By: M.R.Lalu
Two defining speeches by the Prime Minister brought many significant topics for his opponents and the common citizens to ponder on. The first one was in the parliament, the one he delivered as a reply to the opposition’s accusations during the no-confidence motion. The opposition’s war-cry was single handedly flattened by Modi and the second one was his tenth Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort. Modi with his usual oratorical intonations was seen shattering the narratives that his opponents came up with. It seems that the opposition’s sustained campaigns and personal attacks against the Prime Minister are a waste of time. Successfully dispelling his rivals in the parliament as well as in his Independence Day speech, Modi seemed to be building his defense with full confidence.
Modi’s preparation for his national debut in 2014 was unique. The entire exercise was to project the essential leader in him in attractive colors and appearance. The BJP had turned the campaign for Modi into a well systematic marketing strategy in which the debutant Modi himself was the product. Markets across the country were flooded with Modi related products. Namo T.Shirts, Namo Pens , Namo chocolates, Namo pepper spray and Namo Kurtas; all with attractive faces of one person, who his party and his supporters thought would bring ache din (good days) for the country. Not only that, the entire party machinery took to streets and villages and urban colonies to teach people as to why the Gujarat model, the one that Modi invented was the only way to transform India. Very realistically the BJP could introduce Brand Modi. His excellent oratory was not only pragmatic but heart touching for a fresh audience. Above all, the organizational outreach of the gigantic Sangh Parivar did everything for the launch of their favorite man. The saffron party had enough strategic help from experts from outside the BJP to kick off a vibrant Modi era in a national framework. Almost culminating his two successful tenures, Modi is all set to enter a third term and the strong man of India does not require those strategies that he applied on his debut in 2014 in the complex political scenario of India. At present he enjoys a well defined challenge from a compulsive gathering that looks feeble and suffocative due to its own internal contradictions and Modi undoubtedly values the complex makeover of an incongruent assembly and its compulsions to take the battle to its favorable end.
Modi has enough success stories to tell, statistics to decipher and examples to showcase. His desperate opposition would, at least in a private talk, admit and accept the man for what he did for the country’s progress. All through his tenure of ten years, he could disarm everybody in the opposition. Convincingly, the projects that he carried out for the general welfare of the country have unquestionably been successful and their visible outcomes give necessary clarifications to his distractors and systematically expose their evil intent to malign his persona. A general but genuine assessment would reveal the fact that the war-cry against him is a desperate lamentation by parties that stand on slippery grounds with scanty reasons to project him in a dim light. Of course, the investigations carried out against many of them hold credible evidence to keep them under a legal turmoil and send them through a habitually lengthy judicial procedure in the country. What makes Narendra Modi succeed even at the phase of a collective outrage by his political opposition? What keeps this man going when deliberately scripted phrases on his persona being acrimoniously flown by the other side? He seems to be strengthened with an indomitable will to succeed and overcome all the hurdles. He has been demonized, shunned, condemned and dismissed time and again. But his indomitable will seems to be holding him strong with the opposition being pathetically dispelled of its political transgression.
According to Modi, Invasion and its subsequent subjugation for a thousand years had thrown the country into utter slavery and the era that began with his political anointment, would be marked with golden letters in the history of the country. A confident Modi further spoke in detail as to how the effect of this new transformation would `continue to reverberate for another thousand years. He was indicating what can be called as the beginning of a golden regime and positioning himself as the game changer who laid the foundation for an emerging India which would undoubtedly be on its path of becoming the Viswa Guru. Modi’s relentless self positioning is manifestly suggestive of what he would be known for in future. This self assertion needs to be seen with its rarity. Never in Indian history did we come across a leadership with the level of confidence that Modi has.
Undoubtedly, this is the result of a persevering political will, an outcome of relentless initiatives to bring about a slice of transformation to a country, which remained a slave for centuries and the one that forgot to carve credible measures for its overall progress since the very day it broke the shackles of colonialism. India’s demography, democracy and diversity, the Triveni, according to him, would set the stage for a mighty India. A great lesson that parties across India’s political spectrum need to learn from Modi is his approach. In the midst of scores of aggressive violence and bloodshed, when arguments on India’s efficacy as an egalitarian society are heard louder than usual, with deliberate attempts to frame brilliant narratives for painting it as a complicated landscape with a sinking democracy; Modi, the man at the helm is unmindful of the lobby lurking in the dark- he seems to be rapturously focused on the mission at hand and totally aware of its unchallenged popularity.
This time, his Independence Day address was fabulously interwoven with the phrase “mere parivarjan” (my family members), probably an attempt to get closer to the votary with an anticipatory emotional outreach. A successful culmination of the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ celebrations that the Prime Minister launched from Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad on March 12, 2021 was reflective in his words in the grand speech at the iconic Red Fort. Between India’s slavery for a thousand years and its upcoming glorious journey for another thousand years, stands the man who as pundits predict would be known as the leader who laid the foundation for India’s transformation as the Vishva Guru. May be, Modi would personally like to be known for this feat, an image that would get engraved on the frame of time and history. (The author is a freelance journalist)
