As Narendra Modi Stands Diminished, There’s a Lesson in This for Rahul Gandhi Too

Undoubtedly, Narendra Modi 2.1 is a much-diminished prime minister. It is possible that he had reached his natural limits even before voters had the opportunity to cut him down to size. Or perhaps the electorate finally recognised the structured bogusness that this entire ‘Modi Project’ has been. Either way, his diminution is a reality.

Equally, there can be no doubt that Rahul Gandhi 2.0 is a much enhanced political presence. He has claimed the right to be leader of opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha; and, it must be a matter of satisfaction to him that the last recognised LoP from the Congress was none other than his own mother, Sonia Gandhi (1999-2004). As far as symbolism goes, Rahul Gandhi’s anointment as LoP represents the most glaring rejection of Modi’s 10-year old campaign against “dynastic politics.”

It can be a matter of a fascinating debate as to whether Modi finally ended up elevating and rehabilitating Rahul Gandhi to a position of political respectability and popular acceptance, or whether Gandhi applied himself seriously to a complete image make-over which finally blunted Modi’s sustained and –  for the most part – effective campaign against the Nehru dynast.

In this age of instant analysis and instant judgment, it is easy to forget that every “great leader” is a product of certain circumstances that facilitate his or her acquisition and consolidation of power. Modi could achieve national power only in the context of the confusion and uncertainty of 2013-2014. He became palatable to the influential middle classes because the Anna Hazare movement had succeeded in painting the Sonia Gandhi-led Congress as the fountain-head of all corruption. And, Modi could acquire purchase in the national imagination because he marketed himself as the complete antithesis of Rahul Gandhi – the putative Congress prime ministerial face in the 2014 Lok Sabha campaign.

By 2024, circumstances had changed. Those very anxieties and aspirations that defined the 2014 context transmuted into a different set of concerns and resentments. India has changed these last ten years and the Modi regime had encouraged it to think more aggressively and, if need be, to be violently assertive in expressing its national “vision” and “greatness.” This front-footed-ness was enormously satisfying to the tiny elite at the top but it also empowered the masses to see through the essential spuriousness of the “naya  Bharat” and the mofussil shallowness gilded up as ‘vishwaguru’.

Also read: From Underdog to Unstoppable: Time for Rahul Gandhi to Become the Opposition Leader of All Indians

Meanwhile, it took eight years of political adversity and official hostility for Rahul Gandhi (and his coterie) to realise and internalise the imperative to move from the anchorage of family entitlement to the legitimacy of popular acceptance. Not many noted—neither his determined foes nor his fawning cheer-leaders—that the Bharat Jodo Yatra struck a chord with the people because Rahul Gandhi was for the first time seen sweating it out for a cause other than his family’s privileges. He was out on the street selling “mohabbat”, or love, against the “nafrat”, or hatred being dished out by the Modi mobs.

In the process Rahul Gandhi ‘declassed’ himself and went plebian. Perhaps the most telling moment was when he walked into a local barber shop in Rae Bareli to get himself a beard trim. While Gandhi, often accused rightly of comporting himself as an entitled prince, was observing the rites of humility, Narendra Modi as prime minister was increasingly surrounding himself with trappings of an emperor. The man who invented and then romanticised his impoverished beginnings was seen as cultivating an imperial and imperious persona.

India’s voters were able to spot the incongruity between Modi’s pretensions – his “entire India is my family” claims – and his unseemly closeness to Gautam Adani. The poor masses, not unfamiliar with the magical qualities of sarkarand sifarish, were not prepared to believe Prime Minister Modi’s “saab ka saath, saab ka vikas” slogan. On the other hand, Rahul Gandhi, himself an incongruous advocate of a fair economic order, was being heard with some respect. However, if Gandhi was being heard it was because he located himself in the long and rich legacy of the Congress Party; whereas Narendra Modi chose to move beyond his own party, the BJP, and, instead, started believing in his own personality cult, weaved out of nothing by paid advertising consultants.

A public figure often gets defined by the company he or she keeps. Narendra Modi’s most visible side-kick, at least these last five years, has been a gentleman named Amit Shah, a man who got his political baptism in Ahmedabad’s streets fights, a man who still wears the scars of those battles and who refuses to graduate to the nuanced exercise of authority. Amit Shah did not enhance Modi’s stature.

Also read: It’s Business As Usual: Nothing Has Changed for a Weakened Narendra Modi

By contrast, Rahul Gandhi had around him Mallikarjun Kharge, elected as president of the Indian National Congress, in 2022.  And, the young dynast took care to be deferential and respectful to the elderly Kharge. The Congress president is a man with a long record (not necessarily distinguished) of public life at the national and state level; a totally non-threatening presence, with not a single mean bone in his body. If Amit Shah’s intimidating presence as a chief consigliere to Modi diminished the prime minister’s political persona, Kharge’s presence was seen as a heathy restraint on an otherwise impetuous Rahul Gandhi.

If Modi has lost his lustre, it is because the incongruity between his message and his politics and policies has become far too pronounced. For ten years, he preached that the only thing a strong leader needs is idealism and a strong will to solve complex and complicated problems in this ancient land. Of course, that claim was fallacious. But what ultimately did him in was the 56-inch gap between his authoritarian persona and his professed love for the people of India.

Similarly, it is too early to judge how genuine Rahul Gandhi’s democratic make-over is. The “Family” still has that dynastic ring about it. Gandhi will do well to learn from Modi’s story: sleight of hand cannot carry you too far. Above all, politics cannot be totally divorced from morals. The unapologetic pursuit of immoral politics finally diminished Narendra Modi in the eyes of his most valuable customers – the citizens of India.

Harish Khare is a former editor-in-chief of The Tribune.