Niti Central crows: Apparently, a senior Minister and his son received a call from the PMO one morning to meet Modi later in the evening. This raised hopes in the father-and-son duo that the Prime Minister was about to assign them greater responsibility, maybe even the charge of a key State. Lo and behold, when the two found themselves in the presence of the PM, they had colour drained out from their cheeks, with Modi telling them point-blank… “That money you have taken from so and so for giving him that post, should be returned immediately… This is not how we intend posting people in such key positions.” That said, the father and son duo was dismissed, with Modi immediately leaving the room. The above story has gained so much currency that the other three are hardly recalled in the well-appointed drawing rooms of the nation’s capital. In fact, there is much speculation both on the amount of bribe involved, with the figure ranging from a low of Rs 50 lakh to a high of Rs 2 crore, and the post in question. Since the mention of a post will automatically indicate the Minister in question, we shall refrain from doing so. Suffice it to say, by now the chattering classes have more or less zeroed in on the identity of the Minister at the heart of the tale. Our purpose in noting the above stories — and stories they are, certainly not verified true incidents — is to stress how the public persona of Modi is being shaped anew after he took over as Prime Minister. People hunger for a strong leader, a hard taskmaster, an incorruptible leader. And in Modi they are investing their hopes, their long-suppressed aspirations for a national hero who would deliver them from their misery, the endemic poverty, joblessness, the ugliness of their living spaces. Modi’s omniscience, omnipotence, as revealed by the apocryphal tales, is a virtue in the eyes of the masses, never mind what the professional liberal-secularist class might say about his being a control freak, an authoritarian, even a tin-pot dictator. Given the total bankruptcy of the UPA leadership, and the rudderless state of the nation under it, it should come as no surprise that the people are looking for a superhero, a saviour who can slay the demons of corruption, poverty, hunger, etc.
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 03:50:45 +0000