JULY 15- The nation is tired of seeking an apology from Narendra Modi. Narendra Modi is tired of not apologising. This all-demand-no-supply game is itself demanding on our collective nerves. After the Indian media gave up climbing the palm tree naked, the foreigners have jumped in. Almost apologetic about asking for an apology, they ask the Gujarat growth driver: Do you regret what happened when you were at the wheel in 2002?
Modi, who’s been trying to mend fences with Muslims, goes a distance farther than the last time, then stops short of the finish line. He says he feels sad even when a puppy comes under the wheels of a car he may not be driving. “Chief minister or not, I am a human being and I feel sad,” he said something to that effect.
The effect was something else. A big brouhaha over Modi insulting the majority minority in the country by, wait, equating them with puppies. Modi’s spokesfolks went on a overdrive to drive home his intent, but the debate-driven TV was content with the content. Intense debates don’t need intent or sense, controversies make them tense enough. Modi delivers controversy.
While the BJP is worried whether Modi tops in 2014, they can be happy that Modi stays on top of the mind. A party largely ignored in large parts of the country needs a leader who is loved or hated, never ignored. His words are dissected letter by letter by men and women of letters and the unlettered alike.
The BJP needs him. Does the country need him? Well, his proud Hindu fan base claims all India ever needed was Modi. Modi says there’s nothing wrong in being a Hindu nationalist. “I am a Hindu. Nothing wrong in it. I am a nationalist. Nothing wrong in it. So you can call me Hindu Nationalist.” If he’s proud of his birth religion, he could call himself a nationalist Hindu. He did not. He chooses his words carefully. So neither the puppy phraseology (The analogy equation is stupid) nor the phrase Hindu Nationalist were slips of tongue. He carries on with Moditva, his brand of Hindutva, soft or hard. The Hindu right loves him, the Muslim right hates him. He knows he can’t set that right. Nothing wrong in it, he would most likely say.
His economic policies are neither Left nor Right. By opposing many liberal policies of the Centre in the past, he’s shown he is no different from the Right-Wing Swadeshi brigade that supports capitalism but abhors competition or open market. The economic progress in Gujarat during his regime do not show any evidence of his love for free market either. He has favoured big businesses in the same crony capitalistic way that the Congress has done. After a late but solid start toward liberalisation, India slowed down and got stuck because India’s rulers thought good economics is not good politics. His economic policies are much the same as his party’s or Congress’s for that matter. Doing a Gujarat, in growth terms, across India is difficult if not impossible. India is diverse and ruled by different parties and their chief ministers. The growth accelerators that he put in place in one state have to be implemented by chief ministers, not the prime minister. Being prime minister gives one little opportunity to do what states can do. It only gives one a handle on policy. Modi hardly speaks about policy. What people mistake for his vision are formulae and management tips. Tips help at the tipping point, but it is policy that takes the economy to that point.
So what’s his big promise? He’s yet to make a presentation about it. Whatever little constructive mutterings he has let out have been lost in the din over his controversial utterings. If he wants to be seen as more than a polariser, he has to show that he is a real change-maker. And change begins at home. That change has to be seen before the election madness begins.
INDIA TODAY
