The Modi paradox: At 70, his 7 deadly sins for 'liberals' are why his supporters love him

Part of the phenomenon is that the PM's support base grows and gets more solidly behind him for the exact reasons a section of urban, English-speaking intelligentsia hates him
Abhijit Majumder
If India’s Left and liberals deign to introspect some day on where they have failed to politically understand Narendra Modi, 8 November, 2016, is a good date to begin. The day demonetisation happened.
It was the world’s largest exercise in scrapping currency notes, with India doing away with 86 pecent of its cash in circulation.
It took even the most seasoned economic experts to recover from the shock and start analysing the pros and cons. Political pundits took longer to pick up their jaws. It was inconceivable for a prime minister to be so self-destructive, especially with the country’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh, going to election in less than three months.
When in 1971 a much milder demonetisation plan was taken to former PM Indira Gandhi, she had acerbically brushed it off, “Are there no more elections to be fought by the Congress party?”
So, Left-liberal commentators embarked on predicting how DeMo is going to be Modi’s political grave. Mainstream media ran reports of people fainting and dying in ATM queues, and the Opposition led by Rahul Gandhi thought they had got the election brahmastra.
The BJP swept the Uttar Pradesh elections on 11 February, 2017, without projecting a chief minister face. Modi came back at the Centre with a bigger majority in 2019.
DeMo was the inflection point for an organisation historically perceived as a bania-brahmin party. The poor and backwards came to it in droves. While the commentariat lambasted Modi for the suffering of the poor in queues, the poor were glad that the rich couldn’t hide their riches, and many of them stood in those same queues.
As the prime minister turns 70, the most interesting – though dismaying for many – part of the Modi phenomenon is that his support base grows and gets more solidly behind him for the exact reasons a section of urban, English-speaking intelligentsia hates him.
Modi is authoritarian, hawkish
The most common Left-liberal grouse is that Modi steamrolls dissent, and has fascist tendencies.
However, the millions who vote for him see a rare determination and willingness to take risks. They see someone who is capable to taking decisions that he believes are good for the nation.
The fascist slur fails to hold water because Modi is shrewd enough to take even the most stunning and disruptive decisions like abrogation of Article 370 or passing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) through proper constitutional mechanism.
While pacifists lamented his hawkish diplomacy, India’s surgical strikes and Doklam resolve made the difference between Congress’ 2019 defeat and a smacking rout.
Modi a Hindu bigot, hates Muslims
It started with the 2002 riots, and crystalised fully with Modi’s refusal to wear a skullcap. Modi’s vilification as an anti-Muslim tyrant was complete among ‘seculars’.
However, it is this that his core voters and even many on the sidelines admire about him. He does not appease Muslims. He doesn’t give Islamists an inch.
While the liberals focus on the aftermath, his admirers privately tell you that secularism got so perverted that the Islamist mob had the temerity to openly burn 59 Hindus to death in that train at Godhra. For them, Modi’s politics represents a bulwark against violent, malevolent Islamism.
The prime minister wears Hindutva on his sleeves. He proudly performs puja in saffron robes at Varanasi or Kedarnath, embellishes his speeches with Sanskrit shlokas, and has never squirmed about public display of his dharma.
To be contd...
                  Courtesy: Firstpost