
difficulties”. It will allow the decisive Shri NaMo to dismantle the wasteful
democratic superstructure of elections at both central and state levels thereby
saving the country enormous amounts of resources and removing in a single
stroke one of the biggest causes of corruption. Decision making and implementation can be
speeded up. Work ethics and discipline will improve by leaps and bounds as in
the days of Indira Gandhi’s Emergency. Business and “development” will get the
priority that Middle India is hankering after. India will be able to compete
with China on a level playing field. All this would not happen overnight but
during the course of the next five years.
Remember,
though, that all medicines would be placebos except for the patient’s belief in
their healing power.
