Vivekanand Jha, Ranchi . Modi, irrespective of praise and criticisms, notwithstanding his achievements or failures, is the global phenomenon of 21st century. The master in real politicking, has institutionalised, by virtue of orchestrating such a degree and magnitude of attention around him, that bidding a political goodbye to him will never be an easy task for the nation. Significantly, his very departure from politics, especially if it comes through vanquishment in electoral battle will have a grave consequence for the nation: a communal flare up, if not the communal conflagration, will certainly be engineered by those who sincerely dream of Ghazwa e Hind to be imposed upon the nation when the polity will be perceived to be in turmoil. No wonder, the least prospect of Modi’s defeat, even if it is contemplated remotely, has the ghoulish portent of sending chill through our veins. How could Modi rise to assume the position of such inevitability, even if not indespensability, is a matter of empirical study, for none of his predecessors had succeeded in dividing the nation across the religious divides where India and Pakistan type hostility, nay enmity, has come to define India of twenty first century? This degree and magnitude of toxicity, irrespectve of good or bad the nation’s affairs is, will be decisive factor in voting for or against Modi. Unequivocally, BJP as a party, albeit for the first time, in decades, regrettably has ceased to matter; what, in fact, has come to matter is, bringing back Modi is tantamount to ensuring the victory of India, whereas his defeat, in no ambiguous terms, shall amount to writing of the obituary of the very concept of Bharatvarsha which India has come to showcase in the wake of Modi’s arrival in Delhi Durbar in 2014. Small wonder then, what BJP’s strategists say that, in fact, India was born in 2014 might stand vindicated in the light of the new description of India being defined in the light of Modi representing India where his defeat is considered at par with India’s losing its raison d’etre and its very summum bonum which the nation has come to symbolise ever since the messiah Modi–Tavleen Singh has evocatively portrayed in her book, and I have prophesied the political trajectory he will follow in the wake of his arrival in Delhi Durbar in my book Delhi Beckons: RaGa for NaMo–has arrived as the Bhagya Vidhata of Bharatvarsha. In fact, I had little scepticism, far more conviction, on the basis of my tracking of Narendra Modi’s journey as an outsider of Gujarat politics into transforming himself as Gujarat’s plenipotentiary; its raison d’etre and its summum bonum once he was placed as the chief minister of Gujarat.
Significantly, no politician ever, far less any of Modi’s predecessor, could dare masquerade himself as equivalent to the nation as Modi has. Indira Gandhi, notwithstanding her grandstanding; allegorically seeking to be defined in such loftiest terms as reflected in Devendra Baruah’s singing a famous panegyrics for her: Indira is India, India is Indira, failed to resonate with the masses, as Indira eventually bit the dust at the hustings in 1977, but Modi has far succeeded where Indira Gandhi had drastically failed: Modi has positioned himself today as India’s raison d’etre and its summum bonum. And all this could be possible because Modi discerningly succeeded in dissecting the mindset of the nation, especially Hindus, for decades together; the utter deprivation of Hindus in their own motherland, being marginalised by the policy makers as the fragmented group, never amenable to the process of consolidation. Thus reading the psyche of Hindu community languishing at the bottom, ending up as the easy fodder for political manipulation, Modi shaped his own political trajectory as the messiah of Hindus. Evidently, Modi, even if not in totality, nevertheless in significant proportion of the section of populace, has spectacularly succeeded in injecting a sense of security and confidence, remarkably pitchforking himself as the centrifugal force to protect this massive group of insecured people from being vultured. Hence, the evolution of this journey and the newly evolving trajectory of Hindutava, contributed to the gatgantuan rise of a behemoth of Modi phenomenon, which appears invincible in today’s political matrix.
The new India which started from 2014 is boisterous, even cacophonous, yet staunchly backs Modi in all his endeavours, whether good or bad, yet Modi, especially for the vast section of people who looked upon him and absolutely credit him for their own edification, remains invincible todsy. Significantly, for this vast section of people Modi is equivalent to the sunrise for them and, therefore, even the remotest speculation of his eventual eclipse is tantamount to their own political debilitation, even if not their political extinction. Fueled by this growing security of this vast section of people reposing their collective faith in Modi phenomenon, the BJP strategists have increasingly taken recourse to spinning out the Ghazwa e Hind theory with greater vengeance as if there is no tomorrow; frightening them that Modi’s defeat is an open invitation to the conquest of India by the forces of Ghazwa e Hind which is so befittingly resonating with this vast section of people whose licence to remain empowered and immune from the ghoulish terror to be unlesshed by the forces of Ghazwa e Hind is to staunchly back Modi, irrespective of their economic sorrow; in fact, even if the pangs of hunger overwhelmingly bites them, yet the projected terror of Ghazwa e Hind will keep this section of people perched comfortably in Modi’s cocoon. Here Modi has succeeded himself in winning the trust of the people where all his predecessors had remarkably failed. Also, where his predecessors would panic even to imagine such a polarisation of the nation along the religious lines, Narendra Modi has made it his pedestrian affair.
In hindsight, whether Ghazwa e Hind is genuine or orchestrated, Narendra Modi has phenomenally succeeded in injecting the humongous dread in the minds of vast section of Hindus. Interestingly, the burgeoning of muslim population, touching to almost 25 to 30 percent of the total population, is an authentic cause for such a dread being injected in the minds of a vast chunk of Hindus. Moreover, the historic incident of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s deadly desire to convert Hindus into muslims, is being engendered to revisit the nation yet again with even a deadlier shape than it had happened centuries ago. No wonder, the invention of Guru Govind Singh’s valiant minor sons’ remarkable sacrifice at the altar of insulating Hindus from their eventual conversion, is being shrewdly sought to be planted in the minds of the people by the BJP strategists. Significantly, Ghazwa e Hind, even though in existence, yet the monster of its magnifying image is the deliberate ploy to keep Hindus glued to Modi phenomenon, even if they go hungry, left with no job, corruption accentuating to the scorching level, yet the dread of Ghazwa e Hind will keep this flock of staunch supporters of Modi uninterruptedly backing Modi to the hilt. It is this fear psychosis which was never experienced in the past, yet has assumed the monstrous proportion in this age and era. No wonder, Modi remains firmly perched in his cocoon, and to defeat him will be an achiles hill. The very prospect of Ghazwa e Hind scorching the polity, in the wake of Modi’s defeat, will make Modi invincible in 2024 general election too. Small wonder then, for the opponents of Modi, in order to defeat the latter, will have to develop an alternative strategy that banishes the overwhelming fear embedded in India’s impending Islamisation brought about by the process of Ghazwa e Hind. Unless that is done, Narendra Modi will remain unchallenged as India’s Prime Minister.
