Personalities in electoral politics matter all over the world, and have continued to do so in India as well. But largely, the personalities have been leaving their impact by associating themselves with issues. In this sense, the Gujarat phenomenon is somewhat different.
Although Narendra Modi has been Prime Minister since 2014, his personality remains entwined with the electoral politics of Gujarat ever since he became its Chief Minister for the first time in 2001. After he took over the throne of Gujarat 21 years ago, there has not been any election in which issues related to the functioning of the government or the practical problems of the people have played a significant role. It is his personality that has put all other issues in the shade. In that sense, he seems to be in a unique position in the country's politics.
Obviously, this position is the result of special circumstances and perceptions. Yet, even at his pinnacle, Modi has not been able to get his party, the BJP—at least in the assembly elections—the numbers that former Congress chief ministers Chimanbhai Patel or Madhavsinh Solanki pulled off in the 1980s and ’90s when their party won two-thirds of the state assembly seats. So, it is not enough to understand the Modi phenomenon merely in the context of the campaign to make Gujarat a laboratory of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) after Godhra riots in 2002 in Gujarat, when he started to be called Hindu Hriday Samrat (Emperor of Hindu hearts).
Until then, the moniker of the Hindu Hriday Samrat was conferred only on veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani because of his Ram Janmabhoomi movement in Ayodhya in the early 1990s. Incidentally, it was Advani who was initially instrumental in getting Modi to the chief minister’s chair because of the constant tussle between BJP’s state heavyweights like Keshubhai Patel and Suresh Mehta. It was said back then Modi was made to sit on the chief minister’s chair to bring about a reconciliation between the two warring veterans. But the situation changed dramatically after the Gujarat riots.
At the BJP convention in Goa after the riots, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, heading the NDA government at the Centre, was said to be adamant on Modi’s removal, but Advani stepped in to save him on the grounds that it would affect the party's prospects, especially in Gujarat. But in the wake of the riots, the NDA camp had started disintegrating and the Congress-led UPA won the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. Of course, issues such as people’s hardships caused by the rapid pace of economic liberalisation were important factors that contributed to the NDA's defeat, but the Gujarat riots, according to experts, played a central role in it at the national level.
In the 2002 Assembly Elections in Gujarat, Narendra Modi managed to retain power by winning a little more seats than Congress. In the campaign of that election itself, Modi raised emotional issues and at some of his rallies, he kept on challenging Pakistan’s military ruler Pervez Musharraf in a threatening tone. Obviously, its signals were clear which proved to be effective. Soon thereafter, the efforts to build his image and make Gujarat a new kind of laboratory got underway. It is a different matter that at around the same time, efforts to marginalise his opponents in the state BJP and Sangh Parivar also started. Sanjay Joshi of the Sangh and Pravin Togadia of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, for example, were left in the political wilderness. Veteran BJP leaders such as Keshubhai Patel, Suresh Mehta etc. were also rendered almost ineffective. Haren Pandya was killed and the state BJP suddenly began to look like without his rivals.
But the taint of the riots did not leave Modi. In the rest of the political fraternity and at the international fora, his image had become that of a hardline Hindutva leader. The corporate style of marketing that followed was primarily seen by the political commentators as a bid to counter that. Such an experiment had already started in the BJP to a lesser extent earlier in 1996, and to a greater extent in 1999, when the BJP hired the services of a famous marketing guru Runu Sen.
Sen advised the party to fight the entire election on the image of Vajpayee. Posters, banners of Atal Bihari Vajpayee were put up all over India. Advani and the Sangh were initially not ready for that, but it was argued that the emphasis on personality cult would shift the focus away from the ideology. Modi perhaps understood that lesson and in 2004-05, an American firm was engaged for Modi's image building. After a few years, Prashant Kishor’s team also joined Modi in Gujarat.
Modi got the benefit of this in the 2007 elections as BJP’s seats increased a bit. At around the same time, the Tatas had withdrawn from Singur in West Bengal (where they were supposed to set up their Nano car factory) because of widespread agitation. Modi quickly made available land to the Tata family in Anand at a very affordable rate and emerged as a champion of big industries in the process. He started organising Gujarat Investment Summits regularly in his state and it was publicised in such a way that Gujarat became the ultimate destination for huge investments. After winning the assembly elections in 2012, he apparently started speaking continuously on national issues to create a personality cult.
During his tenure as the CM, on August 15, a platform looking like the ramparts of the Red Fort was made in Kutch from where he addressed. From 2013 onwards, he started attending FICCI events and events of prestigious commerce colleges in Delhi and Mumbai. He also announced the famous mantra that ‘the Government has no business to be in business’ to win over the corporate world.
It is also to be mentioned that in the 2007 and 2012 elections too, Modi raised emotive issues. On being referred to as the ‘merchant of death’ allegedly by Congress President Sonia Gandhi, he called it an insult to six-crore Gujaratis. He also fuelled apprehensions that Congress leader Ahmed Patel would become the Gujarat chief minister. Even in the 2017 Assembly Elections, in the last round of meetings, he pushed all other issues behind by linking his alleged insult to Gujarat. At that time, the state was witnessing the rise of movements led by leaders such as Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani, who were all with the Congress. The BJP could not win 100 seats in that election. This time, when Hardik and Alpesh are contesting on the BJP ticket, the BJP still seems to be betting on his image more than anything else.
The reasons are also far to seek. The much-touted Gujarat model appears to have lost its sheen. At present, Gujarat is ranked 19th in the country on malnutrition. The condition of Gujarat is no better in the rest of the Human Development Index as well. Gujarat is lagging behind many states in terms of education and health. Besides, the problems of inflation, unemployment, farmers and small traders are still there. Such parameters in Gujarat have rarely been better in the past 21 years that Modi has been in office in Gujarat and New Delhi. His party apparently thinks that only the image of a big personality can cover up these issues. That's probably why spending a lot on image building exercises has become a political mantra. Government expenditure on newspapers, TV and social media has also increased manifold. Which other party can compete in this regard, given the fact that BJP gets more than 85 per cent of the donations of electoral bonds?
(Harimohan Mishra is a senior political commentator)
