Ravana as a role model for Modi

The promise of Akhand Shanti is verbal gymnastics to distract attention and create a make-believe world to keep the reality of anti-incumbency at bay

Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi projected himself as the leader of the party in Himachal Pradesh and declared that Gujarat should vote for him now and in 2024 because he deserves their support, he has been asking for it. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge hit the nail on the head by comparing him to the multi-headed Ravana, pointing out that Modi was the face of the party in municipal polls, in "MLA elections and in MP elections. He is everywhere."

Whether Kharge chose Ravana, the principal antagonist to Bharatiya Janata Party's favourite icon Lord Rama in the Ramayana to compare the ubiquitous presence of Narendra Modi in every election across India on the spur of the moment, in the heat and dust of the Gujarat state assembly or after careful calculation, it was a brilliant stroke. For the BJP, Modi is really everywhere.

This is not the first time that Modi has been compared to Ravana. There were occasions since 2014 when his pervasive presence on the political scene provoked the subaltern to react by creating masks of a multi-headed Modi. A school principal in Sardhana in the Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh was arrested for spreading disharmony when he posted an image of Modi as Ravana in 2016.

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The comparison by the Congress president is different from the posts of a school principal. Mallikarjun Kharge invoked the Ravana image deliberately because it fits the role that Modi has taken on as the only face of the BJP in every election. In doing so, Kharge has plugged into the popular idiom of the Indian masses, be they Hindu or Muslim or from any other minority. There is no Indian who does not instantly respond to the imagery of the multi-headed Ravana when he is compared to the omnipresent Modi. The Gujarat election campaign was a great moment, and Kharge delivered the unkindest cut of all, taking a character out of the Ramayana and comparing him to Modi.

There is no way the BJP can ignore the jibe. It cannot vent against it in a big way, either. To do so would be to open up the comparison to wider public attention. It is for the Congress to build on the imagery of Ravana; how it does so will be interesting to watch.

The BJP's mobilisation for votes is always and on every occasion in Modi's name. His is the popularity that keeps the BJP ship afloat. There is, however, a snag in this strategy. Narendra Modi is overexposed, and whether anyone else knows it or not, he certainly does. The Gujarat campaign for Modi is a bit like a randomised control trial. He is using a new set of phrases to sell the same old story – of majoritarian discrimination against the minority, hyper-nationalism and categorising the enemies of the Hindutva state. The messages delivered by Amit Shah are crude and direct; he gloats over the "lessons" that Modi bhai taught troublemakers and the "Akhand Shanti" that was established in Gujarat post-2002; he is making a blatant appeal to the religious majority to consolidate behind Modi. He is also delivering a warning to the Muslim minority not to step out of the ghettos into which they have been pushed.

Also Read | PM Modi has zero tolerance towards terrorism and radicalisation: Shah

Modi's messages are different. He has repeatedly invoked the image of the "terrorist," "radicals", and "urban naxals" to warn voters that there are forces of destabilisation at work in their midst. In other words, he is instigating mass paranoia through a set of conspiracy scenarios by naming the enemies and linking them to the opposition, principally the Congress. The opposition, in this new and revised edition of the old communally divisive Hindutva identity politics, are the appeasers who
have nurtured the enemies of the BJP and, by extension, of the Hindutva nation.

The more Modi works to concentrate public attention on himself by projecting himself even bigger than he is now, the more the Ravana tag would fit. As the regime that stands between political instability and the dangers that come with it, Modi has inserted himself into the Gujarat state assembly elections. He must continue to do so in all the forthcoming elections up to the 2024 Lok Sabha contest.

It is absurd the way in which the Modi regime has revised the narrative of dangers and instability; in his version, India in the past had failed to control and combat the dangers of terrorism, radicalisation and urban intellectual dissent. The less effective the Modi regime is in dealing with the colossal failures in tackling the problems of joblessness, unemployment, a sluggish economy that seems to grow more and more slowly, rising input costs for everything from cooking gas for kitchens to fertiliser, diesel and water for agriculture, the more it has to inflate the dangers that threaten the "nation."

The spin is a way of filling the gap between performance and expectations. The promise of Akhand Shanti, that is establishing everlasting peace to defeat instability, is verbal gymnastics to distract attention and create a make-believe world to keep the reality of anti-incumbency at bay. If Modi succeeds in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, playing Ravana, as Kharge describes it, this will be the template for the slew of 2023 state elections.

(Shikha Mukerjee is a senior journalist based in Kolkata)

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