Off-centre | India@75, Modi@72: Transforming India, the Narendra Modi way

Narendra Modi’s impact is greater than his electoral draw. He has powered a civilisational shift in India in a manner never seen before except during the freedom struggle and the national movement India’s Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi turned 72 on 17 September. On Modi’s 71st birthday, last year, the BJP had launched a “Sewa aur Samarpan Abhiyan” — a Service and Dedication Campaign. According to a letter sent by BJP national general secretary Arun Singh on 13 September, “organising intellectual meets and seminars on Modi’s life, vision, policies and achievements in every district,” including publicising the book, Modi@20: Dreams Meet Delivery. The litany of complaints against him includes authoritarianism and centralisation of power; emasculation of ministers and ministries; a vice-like grip not only over BJP, but also over RSS and all the important institutions of the country including the media; increasing isolation from and inaccessibility not only to ordinary people, but also to key party personnel and personages; working with and through a small coterie of trusted lieutenants that bypass normal procedures; getting his own pet projects done with extraordinary zeal and resource-mobilisation but treating those of others in a stepmotherly manner; narcissism and megalomania; promoting his own personality cult; hogging credit while deflecting blame; appropriating the legacy of past heroes of all hues and parties; turning India into a less-free and much more polarised society; legacy building at the expense of tackling real issues such as price rise and unemployment; ruthlessly eliminating competition whether at the centre or state levels; inordinate penchant for risk-taking as with the “disastrous demonetisation”; vendetta against and mental torture of those who oppose him; and so on.