Modi trying to rise from BJP’s ashes

June 12, 2009: The day an apparently concerned Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was in Delhi to enlighten Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Australian High Commissioner John McCarthy about the attacks on Indian students Down Under, there were three newsworthy developments taking place in his home state.

In Surat, a 17 year old school student was being gang raped and simultaneously filmed by three youth – one the son of a police inspector and the other a head constable – after being kidnapped in the guise of cops. A day earlier in Ahmedabad, three gangsters in a car robbed bank employees of Rs 61 lakh in broad daylight from a densely populated area and 72 hours later there was still no trace of the culprits. In the third case, the annual Urs at Shah Alam in capital Ahmedabad was on the verge of being called off after the area police demanded bribe of Rs 80,000 per day as protection money for the t10-day fair. The organizers moved to call it off but senior cops intervened to cool matters. Dipping public confidence in official handling manifested itself when people including a large number of women, unmindful of the police, mercilessly beat up the three alleged Surat rapists when they were being taken to hospital. In another case two youth involved in the infamous Datar hill rape and murder case of Junagadh and arrested on May 30 were badly beaten up by prisoners inside the jail leading the police to seek their transfer to another jail outside the district. The Datar rape case which took place before the 2007 state Assembly elections had become highly politicized leading to a minister’s resignation. That even indignant prisoners are resorting to direct action as are the people shows the dipping confidence in the ability of the state administration to deliver.

Riding the popularity high horse after the s victory in the 2007 state Assembly elections, both the Chief Minister and his government went into a stupor after the Lok Sabha election results washed out BJP hopes of riding back to power in Delhi. Modi, the second most important player after prime ministerial aspirant LK Advani has been hit in equal proportion. The man who addressed campaign meetings in 300 constituencies and could bag less than 30 for his marathon cross-country effort was virtually rendered comatose after the poll results came in and is only now beginning to stir almost a month after it. Always waiting to cotton onto any opportunity to project himself at the national level, Modi has latched onto the attack on Indian students in Australia to refresh himself in national memory. While most BJP national leaders as well as chief ministers have sought to maintain restraint realizing the sensitiveness of the issues involved, Modi has jumped in where angels fear to tread under the pretext of rising concern for Gujarati students in Australia. According to a statement issued by the state government in Gandhinagar: “Modi requested the PM that the problem should be tackled diplomatically and that the Australian government should be intimated in all positive terms to ensure the safety and confidence among Indian students. He also suggested to the PM that there should be a quick response system in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) so that students and parents can register their grievances. A joint meeting with the high commissioner of Australia and MEA officials should be arranged with parents in major cities of the country including Gujarat,” the statement read. A similar meeting with Australian High Commissioner John McCarthy in Delhi also had the chief minister expressing his apprehensions and voicing his suggestions on near similar lines.

The entire profiled exercise is a distinct attempt by Modi to shake himself out of the ashes of the BJP electoral disaster and to distance himself from the internal controversies bedeviling the party at the national level. With the Modi magic having failed to cut ice at the national level, the man obviously needs time to rethink and plan out a fresh approach. He is, in the meantime using the interval to work out a revamp at the state level to tighten his hold on the levers of power. Many of his state level strategic moves have also failed at the national level. His overnight Congress imports failed in the Lok Sabha elections as did criminal characters. The BJP loss of the Rajkot seat which it held for over two decades and the victory of the Congress candidate who had been slapped with a plethora of criminal charges by the Modi government is one of the worst setbacks for Modi who gained by just one seat in Gujarat as against his claims of a Congress wipeout.

The immediate result is a looming revamp designed more for effect than effeciency. Already orders are out that all class one officers, including IAS officers, will not be allowed leave till August 31.The order comes at a time when chief secretary D Rajgopalan is already in the US on what is being termed as an official-cum-personal visit. Soon after, a second round of transfer of IAS and IPS officers is also on the cards. Again in a late night demonstration of his powers, the Surat Police Commissioner Deepak Swaroop who detected the Surat rape case and nabbed the culprits the same day was stripped off his charge late on Saturday night. More such dramatic assertion of authority is expected in the days to come. This will include large scale transfers of IAS and IPS officers.

This is essential, Modi watchers say, if he is to arrest the slide of his falling popularity graph. The man has a legion of political enemies waiting to pounce on him at the slightest signs of his weakening. These include as many inside his party as those outside.