The Duality of Narendra Modi

Describing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, political psychologist Ashis Nandy once said: when you wear a mask for too long, it becomes your face. Nandy’s loaded observation came ahead of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader’s ascension to power at the Centre in May 2014. Now that Modi is about to complete one year in the Prime Minister’s office, the face-mask analogy is not just interesting, it is also indicative of the complicated and yet simple relationship that defines his persona in political and public spheres: complicated because the need to wear a mask usually arises out of the compulsion to camouflage the real or deeper being of the person who wears the mask. Simple because the inner and outer beings of the person, through their close interface over time, begin to work in conjunction with each other. The mask then transforms into the face; or at least, the distinction between the two becomes increasingly ambivalent.

For instance, when Modi did finally break his long spell of silence to defend the Christian community whose churches were under attack, he appeared to send out an ambiguous signal. One could mull who the ‘real’ Modi was: his silent or his speaking persona? Can we assume that the face presenting the silence is the real Modi, and not the face which is speaking from behind a mask? Or, are we being too cynical in undermining the potential of genuine transformation in Modi? If so, Nandy’s basic argument of the mask transformed into face would seem credible indeed. Except for the fact that in such a case, nothing is really “genuine” after all.

On the one hand, assessing Modi and his government on the eve of the completion of its one-year in office seems an easy enough exercise. Especially given that in contemporary 24x7 media culture, public discourse is saturated with never-ending conversations around economic reforms and policies relating to foreign affairs, security, and strategic concerns. Add to this, the daily political pulls and tensions in and outside Parliament, and nothing seems to happen that we don’t already know of.

On the other hand though, such assessment becomes somewhat difficult when one tries to frame the review within the face/mask paradigm; especially, when the man at the centre of all the speculation and debate is saddled with a controversial past. Not so long ago, the shadow of the 2002 communal riots that happened under the watch of the then Gujarat Chief Minister, did indeed appear to dim the prospects of his victorious march to Delhi. But, surmounting the hurdles of both perception and reality, Modi did finally make the Prime Ministerial cut. And he did do so with remarkable success, securing a huge majority for his party in the Lok Sabha.

However, the thorny challenge of transformation continues to limit Modi. His is under more and more pressure to be seen as a transformed political leader – a man qualified to steer a diverse and secular country. After all, his aspiration to preside over durbari politics as opposed to regional politics, demanded that he make ‘sacrifices’ of an ideological – even political and economic – nature. Even if the process of transformation is uneven, it is necessary for the Prime Minister to be at least seen as going through the motions of making that transformation.

The hard Hindutva line Modi publicly espoused in the past, as well as his controversial 2002 record of communal violence – (recall then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee rapping Modi for failing to execute ‘rajdharma’) – perhaps endeared to him the idea of an expedient mask. After all, in a contest between ideology and power, power usually trumps ideology. The trade-off between the two, involving a brittle process of negotiation, threatens to eliminate one at the cost of the other. For instance, the ideological plank of building a Ram temple at Ayodhya – something Modi alongside other top leaders of his party ascribed to in the past – is no longer a useful project for the Prime Minister. If anything, the extreme communal implications the project brings with it, are an incentive to keep the mask on.

Distancing himself from the traditional political moorings that nurtured him as a RSS pracharak must have been difficult for Modi, at the beginning of his Prime Ministerial tenure. After enduring years in a particular school of ideology, practicing a particular brand of ideology-driven politics, transformation does not happen overnight. Modi’s long silences, his refusal to speak on urgent developments and incidents, seem to be manifestations of this dilemma. The mask then becomes an expedient if not mandatory accoutrement to stay in power. Ideology be damned, at least for now!

So, how really has Modi fared in office, oscillating between the two points, representing the mask and the face?

Much is said about Modi’s economic and foreign policies; his negotiation with his party’s and the Sangh Parivar’s Hindutva agenda. Less about his camaraderie with industrialists. As the thrice-elected Chief Minister of Gujarat, Modi’s identity, constructed around the Gujarat development model, was founded on his business-friendly reputation -- his active courting of industrialists. Like the 2002 riots, the overt friendliness that Modi displayed towards investors and the readiness with which he doled out concessions to them, attracted criticism from more than one quarter.

As Gujarat Chief Minister, Modi, was the cynosure of business houses and neoliberal economists alike. In other words, he advertised a development model appearing to weigh heavily in favour of the rich, leaving the poor to access the meagre fruits of a trickle-down economy. Experts have repeatedly drawn attention to the dismal social indicators in sectors of health, education and gender that characterise the much-lauded Gujarat model. 
After assuming Prime Ministership however, Modi, has tried to pitch himself differently. It would seem that he is trying to distance himself from his earlier pro-rich, pro-business identity. Yet many decisions taken by his government in economic and social spheres could be regarded as sleight of hand to push through the Gujarat model.

It may be argued that, packaged as reforms, the controversial amendments to the land acquisition bill, and changes in Industrial Disputes and Child Labour Acts, reflect Modi’s face sans the mask. The constant interplay between the text and the sub-text, the face and the mask, makes for an interesting, though often disturbing study of the Prime Minister.

Nothing captures the duality better than the recent images that have come from China. In these visuals, Modi is seen admiring the terracotta Chinese warriors, their faces impassive and eyes unblinking. As the Prime Minister peers at the inanimate figures from different angles, we wonder whether the face is looking at the mask or vice-versa.

The author is National editor, dna of thought