Fear or hubris? Modi and other 'chosen’ leaders

When democratically elected leaders feel compelled to cite god's approval for their political acts, it shows they aren’t sure that those who voted them to power approve of their actions.

So finally, it was attributed to the ultimate arbiter. He had been chosen by god, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to consecrate the Ram temple at Ayodhya, in Uttar Pradesh. Who can question such a benediction? 

Grateful at not being left out of the grand consummation of an idea that had been propagated by him, former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president L K Advani echoed Modi's claim. He was just the charioteer of the rath that took the idea of the Ram temple across India, he said; but it was Modi, then a little-known party worker, who was chosen by Lord Ram to inaugurate the temple.

(Was Advani, who hoped to be Prime Minister till Modi upstaged him in 2013, really being self-effacing? It is Lord Krishna, who as charioteer, guides a troubled and confused warrior prince Arjuna through the Mahabharat war.)

‘Chosen by God’. Which head of state says these words in this day and age? We’ve learnt in history about the ‘divine right to rule’ claimed by medieval monarchs in the West. Those were times when religious belief held a maniacal power over the people. When the king and Church connived to bestow ultimate power on an individual, which mere mortal would dare question them?

The imperial dynasties of ancient China too claimed a ‘mandate of heaven’ to control the lives of ordinary people. In India though, kings have had to bow to religious heads. Stories of saints spurning royalty, refusing to become supplicants at darbars, are common knowledge. Tulsidas was one such; so was Nizamuddin Auliya, who refused to let Sultan Allaudin Khilji meet him in his own home.

Sants had their own dharm to follow, quite distinct from that of kings. Modi would be familiar with the distinction; after all, he has been the only head of state to be reprimanded in front of the media for not following ‘Raj Dharm’, that too by the Prime Minister, and one belonging to his own party.

Today no one in the BJP would dare voice the kind of disapproval of Modi that then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee did of the Gujarat Chief Minister in 2002 for the prolonged anti-Muslim violence after the Godhra train burning. But even with a party so docile, Modi felt the need to claim divine sanction for his decision to preside over the installation ceremony of the idol of Ram in Ayodhya.

This is not the first time that Modi has claimed to have been chosen by god.

But this time, in an echo of the tradition of yore, some sants are not buying the claim. Regardless of the consequences, the Shankaracharyas of Puri and Jyotirmath have voiced their disapproval of the consecration of the idol of Ram by Modi, which they allege goes against Hindu custom.

Men in saffron have all along backed the Ayodhya movement. Is this unexpected criticism by two revered religious heads being perceived as enough to weaken the frenzy being built up by the Sangh parivar in support of the consecration?

Interestingly,  Modi is not the only 21st century head of state to claim to be chosen by god. He shares this distinction with a man who occupied a post often described as the most powerful in the world. When he said god had told him to invade Iraq, United States President George W Bush had the support of not just his citizens, but also the US media, which claims to be the freest in the world. They did not question the lie that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction which needed to be destroyed. Yet, four months into the war, Bush felt the need to invoke divine sanction.

When leaders elected by the two largest democracies in the world — countries theoretically run by the people for the people — feel compelled to cite god's approval for their political acts, it shows they aren’t sure that those who voted them to power approve of their actions. Is this the fear that makes them use god as a crutch? Or, is it simply hubris that drives them? If so, they would do well to remember the words of Pakistani poet Habib Jalib: tumse pehley woh jo ek shakhs yahan takth nasheen tha/usko bhi apne khuda honey pe itna hi yakeen tha (He who sat on this throne before you/he too was equally sure he was god).

The poet recited this verse in a mushaira adorned with the portraits of General Yahya Khan. The dictator met an ignominious end, going down in history as the man under whom Pakistan faced the humiliation of being split in two. 

Fear or hubris, neither can sustain a ruler for long.

(Jyoti Punwani is a senior journalist.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.