Saturday, September 14, 2013

The "Rise" of a Political Superstar - Narendra Modi

“Either you love me or you hate me but you simply can’t ignore me”, this is Narendra Modi for you. Last two decades have witnessed a rise of a political superpower of India in term of Narendra Modi who often is credited as political “Superstar” within the political spectrum. Even a tenacious resistance by his critics hasn't led to any sort of hindrance to his plans to move towards 7RCR, Delhi. And with an official announcement of him as NDA’s Prime ministerial candidate by BJP Party president on 13th of Sep has ended all speculations on his plans for 2014 elections. Seeing the personality cult of Modi it seems like in 2014 it won’t be BJP vs Congress but rather it would be Modi vs Congress. From social media to youth following he is far ahead from any other leader in India at present. The whole Industrial fraternity openly backs him and he is the front page news of every newspaper today. But what all led to the sudden rise of fortunes of Narendra Modi?
From a simple RSS worker to being named Gujarat’s CM in 2001 replacing Keshubhai Patel, he came a long way in his political journey where he saw many ups and downs. But it actually was 2002 where he hogged the limelight post Godhra riots. Political analysts usually term the innings of Modi in two versions – Modi version 1.0 pre Godhra and Version 2.0 post Godhra. He became RSS’s favorite man to carry their ideology when he came back to power with whopping 2/3rd majority in 2003 Gujarat’s assembly elections. In 2004 NDA lost the national elections and BJP’s strongman Atal Bihari Vajpayee declared to end his political career citing ill health and then L.K Advani was passed the baton to lead the BJP. In 2005 when he went to Pakistan, he praised Jinnah in order to make BJP’s acceptability to minority communities, which even backfired him and he had to resign from his party president post and the cracks within RSS and Advani were quite visible. At the same time Modi had established himself as an able administrator and a person with zero tolerance towards corruption and terrorism (with a series of encounters) and his 2007 win in elections strengthened his position further. In 2009, before the national elections many people within NDA argued that Modi might be the best PM choice but RSS backed Advani and NDA lost in 2009 as well which was their second successive defeat. With the defeat of 2009 the stars of Advani started fading and the cult of Modi was on rise. Modi further cemented his position within NDA after a hat-trick of win in Gujarat in Dec 2012 and his Prime ministerial ambitions got a boost with his declaration of NDA’s face for 2014. The credit to “Rise of Modi” somehow goes to the ruling congress party as well. It was their impotency to take upon corrupt system, series of scandals, mishandling of economy and incompetence that led to a demand of strong political face that could take some harsh decisions and take India back to the path of economic development and prosperity. It is a strong Anti congress vibe which is further enhancing the prospects of Narendra Modi in 2014.   
As for Modi haters, he has eclipsed the man who once strongly backed him post Godhra when Vajpayee wasn’t keen to support him. But it only shows their frustration simply because they were not able to topple him and they were thinking of firing their guns through Advani’s shoulders. For pseudo secular forces like Nitish Kumar, Advani has now become secular leader. Hope we need not remind them that it was Advani who led the Hindutva agenda post 1991. As for Modi followers and lovers this is the time to cheer since their leader has been cleared to take as a face of next assembly elections. But he has numerous challenges to take on before 2014 general elections.
Though it needs to be seen what happens in 2014 elections and whether Modi's slogans "Sabka saath sabka vikas" and "India first" make a pan India appeal but it seems to be cracker of contest between Modi and Congress. Upcoming days promise of some big surprises and fireworks from both sides .Even a drastic change in political scenario is on the cards but we hope that people of this country get the best out of it.
Jai hind !!        


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