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Comparisons with Nehru & Indira Gandhi inevitable; but PM

Modi is his own person
14 Sep, 2014, 03.59AM IST

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By: Neerja Chowdhury

Ever since he spoke to lakhs of children on Teacher's Day, many are suddenly seeing
reflections of Jawaharlal Nehru in Narendra Modi.
One of the reasons being that like Nehru, Modi was able to connect with the children all
over the country. After his initial remarks, he suddenly came to life interacting with them,
shedding fatigue, smiling, laughing a visage not seen often talking like a friend,
philosopher and guide about a whole host of issues, including his pranks, bringing to fore
a "cool" side (in the words of a child) of Modi.
Connecting with children and taking charge of foreign policy

And telling a Manipuri child who asked him how he could become prime minister that he
should prepare for 2024, for there was no chance till then, as Modi saw no threat to
himself!

are the only similarities between Indias first PM & the

present. In fact, Modi may be closer to Indira Gandhi.

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Nehru's connect with children earned him the title of Chacha Nehru. Soon after he became

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prime minister, he opened the doors of Teen Murti House, his residence, to children, giving
explicit instructions that they be allowed to use the spaces there to play. Even APJ Abdul Kalam used to encourage visits by children to
Rashtrapati Bhavan during his presidency.
Catch 'em Young
When Nehru talked to youngsters, he would invariably use the occasion to educate.
So also seems to be the case with Modi, and some have questioned whether being a teacher is a role a prime minister should play when
he has his plate more than full. Others saw it as a far-reaching political move by the new PM. The senior amongst the children he
addressed, and this is now going to be a yearly event, would become voters in 3-4 years time and are an important catchment area,
particularly for a prime minister who has already declared that he is looking at a 10-year term, at least!
I still remember, as a child, when Nehru had come to our school in Delhi to speak on our Founder's Day, and he had chosen to speak on
the country's foreign policy.
Most children are unlikely to forget an interaction with the prime minister, though the children in the south had problems understanding
Modi's conversation conducted in Hindi, and it might have been better had parts of it been translated into English, particularly when Modi
would like to avoid a north-south divide, and his protege, now BJP president Amit Shah is understood to be learning Tamil and Bengali!
Whether it was through the red and green turban he sported at Red Fort on Independence Day or his confident step on Japan's soil,
Modi has given early signs of exuding a consciousness that he leads over a billion people today. Nehru, it is well known and
documented, strode the Indian and world stage like a colossus for several decades.

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Foreign Affairs
The other similarity between the two that has invited comment is about both taking charge of foreign policy. Nehru was his own foreign
minister for all the 17 years that he was PM. It is early days for Modi, but many have been surprised at the ease with which he has taken
to foreign policy issues, and the direction he is giving them, from the day he took over.
This was reflected in his decision to invite Saarc leaders, including the Pakistan PM to his swearing in, and this entailed a risk. Had
Nawaz Sharif turned down his invite, it would have been seen as a snub by the hardliners in his own ranks and therefore a less-thanconfident start to his premiership.
Nehru's world view had been fashioned right through the days of the national movement, which was also a period between the two world
wars, and he had acquired an international perspective through his travels to countries of Europe, the then Soviet Union, China and the
US in the '30s and '40s. From the beginning he saw Indian independence in the larger context of an "Asian resurgence", and he more
than others in the Congress, came to fashion the policy non-alignment as the best way to go forward for a poor, yet large, country like
India to acquire its rightful place globally , rather than to align with either of the two blocs.
Modi on the other hand has come to South Block from a regional capital with experience of running only one state of India. People
expected him to take time to transit from a chief minister to a PM, particularly on foreign affairs. But Modi has taken to foreign policy, like
duck to water.
Foreign policy is a continuum and does not change with a change of government. Just as Nehru left his stamp on it, there are early
indications of a nuanced shift being made by Modi. Unlike the UPA's America-centric focus, he has given primacy to the neighbourhood
his early visits to Bhutan and Nepal and his invite to Saarc leaders bear this out then to Asia, Japan first and then to China, with
which the relationship is more complex; and then to the West and America where he will meet Barack Obama.
The reason why the world is looking at India and Modi with new eyes is the transformed situation in the country. It is the clear mandate
the people of India have given Modi, giving his own party a majority after 30 years of coalitional governance, and the political stability that
it connotes, which is making world leaders beat a path to India's doors.
Dismantling Nehru's Legacy
The Nehru-Modi comparisons, however, are only at the superficial level. Both represent two contending ideas of India, though the
Congress is too demoralized today and at one level also confused on some of the ideological issues to go to town on what it stands
for.
If anything, Modi has hardly shown an enthusiasm for Nehru, and the BJP and RSS have an aversion to anything Nehruvian.
The PM did not even take Nehru's name during his first I-Day speech. He struck statesman-like notes when he talked of all governments
having contributed to the development of the country and during the course of his speech referred to many a leader Gandhi, Patel,
JP, Lohia who had taken the country to great heights. But he left out Nehru. Agree or disagree with him, Nehru was among the
builders of modern India.
Beca

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use of opposition to Nehru, the PM may have chosen to speak on Teachers' Day, and not on Bal Divas, which might have been a more
natural occasion. But then using November 14, which is celebrated as Children's Day because it is Nehru's birthday, would have made
the exercise a continuation of the Nehruvian convention.
The Planning Commission is not part of the BJP's scheme of things but the decision to "scrap" it was essentially because it was a
Nehruvian relic. After all, if the country has to go for bullet trains, and smart cities, industrial corridors and new infrastructure, that cannot
happen without planning.
The government proposes to create an alternative structure. But reforming an existing one is always easier than reinventing the wheel.
By opting to do away with it, Modi was clearly making a political point about bring down another edifice of the Nehruvian period.
Many prime ministers have been their foreign ministers, whether or not they held the portfolio themselves. Like Narasimha Rao. He
fashioned India's foreign policy in the crucial years following the breakup of the Soviet Union when India opted to globalize in a world
which had become unipolar, and moved from multilateralism to bilateralism, to a greater focus on economic relations in foreign affairs,
and a "Look East" policy. Even the "weak" Manmohan Singh enhanced the relationship with the US with the Indo-American civil nuclear
deal on which he staked his government.
Modi is not cast in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee mould. Vajpayee was the moderate face of the BJP, Modi is its hawkish face. Modi is hands
on. Vajpayee used to leave most decisions to his principal secretary Brajesh Mishra.
The Original Iron Lady
If Modi can be likened to a PM, in his style of functioning, it is not so much to Nehru or Vajpayee as to Indira Gandhi. She may have
started off as "gungi gudiya" but Indira came to be described as the "only man in the cabinet".
In just over three months, Modi is not just the "first amongst equals" that a prime minister in our scheme of things is supposed to be, but
is already head and shoulders above his other cabinet colleagues. The home minister, for instance, was not allowed to have the
secretary of his choice.
If reports which have not been rebutted are to be believed, the home minister is out of the process to decide the appointments as a
member of the Cabinet Committee on Appointments, but is now informed about it afterwards, when the PM has decided. The PM
undertook a highly successful visit to Japan which upgraded the relations between the two countries, but strangely Sushma Swaraj, the
foreign minister was not part of it, whatever the reason. This has raised questions whether we are functioning in a presidential form of
government or a cabinet system.
Like Modi, Indira was also a polarizing personality. Like Indira, Modi too has a style which likes to control. Like her, Modi too went over the
head of the party to create a direct connect with the masses. Like Modi who has bought his trusted people from Gujarat into the PMO
she used to preside over an all powerful PMO, that decided all major decisions, whether it was to do with bureaucratic appointments,
intelligence gathering, or the judiciary. There are early signs of all major decisions getting routed through Modi's PMO. Like Indira, Modi
too has a less-than comfortable relationship with the media.

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One of the early but visible signs of change is a drying up of information sources. In the past, whether during the UPA or the NDA rule,
BJP leaders were easily accessible and forthcoming about the goings on in government and the party. Today they give media persons a
wide berth, unless authorized by the powers that be to talk to the media. The PM has been taking only the official media as part of his
team when he has gone abroad.
During Indira's time, or even in the first two years of the 415-MP-backed Rajiv Gandhi government, reporters had to hang around the
Congress office for the one sentence that a leader coming out might utter about the goings on inside! In Indira's case, when the courts
disqualified her from parliament in 1975, she went to the extent of imposing an internal emergency, leading to media censorship, and
abridgement of basic freedoms. Ironically, it is coalition governments, and the "leaks" they encouraged, which increased media's access
to information.
Every prime minister's style of functioning is bound to find some resonance in the past, by way of comparisons to his predecessors. But
at the end of the day, Modi as were Nehru, Indira or the others is his own person.

(The writer is a political commentator)

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