December , 2007
Modi Mandate: Myth and Reality
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In this age of instant punditry, it's often easier to arrive at conclusions without even attempting analysis. When the person in question is Narendra Modi, then it becomes even more difficult to have a dispassionate debate. In the "them" versus "us" syndrome that now increasingly marks the country's public discourse, you are almost expected to either lionise or demonise the individual, depending on your ideological predilections. Which is why most of the comment after Modi's remarkable election triumph in Gujarat has either been marked by euphoria or consternation. Maybe, it's time to examine some of the myths that have been manufactured to explain the Modi phenomenon by both sides of the ideological divide. For the secular intelligentsia, Modi's victory in Gujarat occurred because he was able to successfully polarise the Gujarati electorate on communal lines. Part of this myth-making is that Sonia Gandhi's 'maut ka saudagar' statement presented....
Brand Modi on sale
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DK Barooah's singular contribution to Indian democracy was his coronation of Indira Gandhi as the Empress of India with his infamous remark: "India is Indira, and Indira is India". Barooah was a product of the Emergency years when political sycophancy touched an all-time low, but his ghost continues to haunt Indian politics. The latest reincarnation is a certain Purshottam Rupala, the Gujarat BJP president who when asked recently what his party stood for in this election, boasted, "We have Narendra Modi, he is the symbol of Gujarati asmita and he is our mascot. When you have a leader like Modiji, why do you need anything else?" Why, indeed. If Barooah anointed Mrs Gandhi as a virtual monarch, the BJP has taken the same route with Modi in Gujarat. Modi not just dominates the BJP's campaign in Gujarat; he is almost a one-man show. Even Atal Behari Vajpayee, despite....
More about Rajdeep Sardesai
Rajdeep Sardesai is the Editor-in-Chief, IBN18 Network, that includes CNN-IBN, IBN 7 and IBN Lokmat. He comes with 22 years of journalistic experience during which he has covered some of the biggest stories in India and the world. Prior to setting up the IBN network, he was the Managing Editor of both NDTV 24X7 and NDTV India and was responsible for overseeing the news policy for both the channels. He has also worked with The Times of India for six years and was the city editor of its Mumbai edition at the age of 26. During the last 22 years, he has covered major national and international stories, specialising in national politics. He has won numerous other awards for journalistic excellence, including the prestigious Padma Shri for journalism in 2008, the International Broadcasters Award for coverage of the 2002 Gujarat riots and the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award for 2007. He has won the Asian Television Award for best talk show for the Big Fight on two occasions and his current flagship show on CNN-IBN, India at 9, has been awarded the best news show at the Asian awards for the last two years. He has been News Anchor of the year at the Indian Television Academy for seven of the last eight years and won more than 50 awards in this period. He has also been the President of the Editors Guild of India, the only television journalist to hold the post and was chosen a Global leader for tomorrow by the world economic forum in 2000. An alumni of St Xavier's College, Mumbai, he has done his Masters and LLB from Oxford University and has also played first class cricket for the Oxford University team. He has contributed to several books and writes a fortnightly column that appears in seven newspapers.
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