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Karan Thapar Wants to Assassinate Narendra Modi

December 29, 2007

LaNarendra Modi’s stunning victory will change Indian politics decisively, perhaps
dramatically, possibly desperately. I have no doubt it’s a turning point. Actually, it
will amount to several turning points. For the Congress and for the Left, just as
much as for the BJP and the NDA.

First the BJP. Nothing has galvanised the party so comprehensively since Advani’s
rathyatra of 1989, imbuing it with a sense of hope, even a sense of purpose. In
Modi, the BJP has discovered three elements it was anxiously searching for —
leadership, issues to stand for and the first hope that it can win a majority on its
own.

Of course, Advani will continue as its prime ministerial candidate, but Modi is the
future. The succession is settled. No other second generation leader can match him.
And as for the argument that Modi cannot take centrestage in Delhi because the
NDA allies won’t accept him, the counter is that with Modi at the helm, the BJP
could attempt to win on its own. The NDA may no longer be critical.

The key question is can Moditva work outside Gujarat? It depends on how you
define it. If you believe it combines strong personal leadership and integrity, with an
appeal to regional pride or robust nationalism — admittedly with strong communal
undertones — and a stress on development, I see no reason why it can’t translate
throughout the country. Even the fact that it alienates minorities is counterbalanced
by the promise of uniting Hindus as never before. And if in Gujarat it could cut
across divisions of caste, wealth and location, then it can hope to do so elsewhere as
well.

Modi and Moditva is, therefore, the challenge facing the Congress, the UPA and the
Left. I don’t deny it has to be fought ideologically, but that also calls for the
projection of a single personality who, in herself, embodies the fight. She has to
rival Modi’s appeal — both his magnetism and his myth — and symbolise the
alternate vision.

Perhaps there is only one person who can do that. The pronoun ‘she’ was used
deliberately. It’s Sonia Gandhi. It may be an irony that an Italian-born woman, a
widow who till 1998 detested politics, should transform into one of the twin poles
of Indian politics, but it could also be an inescapable fact. No other person from the
anti-BJP parties has the appeal or the nation-wide image to rival Modi.

Of course, Sonia has a lot to learn. Amongst the most important is the capacity to
articulate ideas that catch like fire, and the ability to sell herself to the India beyond
the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit. At the moment she provokes curiosity or,
perhaps, awe. Now she needs to create a following.

For the rest of us, voters rather than politicians, commentators but not participants,
we also have to make a critical choice. We can either accept the idea of Modi and
Moditva and adapt and adjust to it, or overcome our concerns with the Gandhi
dynasty and Sonia in particular, and join the fight she must lead.

If I’m right, the middle ground is shrinking, even disappearing. The emergence of a
dominant idea on the saffron front and, in response, the creation of an equal but
counterveiling force on the other will squeeze out everything else. The more
Moditva grows, the more its opposite has to be strengthened. Increasingly the
choice will be one or the other. We will have to take sides.

Where does this leave the regional parties and the Left? They may retain their
identity, even their present base, but they will have to line-up behind Modi or Sonia,
in the saffron camp or the liberal/secular one. They may even have to submerge
themselves within the broad appeal of the camp they belong to.

Only the sudden removal of Narendra Modi can stop


this. For he is the agent forcing this change. And whilst he’s with us, he will do
just that. I have no doubt Indian politics after Sunday the 23rd is another country.
We have to live with new challenges. Some of us have to accept new leaders.

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