Valson Thampu

There are two distinct and divergent readings of who Modi is and what he is out to achieve. Taking note of them has a bearing on how he has goofed up in managing the pandemic and the horrendous price the nation is now paying on account of it.
The first view is that Modi is a megalomaniac and a mass deceiver. To be a deceiver, one has to be also self-deceived. He says what he does not intend to deliver. So, he flits from promise to promise, unhindered by the need to uphold any of them. There is no method in this madness; or, if there is any, it is the method only of self-glorification. He makes no difference between glory and vainglory.
The second view is just the opposite. Modi means what he says. He is earnest about what he proposes and is doing all he can to fulfil them. He is committed to the glory of India and works his fingers to his bones to take her to dizzy heights. He is a patriot, not a demagogue who manipulates the masses for personal gains. But, alas, he has to carry on his shoulders a nation as vast and varied as India is; a nation burdened with inertia. Modi is the Man of the Moment. This view of Modi is similar to Goethe’s view of Napoleon. The German genius saw the Corsican as ‘the philosophic unity of a chaotic and intolerably manifold world’.
Centuries before Goethe, Aristotle did something similar. He hailed Alexander the Great as the point of unity for a deeply fractured Greece. Patriotism at that time was synonymous with regionalism, not unlike the Kashmiri sentiment today. Aristotle believed that Greek thought, culture and science would do better when Greek disunity gave way to national unity. Alexander, in the meanwhile, succumbed to his delusions of personal omnipotence and declared himself a god. Commenting on this Will Durant writes, ‘Greece laughed; and Alexander drank himself to death’.
The delusional folly that cost Alexander and Napoleon, incomparable genius both- their life, stemmed from a poor understanding of the deeply-entrenched realities of their societies and of human nature. In the uptake of national euphoria leaders under-estimate the inertia and negativity of their people. Adam Smith insisted that human beings are, by nature, lazy. They would rather have things done for them, than bestir themselves for their own welfare. This makes them look for saviours who, they’d want to believe, have solutions for all their problems. The delusions of the leaders have their roots in the inertia and parasitism of the people.
Disenchantment is growing about the inexcusable un-preparedness of our country, under Modi’s watch, to meet the deadly, wholly predictable, second wave. I too have decried it. But I also know that ‘not preparing oneself’ in relation to ‘what’s coming’ is not a rare failure in India. Rather, it is endemic in our national character and personal culture.
One of the reasons why we don’t change is that we have grown used to leaving everything to God. If God is there to take care of everything why bother? (This is the essence of popular religiosity in all religious communities.) It might even seem a sign of anaemic faith to bestir oneself. It is as if by trying to provide for the rainy day we distrust Providence. Of course, this doesn’t apply to politics. There no one leaves anything to God. Neither booth management, nor propaganda, nor candidate selection, nor coalition formation is left to God. Indeed, God is not allowed to come anywhere near! (Religious leaders are entertained, especially in Kerala.) God is brought in only as an alternative to acting responsibly in respect of one’s own welfare or of the welfare of citizens.
That brings us to the perversity of communalising the State. From a short-sighted perspective, it might seem a smart thing to influence the State so as to secure the best interests of one’s religious community. It is suicidal, long-term. I am not referring here to the terrible consequences of kindling and legitimising majoritarian communalism. My concern here is with the less obvious, but equally dangerous, consequences it has for the culture of governance, which is our present theme.
Surely, the foremost reason why complacency reigns in respect of the COVID fiasco is that the electoral prospect of the ruling dispensation cannot be affected by any amount of human suffering, given that is secured with majoritarian communalism. In any other country, the extent of human suffering and desperation witnessed in India in the recent weeks would have devastated the popular ratings of the leader. Modi’s approval rating even today is an impressive 65%! Given that, the BJP knows that the electoral setback it has suffered in a few states does not have to be a cause for worry. Parliamentary elections will be a different ball game altogether. By now, the myth is retailed nation-wide that India has only one saviour; and everyone knows who it is. That is what religion can do for you in politics.
This means that the people have to fend for themselves. And why not? It makes good sense that they do. There’s a problem, though. It’d take an entirely new culture for them to do so. That culture is hard to be born for the reason that it is counter to the culture of hero-worship, which is the State religion of India at present.