Title: Mr Modi, This is Your Life
Author: Rakesh Sinha and Darshan Desai
Publication: Indian Express
Date: Mar 31, 2002 
URL: http://www.indian-express.com/ie20020331/week1.html

The pracharak who left home at 17, the swayamsevak who moved to the BJP at his leader’s say-so. Rakesh Sinha and Darshan Desai read between his CV’s lines

 MOMENTS after he emerged from Kushabhau Thakre’s room in the BJP central office in New Delhi on Wednesday, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi bumped into an old faithful who greeted him with folded hands. ‘‘Karyalaya mein ek daadiwala to hai (at least there’s one man with a beard in the party office),’’ he laughed as he made his way to a waiting car. It was his way of letting off steam, his joke — insensitive, cruel, chilling — at the end of a rather troublesome day.

Modi had flown to Delhi on a summons from the Prime Minister, who had nipped thoughts of early elections and told him instead to stamp out anti-Muslim riots. Why did the PM have to sound like the rest? After all, it was he who had sent him there to put the party house in order. And in a little under six months, the Pracharak-as-Chief Minister had single-handedly marshalled the State resources to further the Parivar agenda. So why was it anyone’s concern how he had done it? It nagged Namo no end.

He was always Namo. His friends in Delhi believed Namo was an affectionate abbreviation of the first two letters of the words that make up his name. What they didn’t know was that when translated into Gujarati, it simply was an order to bow down. Namo enjoyed that. People had always bowed before him. Why, even mother Hiraben couldn’t come in the way of Namo’s plans. Nor could the young girl he was forced to marry. In 1967, the 17-year-old left them all behind at home in Vadnagar and travelled to the big city of Ahmedabad. He vowed to shut out the past, one promise he has kept till date. The principle that the pracharak’s family is never his alone comes in handy with pesky reporters as well.

 In understanding Modi, or why he behaved the way he did while Gujarat was burning, his formative years, the time spent as a Sangh preacher and later, hold the key. From the time he entered university for a degree in political science, Modi was active in the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the students’ arm of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). A regular at the shakhas, Namo spent hours listening to and studying RSS founder K B Hedgewar. Those who know him say he always seemed ‘‘more interested in the personality than the event.’’ As Jan Sangh’s Raikhad ward president in Ahmedabad, he ran the State Transport officers’ canteen.

His enthusiasm didn’t go unnoticed. He was spotted by RSS leaders Nathalal Jhagda and Lakshmanrao Inamdar, whom everyone called Vakil Saheb because of his defence of RSS cadres named in the Mahatma Gandhi assassination conspiracy. They played a major role in grooming him for the Sangh. Modi never let them down. In August last year, his book on Vakil Saheb was released by none other than Vajpayee. The function at the PM’s residence was graced by RSS chief K S Sudarshan. Modi was all the more happy because Vajpayee chose to recall his own years at the shakhas, of the teachings of the pracharaks, of the Sangh culture that they were all part of. Modi and Parivar felt good together.

The modern pracharak, he sports rimless Cartier glasses. But a BJP functionary who has worked with Modi says the trendy glasses shouldn’t be confused with the pracharak. ‘‘There’s a certain arrogance about the man. He also may be a little unconventional in his attire. But he believes that a government should help achieve its party’s political goals. So running a government alone is not important. He measures it with what you, while in power, have done for your party.’’

This, even Gujarat cadre officials corroborate. They say he is ruthless enough to not care even if he has to ride roughshod over people and administrative decisions he does not like. ‘‘He has a fantastic memory. He never forgets, be it a face or something one may have done for or against him’’, says an IAS official.
As a pracharak, Modi took an active role in the JP movement (Navnirman Andolan) in 1974. The next year, he became the general secretary of the Lok Sangharsh Samiti (Gujarat State), floated to counter the Emergency clamped by Indira Gandhi.

His organisational skill saw him being deputed to the BJP from the Sangh; he was part of the team planning Vajpayee’s public meetings in 1984 and then the Gujarat organising secretary when the BJP took charge of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation for the first time. He was also at the forefront of a successful Kisan Andolan against the Congress government’s move to meters agricultural power connections.

By then, the BJP central leadership had recognised Modi’s potential. He was inducted into the team that worked out Advani’s Somnath-Ayodhya rathyatra in 1990. Next year, he was the one man who stood out in Murli Manohar Joshi’s unmemorable Ekta Yatra.

Party leaders maintain that the 1995 electoral win, which saw Keshubhai Patel take charge of Gujarat, went to Modi’s head. He was soon to become the Super CM, the power behind the throne. He would remain present at the CM’s meetings with senior officials, Power to Keshubhai’s cipher. This was often cited as one of the reasons for Shankarsinh Vaghela’s rebellion.

When he became CM again after Vaghela’s brief stint in power, Keshubhai decided he couldn’t continue with the Super CM. Consequently, Modi was moved out of Gujarat and put in charge of party affairs in the North. But when Keshubhai landed himself in a bind last year, Modi, always the strategist, found the chance he had been waiting for. He declared, ‘‘I am here to play a one-day, limited-overs match. The party must be ready for hard action.’’

Modi had Keshubhai’s close associate Vajubhai Vala vacate the Rajkot-2 constituency for him, and ensured Keshubhai was elected to the Rajya Sabha. Never the one to hide his Hindutva beliefs, he made Gordhan Jhadaphia — essentially a Vishwa Hindu Parishad man — minister in charge of the sensitive Home department. The grounds for the ‘‘hard action’’ had been prepared.
And then Godhra happened. In this case though, the rest is not yet history because it is still happening, even in areas where Hindus and Muslims have never clashed before. The outing over, the pracharak now has to call home the Parivar because his inaction and their actions, which have probably left an indelible scar on the Muslim psyche, can undo all that Gujarat has built over the years.