Rajdeep Sardesai - 2019: How Modi Won India

To
Ishan and Tarini

Contents

M ADISON Square Garden in midtown Manhattan is a global amphitheatre of dreams. From celebrated basketball players to boxers, from musicians to entertainers, some of the biggest performers of our times have taken centre stage in the arena. On 28 September 2014, a very different rock concert was being staged, its lead artiste a bearded gent from Gujarat who, only months before, had been sworn in as Indias fourteenth prime minister. As the crowd chanted his name with a frenzy normally reserved for a pop star, Narendra Damodardas Modi must have felt he had arrived as an international celebrity.

It was a bright day in New York. As the city ambled along that late Sunday morning, tourists training their cameras upwards, families shouting for running toddlers, couples strolling arm in arm, an unusual sight was unfolding. A growing crowd of Indians, waving the tricolour, banners and posters, began to flock to the sidewalk outside Madison Square Garden, TV reporters tracking them breathlessly. It was a diverse crowd, mostly young. Women wore bright silk saris as if dressed for an evening out. Long-haired students lounged in groups, taking selfies and whooping Modi! Modi! Sprightly senior citizens sporting jauntily angled caps engaged in animated conversation. Non-resident Indian families that had trekked long distances to be there. A tangible sense of excitement was coursing through the gathering that waited in line as if to watch the latest hit film.

Only a day before, Mr Modi had been a star attraction at New Yorks Central Park, hobnobbing with Hollywood icon Hugh Jackman before an audience of star-struck youth. In a seven-minute speech in English, Mr Modi spoke like a feel-good guru, ending his address with, May the force be with you. Indias prime ministers thus far have been normally formal personages who strictly follow official protocol and would not have shared the stage with a Hollywood star so readily or attempted to engage with him through current lingo. Yet Mr Modi consistently pushes the boundaries of prime-ministerial behaviour and being seen shooting the breeze with a movie star is part of the youth-friendly, pop culture-friendly, with-it image he tries hard to cultivate. As the prime minister held aloft a slightly dazed Jackmans hand, the crowd, many of whom were gawky tattooed American teenagers with limited knowledge of India, cheered the speaker with typical New York rumbustious energy.

By contrast, the multitudes who thronged Madison Square Garden on 28 September were mainly affluent Indian Americans, many of them Gujaratis from across the United States. The US chapter of the Overseas Friends of BJP had organized the event along with local IndianAmerican groups and tickets had been sold in advance. The hall was packed with more than 19,000 people, representative of the rising power of the Indian diaspora in the country, several of whom wore white Modi T-shirts, others waving posters and banners.

Out on the sidewalk, I wandered over to a group of Gujarati families who had travelled up from New Jersey to catch a glimpse of Mr Modi. They had been living in the US for decades but said they were proud of their heritage and Hindu identity. They looked after the family store and were grateful to be in a country where honest hard work is fulsomely rewarded. Yet they missed home and wished that India would get a leader who could transform it and bring real change. To them, Modi was the man and, as Gujaratis, they were particularly proud that not only was a fellow Gujarati the prime minister but that he was such a popular one. Dressed in sharp suits and colourful saris they argued that Modi was the only Indian prime minister (after Indira Gandhi) who believes in consistently reaching out to people. He has a connection with the people and makes sure to keep meeting as many as possible, they said. Other PMs have generally stayed away from too much public contact. Mr Manmohan Singh was respected but he was so shy. Modi is a poor man who has come up the hard way, he is one of us. There was a combative aggressive edge to them as well as they made it a point to tell me that they did not trust journalists who had tried so hard to spoil Modijis name. You are among those journalists, said one of the women, half laughing, half accusatory. I sensed that in a crowd where adoration shaded into hysteria and where any endorsement of Modi carried with it a white-hot rage at his detractors, I was not exactly in very friendly company.

Covering the event from the midst of this excited crowd of Modi supporters, the atmosphere seemed a trifle surreal to me. I had known Mr Modi the politician for over two decades but hadnt quite expected the smooth transition he had so rapidly made from a kurta-pyjamaclad neta to a trendsetting, fashionably dressed superstar politician. This, after all, was a leader who had been persona non grata in the US for over a decade, his visa having been cancelled in 2005 in the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat riots. Those riots have largely defined Mr Modis persona in the popular imagination, both for those who see him through their prism and for those who vociferously denounce any attempts to do so.

Ironically, the man who had played a role in the visa cancellation was now part of a cheerleading entourage that had travelled to New York ahead of the prime ministers visit. Zafar Sareshwala is an Ahmedabad-based businessman whose offices had been attacked and burnt during the 2002 violence. Sareshwala was living in England at the time and had petitioned the courts and political leaders to ensure that action was taken against Mr Modi.

I saw him as a villain who was responsible for the attacks on Muslims in Gujarat, he would later tell me. However, a meeting with Mr Modi in April 2003 at Londons upscale St. James Court Hotel, arranged by editor-news anchor Rajat Sharma, changed his mind. The image that I had of a leader who was anti-Muslim was very different from the man I met and spoke to. Mr Modi convinced me that he was keen to ensure that Muslims were rehabilitated and the atmosphere of fear and discrimination removed, claims Sareshwala.

The bearded businessman returned to India and became Mr Modis Muslim face brand ambassador on TV debates. His businesses flourished and he was eventually appointed the chancellor of Hyderabads Maulana Azad National Urdu University. In New York, Sareshwala had the privilege of staying in the same hotel as the prime minister, albeit on a different floor.

Another special guest of the prime minister staying in the luxuriously appointed New York Palace Hotel was business magnate Gautam Adani, whose fortunes had also dramatically transformed in the Modi years in Gujarat. Adani and Sareshwala were among the few who appeared to have unlimited access to the prime minister in New York. Look, the PM had a very packed schedule but I think he was happy to have a few familiar people around him on his first big visit to a Western capital. We would sit and occasionally have a meal together, all very simple Gujarati vegetarian food, recalls Sareshwala.

The large media contingent which was tracking Mr Modis every move was being kept at arms length. The traditional practice of allowing journalists to accompany the prime minister on his plane had been stopped the first sign that Mr Modi was determined to rewrite the rules of engagement with the media and not cede even an inch of space to the Fourth Estate. Dont think the prime minister likes you guys too much, you ask too many questions, a Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) official said, laughing.

For Mr Modi, the euphoric reception he was receiving in New York must have seemed like the ultimate redemption. On stage with him at Madison Square Garden were thirty-odd US officials, including several senators and a governor. He has always been deeply influenced by the US. In his album of photos, a picture of him with friends outside the White House in the early 1990s takes pride of place. He had spent months in the New Jersey area, home to thousands of Gujarati expatriates, and had once told a close friend that America is truly a great country that India should learn from.