From Gujarat 2002 to Lok Sabha 2026 — how the Sangarsh (struggle) of Narendra Modi, the defeat of the Women’s Reservation Bill, and the sharpening rivalry with the Sonia-Rahul Gandhi dynasty are reshaping the republic’s fault lines.
Modification of Indian Politics
By NIRENDRA DEV
New Delhi
— Every struggler is obsessed with his own Destiny. The bitterness at its sharpest edge was amply demonstrated in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation on April 18th — and it encapsulates where Indian politics now stands: deeply personal, ideologically entrenched, and structurally binary.
The Birth of Moditva: Gujarat, 2002
The first round in the Modification of Indian Politics began way back in 2002 in Gujarat. Narendra Modi was neither shy nor apologetic about Hindutva. That unapologetic posture created a new political brand — what commentators would come to call Moditva: the synthesis of development and cultural nationalism, presented not as competing impulses, but as a single governing philosophy.
Then came 2007.
The then Gujarat chief minister and his governance model were under sustained attack. Sonia Gandhi launched a broadside offensive and used the now-infamous phrase —'Maut Ka Saudagar', merchant of death. It was followed by a fiercely contested state assembly election — the first major electoral test in Gujarat after the Sonia Gandhi-led UPA had come to power in New Delhi.
The BJP and Modi returned to power. He was fighting with his back against the wall. Within the BJP too, there were trouble-makers. L.K. Advani stood by him and backed him to the hilt.
The Modification era was gradual but deliberate: development and Hindutva were woven into a synthesis that yielded results.
“Can Moditva work outside Gujarat? It depends on how you define it,” said Karan Thapar, political commentator, in a post-2007 comment.
The US Visa Denial: A Turning Point
In 2005, Narendra Modi was denied a US visa — a rare and stinging diplomatic rebuff. His admirers, including Amit Shah, know what that moment meant: Modi fought back. The then-Gujarat chief minister, born in 1950 and in his mid-fifties at the time, transformed humiliation into resolve. That pattern — setback, consolidation, resurgence — has defined his political arc.
The Defeat of the Women’s Reservation Bill: A Rare Setback
The defeat of the Women’s Quota and Delimitation Bills in the Lok Sabha was not merely the first major setback for the NDA or the Modi government. It was a rare occasion in Modi’s life and career — comparable in scale and political weight only to the 2005 visa denial and Sonia Gandhi’s Maut Ka Saudagar broadside.
The defeat carries symbolic and strategic significance. “The family-run parties do not want women to progress, as women can end their selfish politics,” the Prime Minister said — framing the bill’s failure not as a legislative defeat but as evidence of dynastic self-preservation by opposition parties.
The Sangarsh Continues: More Personal, More Polarising
The relationship between the Modi establishment and the Congress party — especially the Sonia–Rahul family — can only deteriorate further, or it has already turned irreversibly so. What is clear is that the conflict is becoming more personal and more structurally defining for Indian democracy.
The Prime Minister’s recent addresses have been notably sharp in their language: “Like a parasite (par-jibi), the Congress party piggy-rides regional parties.” “Congress is applying its Divide and Rule policy — something it learned from the British.”
At a press conference held hours earlier, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had alleged that the Modi government had orchestrated events for political gain. “A whole conspiracy was hatched to remain in power — to somehow form a permanent government,” the Prime Minister claimed in response.
In 2007, after Modi’s historic Gujarat win, journalist Karan Thapar wrote for The Hindustan Times that Indian voters faced a critical choice: either accept the idea of Modi and Moditva, or overcome their concerns about the Gandhi dynasty and Sonia Gandhi in particular.
Arguably, not much has changed in the fundamental architecture of that choice — except that the equation may now involve more scrutiny of Sonia’s daughter,
--- Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, than of Sonia herself or even Rahul Gandhi.
The more the ties between these two political universes turn bitter, the more will be the compulsion for both sides to take off the gloves. And for the rest of the political mainstream — and the nation — there may not be room for a third path.
India may soon be asked to take sides. Formally. Finally.
(courtesy - The Raisina Hills)
ends
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