There were two - headlines
'India Today' headline was specific -
"Delhi calling? Narendra Modi performs a hat-trick in Gujarat, looks set for the bigger role".
"Gujarat election result: Narendra Modi pulls off hat-trick, will it be Rahul vs him in 2014?", - said 'Times of India'.
These defined advent of new politics.
Dec 20, 2012 -- when Narendra Modi proved his detractors wrong and fought back the adversaries .... ::: The 'same spirit' may be in parts can help him sail post-CJP protest polity of circa 2026.
Take the clock back --
June 2013 -- the BJP was yet to finalise things. Some senior leaders were drawing plans, the likes of Arun Jaitley - of course - backed Narendra Modi.
It was only at much later stage Late Manohar Parrikar (then Goa CM) initiated a move.
The then BJP chief Rajnath Singh was also convinced of 'power' of the gun-powder called Moditva.
First, Rajnath went out to name Modi as the 'chairman of the election campaign committee' in June 2013 in Goa. Likes of L K Advani were not happy.
And then on Sept 13, 2013, he was named PM-candidate.
The JD(U) under an angry Nitish Kumar had already walked out of the NDA.
In fact, the journey from being just ‘Modi’ to the ‘Moditva phenomenon’ has been a tough fight; often the struggle of a loner, and that of a man who vanquished adversaries at virtually every stage.
Namo turned disadvantage into advantage.
Besides dealing with detractors in Congress who wanted to nail him in 2002 riots, Modi also overcame hurdles posed by party colleagues.
Dealing with all that requires more than assertiveness, and Modi has shown that single mindedness and the right synthesis of Hindutva inclined nationalism punctuated with development.
He marketed it in a typical 'new generation' corporate style.
A leader India was waiting for.
In Gujarat - sloganeering boys would accompany him even up to the then BJP headquarters at the Ashok Road -- "Dekho Dekho kaun aya ... Gujarat ka sher aya".
A leader – whom millions wanted to see as a ‘messiah’ – who can perhaps solve all their problems.
The birth of a ne slogan - 'Acchey Din Ane Waley haen'.
A girl of a boy who is now 17-18 and formed the part of the shouting crowd of July 20-21 (2026) was just five or six years old then.
The new Gen Z in 2026 almost dusted the glorification era vis-a-vis the Moditva phenomenon and their parents and elders.
Way back in 2021 - Modi was a leader who will give Hindus their lost prestige.
Does all that still remain in August 2026 and beyond ?
Modi needs to recapture the public imagination and especially the youths.
A leader – who could not be wrong even for taking away their legitimate currency notes.
A leader who will anchor the toughest military challenge like surgical strikes against Pakistan and also unleash the true economic potential of the world’s largest democracy.
Many may still unhesitatingly laud his image of a mystic Indian – a yogic in meditation, a worshiper taking dip in Ganga but yet someone who connected so well with millions via video conferences and Twitter. Something was amiss. Modi himself plunged into a new world of 'selfie videos'.
He set aside Mitron salutation albeit temporarily and used the sale-able term 'friends'.
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| Blogger |
Around 2021, there were some adverse reports. Some of them could be exaggerated and misguided by western prisms. But some were true.
India’s poor have become poorer over the years with the bottom half comprising over 600 million Indians sharing just 6 percent of the nation’s wealth, hinting at widening inequality. (2021)
“India stands out as a poor and very unequal country with an affluent elite,” says France-based World Inequality Lab in its latest global report penned by its co-director Lucas Chancel and coordinated by French economist Thomas Piketty.
The top one percent of Indians owned more than one fifth of the total national income in 2021.
Hence, the bottom half earned just 13.1 percent, said the report.
The findings may be taken with a pinch of salt.
But they were in contrast to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popular slogan “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas” promising to take along and ensure development for all, which helped him come to power in 2014.
Modi generated great hope among ordinary Indians then.
But the picture of 2021 painted in the World Inequality Report was gloomy.
“If the middle and neo-middle classes were wondering why things haven’t improved despite the hype around Modi’s promised ‘Acchey Din,’ this report makes it crystal clear now,” said Ramakanto Shanyal, an educationist from West Bengal.
He pointed out a plethora of problems that had caused the economic governance model of the country to fail over the years.
Well; India has to produce at least 10 million new jobs every year.
This is not happening.
A large section of the population is engaged in the informal economy while more than 60 percent of the middle class are unsure about keeping their jobs and earning in the next six months or so.
Some were more caustic. One Trinamool Congress leader in Asansol Jhantu Chakravarty said on the eve of 2026 polls -
“Modi’s act of demonetizing certain currency units [removing and replacing them as legal tender in 2016] proved disastrous. India’s unemployment rate had risen to a 35-40 year high.”
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| Naga voters : Still may not trust a Hindutva-party |
Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is said to have accommodated business captains like the Ambani brothers and Gautam Adani. But such allegations are political in nature and cannot be proved.
A BJP leader dismissed the allegations of nepotism as unfounded but admitted that compared to other Indian states, Gujarat and Mumbai city in the west provided friendly working and business atmosphere.
These are a few bitter facts of India’s economic governance that have contributed to widening the gulf between the rich and poor.
ends
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