Narendra Modi The Man The Times by Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay is an unauthorised biography of Modi. The author, a journalist, interviewed Modi besides talking to his acquaintances, friends, teachers and rivals to get a picture of the leader’s psyche. Often, what others have written about Modi is also mentioned, and contextualised with the author’s own narrative of Modi.
The author goes to great lengths to show that he is aiming to write a factual account of Modi, which is free of bias. The book is certainly not an exercise in flattery or propaganda as many facets of Modi’s personality that are negative are also brought to light. Modi would definitely not recommend this book to anyone.
Modi’s Traits
Modi is a debated leader in the public sphere, especially since he became a frontrunner for the PM’s post, after being made Chairman of the BJP party's Central Election Campaign Committee.
His name elicits extreme responses, from a mass murderer who partook in genocide, to a visionary leader who has the guile to take the nation towards greater glory.
The book does not form an opinion of the leader but presents a portrait of immense complexity. What stands out is that Modi is hungry for power, a workaholic and is an ethnocentric Hindu.
Well, one does not need to read a 500 page biography to learn this. However, the book examines Modi’s life since childhood, presents anecdotal evidence which show traits that would go on to define his leadership style, his thirst for power, the importance he attaches to not ‘appease’ any particular section of society and the ascetic work ethic he follows to meet his goals.
The book gives a life like account of the leader, whom the public sees at a distance or as a headline, and personalises him as well as his struggles.
There is very little known about Modi’s life as a youth, according to the author. He is said to have left his family in 1967, never to return. Modi was married as a child and his family expected him to take over the grocery store that his father ran, but Modi wanted a different life.
These lost years of Modi, if one may call it that, are from 1967-1971, according to the author. One of the pictures in the book gives us an idea of what Modi was up to during those years: A young Modi sits on a rock, on the banks of a Himalayan river, dressed in the saffron garb of a monk, his face turned contemplatively towards the water.
A spiritual inspiration is also seen in his fasting for Navratras. Modi tells the author that he subsists only on water for the nine days of the fast.
The author quotes Dileep Sanghani, Modi’s colleague, who says about Modi, “There is no pleasure higher than work for him and development is his weakness.”
These aspects of Modi’s personality highlighted by the author, show Modi to be treading the path of a Karma Yogi.
Hindu Ethnocentrism
The author, right at the outset of the book, believes that Modi is culpable for the death and destruction that occurred post the Godhra incident. He does not give anything tangible to establish this. After he interviews Modi something akin to intuition makes the author write: “I had gone to meet Modi willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for what eventually happened in 2002. On coming out, I was reasonably certain that I had experienced a facet of Modi that I had deliberately believed before the interview as non-existent. When I sat in the car, I felt I had reason to no longer give him the benefit of that doubt.”
Modi is painted negatively throughout the book with respect to his treatment of minorities. The author feels that Modi has divided Hindus and Muslims in Gujarat beyond a point of no return.
He also feels that the Gujarat government’s response post Godhra was woefully inadequate.
The author feels that the core support for Modi are Hindu chauvinists who want to redress the historical injustices done by Muslim invaders to their ancestors by dominating over minorities. He gives the example of how writer V S Naipaul acted as an acolyte of Modi when he said that the demolition of the Babari masjid was a good development as it was a ‘passion’ that corrected history.
The author links such thinking to Modi’s actions and the core group who support him. However, the author needs to give more tangible evidence to support his claims. The guilt the author assigns Modi for the 2002 riots is painted very subjectively.
More tangible facts are needed to deem Modi guilty.
It is unfair to brand someone guilty without adequate evidence. The SIT probe at the behest of the Supreme Court had after all cleared Modi of any personal culpability for the 2002 riots.
It was an impartial inquiry that had its loyalties towards the Centre, but still found no evidence to show that Modi aided and abetted the rioters in 2002.
Winning Support
The author feels that Modi galvanised the adversity of the 2002 riots and became the tall leader that he is today.
He writes that the riots gave Modi a distinct identity, and brought a loyal base of supporters for him. In that sense the riots did for Modi what 9/11 did for George W Bush. The author feels that the ‘Vikas Purush’ image of Modi is partly a means to deflect attention off the riots.
He commends the honesty in Modi’s administration and also quotes numerous people who vouch for the corruption free bureaucracy in Gujrat.
Good roads, continuous electricity supply to even rural areas and Gujarat’s ability to attract investment are highlighted by the author. But he also notes that Gujarat is woefully lacking in social development.
Since the writing of this book, the ongoing debate between economists Jagadish Bhagawati and Amartya Sen, which is making headlines nowadays, is a paradigm of these disparate views on the state’s development.
The Road Ahead
The author quotes the past is never dead; it’s not even past by William Faulkner before one of the chapters about the riots. The author implies that the riots have stuck to Modi in a similar way. That no matter what he accomplishes, it will be difficult to atone for what happened. However, as I had mentioned earlier, to put the blame of the riots on Modi will be jumping the gun, as investigations into the matter have shown.
However, Modi being the believer in Eastern thought that he is; only the present exists for him. He is well in control of his present, and despite the adversity he faces every day, the future is opening up in interesting ways.