The drum beats of our noisy electoral democracy can now be distinctly heard. The time for bandhans, gathbandhans, mahagathbandhans, milawats, and mahamilawats is past. Napoleons are sallying forth to do battle for Lok Sabha 2019, from them the masses will pick out a Bonaparte. What will influence their choice ? Past will matter, so will past performance. But none more than the present moment. The Napoleon Bonaparte may well be the one who will write a good script on the slate of the present moment , one so compelling that people will not read the old slate. And to do that he needs oratorical skills of the tallest order.
To that end, the Sankalp rally in Gandhi Maidan, Patna on 3rd March 2019 was a revelation. Mr Modi is several notches above his rivals in that department. Here’s a snapshot, judge for yourself.
To that end, the Sankalp rally in Gandhi Maidan, Patna on 3rd March 2019 was a revelation. Mr Modi is several notches above his rivals in that department. Here’s a snapshot, judge for yourself.
‘Modi ! Modi ! Modi ! ‘ rises the tumult as he enters the grounds ; ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ ,bawls the rumbustious crowd in front as he steps onto the stage. Has he, the eleventh avatar of Vishnu to some, subsumed ‘Bharat Mata’ too ? So it seems. He takes the mike and commands the ginormous throng to chorus ‘Bharat mata ki Jai’ ,one , two, three times before he launches into a blistering, unforgiving assault on opposition. The boisterous crowds in the front enclosures respond enthusiastically, flailing arms wildly they yell and yell, the resulting clamour so intense that the ground under shakes. Spell-bound, the crowd latches onto his every word, cheers lustily, breaks into hypnotic spells of ‘Modi ! Modi ! Modi !’ and ‘BMKJ’ . His diatribes keep igniting sparks of spontaneous applause. I recall ,not so long ago at this very venue in 2013 , exploding bombs had failed to break his bromance with the crowd, it stayed put while he spoke on without missing a train of thought. Nothing has changed since.
Lalu Yadav may quibble over the numbers in the crowd, undoubtedly lesser than what his landmark ‘garib rally’ mustered. What, however, matters is the emotional resonance Mr Modi whipped up. Besides, the ‘absentee’ crowd is of no consequence. When Giriraj Singh dubs them ‘deshdrohis’ and Pakistan lovers he leaves unsaid - they are to be pushed into Pakistan. And the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road as well as Lahore airport are now open to traffic.
Mr Modi combines ineluctable oratory with an uncanny sense and feel of the moment, its pulse, and above all , an ability to modulate its rhythm and beat to serve his political purposes. Generously spliced with a ‘mahamilawat’ of fact, fiction, half-truths ,if not subterfuge, it treads a fine line between oratory, demagoguery and rabble-rousing. Mulayam, Navin Patnaik, Mamata, Mayawati are powerful leaders but with a limited gift of the gab. It much circumscribes their pan India appeal.
And that makes Mr Modi not just complacent but cocksure of imminent return to power. He speaks the language of a victor. In his last soliloquy , ‘Man ki Baat’ , he invited the audience to his next one in May, that is after the polls. The opposition is challenged to table its next no-confidence motion against his government in 2024. That ‘Hindu Hridyay Samrat’ is destined to sculpt a Hindu India is an unshakeable article of faith among his fans. Doubting Thomas es may whistle in the dark.
However, the problem with potent orators is the potential their magical spell carry to inveigle listeners into believing the diabolic - the Robespierre's wisdom “ terror is nothing else than justice ,prompt, secure and inflexible” ; or the absurd - a loan of Rupees one lac crore from Japan for a bullet train is ‘almost free’; or that demonetisation is a Robin Hoodian act of snatching from the rich to give to the poor ; or that an increment in national pride gained by raising the tallest statue in the world is more edifying than putting food in a begging bowl.
It creates an asymmetry, highlighting the script on the present slate and blurring that on the old slate. When Mr Modi bellows in Sankalp rally “जब हमारी सेना सीमा के पार आतंकियों को कुचलने में लगी है...... मैं कांग्रेस और उसके सहयोगी दलों से पूछना चाहता हूँ कि वे क्यों वीर जवानों का मनोबल तोड़ने में लगे हैं ?” , the people will not read that a CM, Modi ducked a caveat on VVIP presence during ongoing army operations against 26/11 terrorists to address the press in Mumbai on 27/11 and express his deep disappointment with the PM. Or that contrary to the prevailing zeitgeist of ‘lionising’ security forces he, even three hours after Pulwama attack, failed to solace bereaved families of killed jawans, not even a mention in his address at an election rally the same evening. Also erased from the old slate will be the grim fact that not one elected representative, ‘Sushasan Babu’ and ‘Chota Modi’ included, paid their last respects to Pintu Singh, the slain jawan at Patna airport on Friday, or at the cremation grounds in Begusarai on Sunday ,except Upendra Paswan, the Bakhri MLA from RJD. Knee-deep in politics, skin-deep in love for soldiers. When ‘mahagathbandhan’ is decried as ‘mahamilawat’ , the crowd is expected to turn blind to NDA’s own pot-pourri of 40 parties including the Afzal Guru glorifying PDP and mercurial Shiv Sena.
Going forward, Mr Modi’s oratorical skills will come in handy to camouflage ‘Grapes of Wrath’ that blot NDA’s five years- farmers’ distress, a 45-year high in unemployment ,and an economy settling into a new ‘Hindu’ growth rate of 7% under the new GDP series, to name a few ‘wrathful grapes’. Will the rhetorician , Modi, be able to deflect attention away to highfalutin abstract notions of national hubris, cultural nationalism, global standing ? Can he do what Anytus and co-accusers did to earn Socrates’ lament at the trial ‘ I know that they almost made me forget who I was -so persuasively did they speak and yet they have hardly uttered a word of truth.’
That is the challenge Mr Modi poses to his opponents. Will they be able to blunt popular appeal generated by Mr Modi’s rhetoric surrounding immediate events like terror attacks and plethora of nation-wide unrolling of projects and foundation layings at the fag end of his tenure by baring the ‘wrathful grapes’ ? Mr Ram Vilas Paswan’s expose- post aerial strike Mr Modi’s chest has expanded to 156” and ‘Chota’ Modi’s assertion that even ten hawks were no match for the lion Modi won’t make the task any easier.
That is the challenge Mr Modi poses to his opponents. Will they be able to blunt popular appeal generated by Mr Modi’s rhetoric surrounding immediate events like terror attacks and plethora of nation-wide unrolling of projects and foundation layings at the fag end of his tenure by baring the ‘wrathful grapes’ ? Mr Ram Vilas Paswan’s expose- post aerial strike Mr Modi’s chest has expanded to 156” and ‘Chota’ Modi’s assertion that even ten hawks were no match for the lion Modi won’t make the task any easier.
My neighbour with whom I have regular political jousts entertains no doubts ; Mr Modi ,he says , is a GOAT ! Since he never tires of lionising him, I thought GOAT was a bit of a let down . Till he explained,
GOAT - Greatest of all time .
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