Prime Minister Narendra Modi has offered a surprisingly apolitical response to the new political reality in India, likely presuming that the mandate was the result of operational failures in the campaign rather than voter disenchantment with his style of governance.
That his policy would not change was never in dispute, but it was expected that he, being a shrewd politician, would make a quick course correction.
But Modi’s obstinacy betrays an intellectual and political inability to read the mandate correctly and take corrective action. He probably thought that holding on to power by keeping a few parties happy and trying to consolidate his position through his favourite ploy of organising defections of vulnerable MPs would be enough.
He may succeed in attracting a few MPs, but such petty tricks are not an effective medicine for the political transformation that now seems to be out of the government’s control. Modi has not yet given any indication of redesigning his approach to meet the challenges ahead, not realising that he was digging a hole for the BJP’s abysmal downfall. Modi’s survival tricks may prove ruinous for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
So far, Modi has defiantly followed the same script; the theme, the subtext, the metaphors, the imagery – nothing has changed. The numerical deficiency has not altered his self-centred ways, his penchant for propaganda, his obsession with publicity and his eagerness to disparage his rivals. He still chose to meet the cricketers who won the World Cup and tried to seek legitimacy for his third term through his non-essential visits to Italy and Russia when Rahul Gandhi was in Manipur and Hathras. If Modi thinks that Gandhi has always done these things and was destined to wander aimlessly through the villages and towns of this great country while he was destined to rule like an emperor, he has failed miserably to feel the pulse of the nation. Gandhi is no longer the hapless defiant.
It is true that Gandhi did not get the numbers required to form the government despite the historic Kanyakumari-to-Kashmir Bharat Jodo Yatra, Manipur-to-Mumbai Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, a grand coalition and an impressive manifesto.
But the election result will change politics in India, putting Modi on a downward path and his opponents on the rise. What is now set in stone is that Modi will find it difficult to recover from here. His frayed charisma is like a comic figure who inspires ridicule, not hope. His moves, his decisions and even his language have become predictable.
Senior Visiting Fellow at the Center for Policy Research; Adjunct Professor at Georgetown and Ashoka Universities; and Global Fellow at the Wilson Center.
Source: https://reporteasia.com/opinion/2024/07/15/narendra-modi-no-puede-cambiar/
