It must be horrible for Narendra Modi as Prime Minister of India
One feels rather sorry for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He had painstakingly nurtured and created the persona of a decisive head of the government whose philosophy is very different from that of the fatigued Congress leaders.
Now, the very mascots of Hindutva by their conduct, which is incompatible with all-inclusive development, are deconstructing this myth, bit by bit.
Even the die-hard sceptics had nursed a vain hope that Modi would change the national discourse and the Indian way of doing things.
Likewise, he struck a chord with his captive audiences overseas and was seen to be a pragmatic idealist who understood the Indian idiom.
But three years down the line demagogue Modi is beginning to look like a helpless swayamsewak who must stick to the RSS template and respond to the "hukam" from his feudal overlords.
Similar demands were made of the then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, too, but he was emancipated enough to realise that this kind of template demands total conformism which will constrict his freedom of choice and tether his agenda of governance.
That between the BJP and the RSS there is an obvious convergence of interests is apparent to even a political greenhorn. That the RSS no longer has pretensions about being just a cultural mannequin is also no longer a matter of conjecture.
What is often debated in the corridors of power is the extent of the saffron overreach and the damage done to the credibility of the government.
What is indeed surprising is a robust Prime Minister Modi's abject surrender to this saffron culture of totalitarianism and absolutism. And, mind you, the same prime minister is perceived to be a no-nonsense authoritarian in the government. He is almost a mirror image of Indira Gandhi — both ministers and bureaucracy cringe in his presence. They have very little room to manoeuvre even in matters like choice of personal assistants.
Perhaps, political exigencies constrained PM Modi to sign a Faustian pact with the RSS. Ever since the saffron mentor has helped the BJP wrest power in Uttar Pradesh — which essentially means that Modi is assured of renewal of his tenancy rights at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg — the PM feels obliged to give the RSS a free run in implementing its saffron agenda. Riding on Yogi Adityanath, the RSS has for the first time trespassed into areas of actual governance.
With an accommodating prime minister at their beck and call — who maintains a stupefying silence at all times, despite his apparent eloquence on other matters — the RSS does not need minions like culture minister Mahesh Sharma or embarrassments like Sakshi Maharaj to implement its larger ideological agenda.
The ministers, too, can see the writing on the wall and are only too receptive; and the bureaucracy more than amenable; even the Opposition, unwittingly by its ineptitude and reluctance to take up such matters, helps in creating a climate of servitude.
Result: The BJP, which was adept at speaking in multiple voices, in the first two years of governance kept changing political gears with consummate ease — flitting from development to soft Hindutva and then back and forth.
But even this well-calibrated strategy, if not fine-tuned at intervals, starts backfiring at some point and then it seems the government is losing its poise and sense of equilibrium.
Though it was apparent from the word go that there was a severe talent deficit in the BJP, somehow all us were lulled into believing that Modi will deliver. Within this matrix, all of us were ready to make concessions for rhetoric and even grandstanding.
But what is finally beginning to tell on the domestic performance of the government is not the failure to deliver on promises, but the incompatibility between the demands of the Sangh Parivar and the agenda of development, which is eroding the credibility of the regime.
This could also mean a domino effect of lost opportunities in the global arena, despite PM Modi's much hyped shuttle diplomacy.
It is time the mandarins in South and North Block start wandering why these diplomatic forays seldom go beyond ceremony and pageantry. Somewhere, the saffron agenda is lurking at the back of the mind of foreign investors.
Also, at a micro-level, say in moffusil towns, prickly issues like beef, cow slaughter, love jihad, Romeo squads and forced conversions, have driven us to the point of distraction.
To that extent the votaries of Hindutva are the biggest adversaries of PM Modi.