From Na-Mo to P.M.O.

The Modi Aandhi (Storm)-Tuesday 17th June 2014

The resounding chant by the massive crowds who gathered
at BJP rallies in Northern Indias Cow Belt, the Hindutva conservative base, ranging
on a north-south axis from the states of Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, parts of Punjab, Uttar
Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, parts of Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat,
Maharashtra and parts of Karnataka, which greeted the arrival of the helicopter
carrying BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to rallies, there and
throughout India, was Na Mo-Na Mo, an acronym for Narendranath Damodardas
Modi.
How Na Mo structured a journey from the remote village of Vadnagar, about 100 km
from Ahmadabad to the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) on Race Course Road in
Luytens New Delhi, has already become the stuff of virtual legend.
The stuff of legend
Born on 17 September 1950, Narendra Modi was the third child of Damodardas Modi
and Hiraben who belonged to an Other Backward Class (OBC) community. Modi
studied at B N High School, a co-educational Gujarati language high school. His
teachers and classmates remember him as ND, an average student, who was a keen
debater, participated in theatrical performances, a strong swimmer and a committed
member of the National Cadet Corps.
Modis father ran a tea stall along with his uncle and ND would
take tea in a kettle to sell to passengers at Vadnagar railway
station. During the election campaign Congress party scion Mani
Shankar Aiyer created a sensation when he sarcastically most
generously offered Modi a stall if he wanted to sell tea at the
Congress party annual sessions. Aiyer, a Brahmin, retired from
the Indian Foreign Service, was roundly condemned for this
comment!
ND showed an early commitment to social service by
volunteering to serve tea to Indian Army Jawans passing through
Vadnagar railway station on their way to fight in the 1965 Indo
-Pak war. He also involved himself in flood relief and other such
social service activities.
Modis parents, as is the Indian Hindu custom, arranged a
marriage for him when he was 17 to Jashobaden, but he never
lived with her. Jashobaden could not be traced by Indian media
during the 2014 election, she being a retired teacher by then, as
her family had very sensibly sent her on a strategic pilgrimage.
Indeed Modi admitted and disclosed this marriage for the first time in April 2014, only
when filing nomination papers for the Varanasi constituency for this 2014 election,
after the Indian Supreme Court had earlier ruled that non disclosure of relevant
information in a candidates nomination papers could result in the nomination and or
election being invalidated.
After Modis stunning victory, Jashobaden very graciously congratulated him and
wished him well and said she would certainly attend his inauguration event as Prime
Minister if invited. Indian media has not reported whether she was invited. Modi is
reported to have left home shortly after this marriage at 17 years and roamed the
scenic mountains of Kumaon, in the foothills of the Himalayas, about which the famed
author and Shikari Jim Corbet has written so eloquently, especially his masterpiece
The Man-eaters of Kumaon on hunting tigers who had turned rogue man eaters.

Modis social service work
Modis social service work drew him to the Rashthriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a
pro-Hindu social movement, and he became an RSS volunteer, a Pracharak.
Photographs of Modi have emerged on the internet showing him sporting his iconic
beard during these young days.
Biographers have written that Modis early responsibilities as a Pracharak included
making tea, breakfast and snacks for seniors, after they had finished their morning
their morning drills or Shakas. These are militaristic drills undertaken by RSS cadres
wearing white shirts and brown shorts using bamboo lathi poles. Contemporaries
however claim that Modi himself, a late sleeper, often missed the Shakas himself. But
by the time the 2014 election and indeed in his repeated terms as Gujarats Chief
Minister, he seemed to have outgrown this lethargy!
Over time with the RSS Modi built up a reputation as a superb organiser. Although the
RSS began in pre-independence India with charitable aims, it always carried quasi-
military overtones as evinced by the men in brown shorts performing morning
callisthenics. Today, the RSS has successfully re-branded itself as a more youthful,
right leaning, nationalist organisation, with rugby football and volleyball as alternatives
to the physical jerks with bamboo lathi poles of yore.


The effect Narendra Modi will have on South Asia is very interesting to speculate.
During the campaign, Modi declared that Indias smaller neighbours do not sometimes
show sufficient respect to Bharat. Modi broke new ground in inviting Pakistans Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif, who attended against the wishes, it is reported, of Pakistans
powerful Army, which sees India as an existential threat, and other South Asian
leaders. Reports of Modis meeting with Sri Lankas President are illuminating. Modi
reportedly requested the Sri Lanka President to expedite the process of national
reconciliation in a manner that meets the aspirations of the Tamil community for a life
of equality, justice, peace and dignity within united Sri Lanka
Unlike other recent Indian Governments at the centre, Modi has no coalition partners
to trip him up or moderate his policy idiosyncrasies, which he has to play up to. He has
a full Parliamentary majority which dominates the Lok Sabha. He will overcome the
temporary numbers issue in the Rajya Sabha in the short-term. Modis new Indian
Parliament is also in many ways a unique institution the 543 members of the Lok
Sabha are the wealthiest-ever Parliamentarians in Indias history. It has the largest-
ever number facing criminal charges in the history of India. It also has the lowest-ever
number of Muslims in Indias history


Modis distinctive tastes were short-sleeved kurtas with hand-tailored button holes.
Modi favours Swiss watches and Mont Blanc pens, those of us who watched his
inauguration would have notice the distinctive top luxury end of the market black Mont
Blanc Meisterstuck pen, with a white cap, Modi pulled out to sign his acceptance of the
Prime Minster of the Indian Republic.
But on the other hand Modi is a vegetarian teetotaller, who gets up at 5 a.m. every day
to do yoga exercises and meditate, reads the news for 15 minutes, checks his Tweets
and responds on his iPad. Modi was one of the first Indian politicians to own a digital
diary and reportedly has not taken a holiday in 12 years. Indeed as Prime Minister
Modi hit the PMO running, working a virtual 14-hour day!
Delhis laidback senior IAS bureaucrats were flabbergasted! He has ordered them to
tidy up their offices and maintain high standards of sanitation in the toilets. A welcome
order for anyone who has had to endure a rest room in an average Indian
departmental office! Modi is expected to bring n a selected team of IAS bureaucrats
from Gujarat soon. Modi, who has published a diary he kept as a young man, is a
regular writer and addictive tweeter and a poet whose work centres on nature and
patriotism.

Icon for communal violence
Narendra Modis rocketing rise from humble char wallah or tea seller transformed to a
national icon for communal violence to hyper efficient developmenalist will in time be
the stuff of legend.
The national icon for communal violence, with which Modi is branded, is due to Modis
alleged association with the worst anti Muslim riots in two decades in 2002, when Modi
was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. A train carrying Hindutva RSS cadres returning
triumphantly after destroying the Babri Masjid Mosque, at Ayodhya, the location of
which the Hindutvas claim is the birth place of Ram, where the Indias Mughal rulers
destroyed an ancient temple and built a mosque which the BJP and Hindutvas tore
down, caught fire at a station in Gujarat, and the Hindutva, who blamed the Muslims
for the arson, went on an anti-Muslim pogrom, blaming the Muslims for the arson.
There was some doubt later whether an electrical short in the train caused the fire.
Senior members of Modis State Government, the BJP and fraternal mass
organisations led murderous attacks against Muslim neighbourhoods across Gujarat.
The Police and remaining members of Modis State administration it is alleged, who
were not rioting stood around, as limp and powerless bystanders, feigning strategic
paralysis and ineptitude, at a time when their much-acclaimed, administrative and
crisis management skills were most needed.
While Modi has denied any role in the anti-Muslim pogrom, it is alleged that his State
Government has actively and systematically obstructed the investigation and
prosecution of those allegedly responsible. Notwithstanding this, one of his Ministers
in the Gujarat Government of that time has been convicted. Strangely Modi has not
expressed any contrition for the event under his watch either. Except, when pressed
by an aggressive interviewer, saying something like he was as sad as he would be
when he sees an innocent puppy dog run over by a car! A most unfortunate analogy!

Social development
Modis years as Chief Minister of Gujarat has had Indian capitalists such as Ratan Tata
and the Ambanis of the Reliance Group and other Indian and Foreign investors falling
over each other in praise of his decisiveness and consistency, commanding a
bureaucracy that took decisions and attracted massive Indian and FDI into Gujarat.
Gujarat is one of the few Indian states which have power 24/7 in India.
Modi has pushed strong initiatives into alternative energy. Gujarats infrastructure is
said to be world class, with road, harbours and airports which really deliver. On the
social development side, Modi has his critics, especially among Indias social
organisations and redistribution economists such as Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen,
who have criticised the low social indicators especially among the minorities. However,
Modi extremely successfully projected himself as a can-do hands-on administrator,
who can move India out of its lethargy caused by the inaction and indecisiveness of
the then incumbent Congress Government.
Indeed in the campaign Modi targeted the Gandhi family, Sonia and Rahul and Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh, who ushered in Indias revolutionary reforms, but today
reduced to a cipher under Sonia Gandhi chairmanship of the Congress party. Sadly
even Singhs former supporters now call him ham-handed, withdrawn, a wimp, and a
classical babu (a bureaucrat promoted way beyond his abilities, long past his sell by
date).
Allegations of endemic corruption under Congress rule was compared with Modis
claimed corruption-free management of Gujarat. Modi went for the jugular, during the
election, offering less Government, maximum governance.

Electorate responded in spades
The electorate responded in spades. The BJP attracted 31% of the vote; the
Congress, a mere 19%. Turnout of voters was unprecedented for India 55%,
compared to only 45% in 2009s election. Indias Westminster style first past the post
system enabled the BJP to win 282 of the 543 seat in Indias Parliament with only 31%
of the popular vote. The BJP led alliance totalled 336. The Congress was reduced to a
mere rump of 44 members of Parliament. Only well-established, well-known,
longstanding senior Congress MPs were re-elected. Modi called it an Aandhi (storm);
his supporters labelled it a tsunami.
Modi was sworn in on 26 May; an event which some described as a coronation, with
the Mounted Lancers of Indias Presidential Guard present in ceremonial brilliance and
grandeur. It was acclaimed as the grandest event since independence at Rasthrapathi
Bhavan, the President of Indias red sandstone Luyten-designed palace. 4,000 invitees
indulged in Modis well-known fondness for dramatics.
Like Asoka the Great who vanquished all before him through war, before sickening of
the killing and accepting the Dharma of the Thathagatha Siddhartha Gautama, the
Buddha, Modi had arrayed before him his vanquished local political rivals and all the
leaders of the South Asian region.

Effect on South Asia
The effect Narendra Modi will have on South Asia is very interesting to speculate.
During the campaign, Modi declared that Indias smaller neighbours do not sometimes
show sufficient respect to Bharat. Modi broke new ground in inviting Pakistans Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif, who attended against the wishes, it is reported, of Pakistans
powerful Army, which sees India as an existential threat, and other South Asian
leaders.
Reports of Modis meeting with Sri Lankas President are illuminating. Modi reportedly
requested the Sri Lanka President to expedite the process of national reconciliation in
a manner that meets the aspirations of the Tamil community for a life of equality,
justice, peace and dignity within united Sri Lanka.
Modi reportedly turned to Indias Secretary to the Ministry of External Affairs and asked
what assurances Sri Lanka had given the previous Indian Prime Minister. The
Secretary replied: to fully implement the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lanka
Constitution and even go beyond it. Modi also commented that it was five years since
the LTTE was defeated.
Clearly Modi intends to be a mover and shaker within India and outside. Modi would
want to consolidate his support in states which the BJP could not do well; West
Bengal, for example, where Mamta Bannerjees Trinamul Congress won. During the
campaign, Modi repeatedly referred to Muslims refugees from Bangladesh as
outsiders, and Hindu returnees as genuine refugees.
In the same way, the BJP did badly in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Modi would
want to outmanoeuvre and outflank Chief Minister Jayalalitha, on the tissue of
projection of Sri Lankas Tamils, and the protection of Indian fishermen who brazenly
poach in Sri Lankan waters in the Palk Straits, destroying the livelihood of the northern
Sri Lanka fishermen.

Domestic and foreign security threats
Modi offered India a rapid path to development on the Chinese autocratic model, fast-
tracked infrastructure development, smart technical solutions, and authoritarian
efficiency. Promoting the banner of patriotism and development, Modi presented to the
Indian voter a unifying vision that claimed to be able to transcend the traditional
special interest politics which had bedevilled the Indian polity since independence,
based on issues of caste and religion that has fractured and fragmented Indian
society.
Analysts predict that Modi will have a no-nonsense approach to domestic and foreign
security threats. In place of an inchoate and confused mix of half-hearted carrots and
sticks offered to the Maoists in the BIMARU states (Bihar, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and
Uttar Pradesh) and the Kashmiri militants, which have kept their battle alive without
effective resolution for years, Modi will have a simple and effective securocractic
answer: just say no.
The Maoists and the Kashmiri militants will be dealt with, analysts predict, in the same
way the Chinese deal with the Tibetans, the Israelis with the West Bank Palestinians,
and closer to home, the Government of Sri Lanka with the LTTE, overwhelming
military force in the short-term, demographic encirclement in the medium-term and
efforts to overwhelm the opposition through infrastructure development and other
carrots in the long-term.

Modis new Indian Parliament
Unlike other recent Indian Governments at the centre, Modi has no coalition partners
to trip him up or moderate his policy idiosyncrasies, which he has to play up to. He has
a full Parliamentary majority which dominates the Lok Sabha. He will overcome the
temporary numbers issue in the Rajya Sabha in the short-term.
Modis new Indian Parliament is also in many ways a unique institution the 543
members of the Lok Sabha are the wealthiest-ever Parliamentarians in Indias history.
It has the largest-ever number facing criminal charges in the history of India. It also
has the lowest-ever number of Muslims in Indias history.
A cynic lays out the future of India and South Asia for the next five years dominated
by a Legislature full of rich, criminal Hindutvas, led by an executive which is
authoritarian, pro-business, anti-Muslim and entrenched in a greater Bharath fantasy
which will be the dominating dogma in regional diplomacy, based on the quip
remember its the Indian Ocean not the South Asian Sea!
Modis first visit to a neighbouring state sets the trend; it is to Bhutan a virtual vassal
state of India, whose security is ensured by a resident Indian Army garrison in the
capital Thimpu, at brigade strength. One is reminded of that hoary old Chinese curse:
May you live in interesting times!
(The writer is a lawyer, who has over 30 years of experience as a CEO in both State
and private sectors. He retired from the office of Secretary, Ministry of Finance and
currently is the Managing Director of the Sri Lanka Business Development Centre.)