Politics and The Art of Being Left of Self-Interest

Shekhar Gupta, a rare combination of consummate insider and trenchant observer, writing in the latest issue of India Today says that while agriculture is 15% of India’s economic GDP, it is 60% of the political GDP.

How true! Look at the shenanigans of our political class over the past few weeks. Rahul Gandhi has discovered the plight of the farmer after nearly sixty years of his family ruling on the basis of keeping the farmer poor and therefore open to the lure of dole.

Even Derek O’Brien having long forgotten that his 15 minutes of fame came from asking the right questions and appreciating the right answers, has suddenly discovered the leftist in himself while opining on the Land bill.

Even Narendra Modi seems to be somewhat shaken and willing to yield ground.

Is the fear of failure beginning to fray his nerves?

A year ago when he declared that he was not frightened of loosing because he had nothing much to loose – he could always go back to being a humble pracharak – I thought this lack of fear would enable him to topple the debilitating shibboleths of Indian politics. 

Has the weight of being India’s most powerful PM since Nehru started chipping away at the strong foundation of self-abnegation that brought him to power in the first place?

Self-abnegation and Modi? I can hear his numerous critics hoot. According to them Modi is probably the biggest egotist that Indian politics has seen. Bigger than Indira Gandhi, they say, as they warn against consequences more disastrous than the Emergency.

But look at the man dispassionately. He is perhaps a little vain. Likes to dress, sometimes even overdress, well. He sees himself as a man chosen by destiny to accomplish great things for his people. But the feeling I get is that he does not let that perception weigh him down. Tomorrow if destiny decides otherwise he strikes me to be the kind that will ride away whistling into the sunset.  That was last year, now I am not quite so sure. 

Self-interest seems to be threatening to elbow out self-abnegation. 

Watch out Mr. Modi. The only thing you have to fear is fear itself. If you fear losing the next election you will.

Stand up to the politics of self-interest. Do the radical because the calculus of incremental reforms is self-defeating. Do what we voted you in to do.