UP And Beyond: How PM Modi Transformed India

In analysis pieces of recently held Assembly elections, especially in Uttar Pradesh, a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with UP CM Yogi Adityanath, has become a talking point.

The powerful picture, that said more than a thousand words, was front-paged by newspapers, in the run-up to the elections. Through the gesture, as captured by the picture, PM Modi added his individual charisma to CM Adityanath’s charisma. Institutional charisma of the Union Government added sheen to UP Government’s profile. Together, the Modi-Yogi team became unbeatable, as was proved by the UP Assembly election results.

“In Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Goa, the net satisfaction of voters with the Central Government was way higher than the net satisfaction with the state government. Net satisfaction with the Narendra Modi government at the Centre was three times higher than with the Yogi Adityanath government in UP, about seven times higher than with the Pushkar Singh Dhami government in Uttarakhand, and 18 times higher than with the Pramod Sawant government in Goa,” observed Suhas Palshikar, Sanjay Kumar and Sandeep Shastri, in “The Hindu,” dated March 12, summing up the CSDS-Lokniti post-poll Survey 2022.

Yogi Adityanath is an extremely popular BJP stalwart, still very young. He is always a huge draw among the youth and in the party’s core constituency. Schemes announced by his state government have often also provided a template for many a BJP state government. BJP leaders hold him in very high regard. For instance, when he congratulated Himanta Biswa Sarma last year on his taking over as Assam CM, Sarma replied in a tweet: “I am grateful for your congratulatory message Hon’ble CM Shri Yogi Adityanath ji. Hope to continue to receive your affection and guidance in Assam’s future progress”.

(loosely translated from the tweet, originally in Hindi).

BJP chose Yogi to move the all-important political resolution in the last year’s party National Executive meeting, held in the National Capital.

Media commentaries and analysis pieces have discussed the UP elections threadbare. “Double-engine government”, “superlative law and order system”, “no-nonsense governance”, “welfarism / labharthees”, have been some of the frequently discussed themes.

In the run-up to the elections, Shantanu Gupta came out with a book “The Monk who Transformed Uttar Pradesh”. He observes: “UP is ranked Number 1 in the implementation and execution of nearly 44 central government schemes… The Double Engine of Modi and Yogi worked so well for UP that out of the eight aspirational districts in UP under the UNDP, seven have made it to the Top 10 among 112 districts across the country in year 2021…”

Improved law and order in UP has been a talking point in the elections, earning Yogi the sobriquet “Bulldozer Baba”. Says Gupta in his book: “In the very first meeting, Yogi asked his home department to list the criminals, mafias, and gangsters in each district of UP, who have fled jails, who have fled court rooms and who have multiple FIRs against them over the years, but got political protection in previous regimes. Yogi Adityanath gave free hand to his police to deal with criminals and improve the law and order situation in the state”.

Political parties are fundamental to democratic systems and processes. They are an extremely important institution representing groups of people, their political aspirations and voices. BJP is the world’s largest political party in the world today. BJP’s metamorphosis into the world’s largest, surpassing China’s CCP, happened in recent years.

Says Nalin Mehta in his “The New BJP: Modi and the Making of the World’s Largest Political Party”: “In August 2014, when Amit Shah became BJP President, the party claimed to have 35 million members. The CCP, then the world’s largest political party, was over double the size of the BJP at 87.79 million… The BJP tripled in size between 2014 and 2015, the year it surpassed the CCP… Put plainly, the BJP grew its membership almost five-fold between 2014 and 2019, during Modi’s first government and under Amit Shah’s presidency”.

BJP’s founding fathers had visualized that the party’s profile should be all-inclusive, all-encompassing, reflecting national character. In 1967, Deendayal Upadhyay said at the annual Bharatiya Jana Sangh conclave: “We are not serving any community or class. In fact, we have taken a vow to serve the entire nation. All Indians are ours”. Earlier, in 1952 BJS convention in Kanpur, Syama Prasad Mookerjee had said: “Our organization is open to one and all, without any discrimination, irrespective of their caste, community or belief”. In New India, this inclusive philosophy has found expression through the slogan of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Viswas, Sabka Prayas”.

In his book, Mehta discusses BJP’s evolution into a most inclusive political party, representative of India’s rich diversity. He writes how BJP “systematically increased OBC representation in very significant numbers, systematically increased SC representation” in the decade between 2009 and 2019. “This social engineering by the BJP was done without losing the support of the Upper Castes”.

BJP’s transformation into the world’s largest political party, with its inclusive core, in the last six-seven years, then, provides a useful context to study the party’s impressive show in UP elections.

Among many issues, “Pariwarvaad” (family / dynasty politics) has been a recurring theme in the recent elections. PM Modi has spoken about it on many occasions. With its entire top leadership having risen from the grassroots, BJP, thus, has an opportunity to further strengthen democracy and force other family-based national / regional parties to change themselves or face extinction.

PM Modi has set the tone. Indeed, it is the Modi phenomenon that is most talked about. It is the Modi phenomenon that has brought about BJP’s stunning rise in recent years. “Businessworld” readers would recall that its surveys in the last few years had one recurring common finding – PM Modi was rated as the “best PM ever” in its surveys. Similar findings have been reported by other surveys too.

In an interview on March 3, Hindi daily “Hindustan” asked PM Modi: “…Some say that you are more popular than Jawaharlal Nehru and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and more powerful than Indira Gandhi…”

The PM replied: “…Whether it is Nehru ji or Indira ji or Atal ji, everyone has their own place in history. I am not here to take anyone’s place or I am not here to make any place for myself. Our nation should march ahead continuously, and achieve its full potential. That is enough for me.”

(loosely translated from the interview, originally in Hindi).

It is, however, clear, that historians will rank PM Modi among all-time greats.

A former JNU scholar, Navneet Anand, studied Mahatma Gandhi and Jayaprakash Narayan for his Ph D. His doctoral work on “Role of the Press in Political Mobilisation: A Comparative Analysis of Colonial and Independent India” studies the lives and times of Mahatma Gandhi and Jayaprakash Narayan, their philosophes, and their mobilisations and campaigns.

Anand quotes Aristotle as having outlined “three ways” of achieving “Persuasion” – something that runs through the philosophies and projects of Gandhi and JP. This is important in the context of PM Modi, too. Whether it is political rallies or campaigns like Swachh Bharat or appeal to give up subsidies, or appeals to sportspersons, there is empirical evidence on ground that shows that PM Modi’s persuasive appeals often work. This is one of the reasons why his pan-India appeal is regarded as “BJP Plus”.

Anand then quotes Sociologist Prof Yogendra Singh in the context of Gandhi: “Gandhi had an uncanny skill to project to Indian masses the many humanistic values of the modern west through traditional cultural symbolism”. 

Anand further writes about Gandhi: “Gandhi emphasized on the pure source of tradition and on the inherent equality as postulated by the philosophy of the identity and all life expressed in the Upanishads, which is to Indians an intimate and ever present thought”.

On JP, the scholar says: “Much like Gandhi, JP used cultural channels of communication during the JP movement”.

In PM Modi’s vision too, “Virasat” and“Vikas” go hand in hand, and the vision of Kashi Vishwanath Corridor proudly co-exists with the idea of India as a global Start-Up hub. Tradition and Modernity, together, are integral to New India.

There are multiple points of convergence between the three stalwarts of different eras -- Gandhi, JP, Modi. A comparative evaluation can be probably summed up thus: Gandhi led us to freedom. JP led us to “second freedom”. Modi is leading the New India march, with Vision 2047 as the top priority and also the great unifier of our times.

Clearly, India is witnessing one of the most important periods of Modern India. The recent Assembly election results have set the tone for what promises to be an era of most transformative changes that will help India realize its full potential and many of its long-cherished goals. “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Prayas” will remain the driving force. This era surely calls for an objective, honest evaluation. 

(The author, a JNU alumnus, is a political analyst. Views are personal)