LS polls: Is Narendra Modi first among equals?

Gujarat chief minister and Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has, of late, started considering himself bigger than the party. However, he suffers from an inferiority complex as compared to the BJP stalwarts. Though Mr Modi’s stature looks bigger than the senior leaders because of the hype, it isn’t.

Leaders earn respect and gain stature with experience, knowledge, vision and contribution to the party. It is interesting to note that those who are being sidelined in the BJP have some stature in national politics or have given their lives for the party. Though Mr Modi has become the party’s prime ministerial candidate, he has failed to attain that stature.

There is a famous saying: “There are only two ways to draw a bigger line either you actually draw a bigger one or you cut the given line short”.

To my mind, Mr Modi has taken the second option and has sent across the message that either you follow me or you will be thrown out of the party. In the storm triggered within the BJP by Mr Modi, several of the top leaders including L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Jaswant Singh and Haren Pathak appear to have been blown away with the wind.

A man can never set aside his past. The entire country knows and witnessed what Mr Modi did to former Gujarat chief minister Keshubhai Patel or former BJP national general secretary Sanjay Joshi. Mr Modi has the habit of making a few “more than equals” in his march up the ladder by showing the door to powerful leaders.

History never forgives any political party or any organisation, which loses sight of its history and is disrespectful to its elders. And this is true in the BJP’s case as well. The Congress, which has pan-India presence, in its history of 128 years, has always respected its ideology, belief, tradition and all its great leaders. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who is the tallest torchbearer of the party, has been meticulously following this great tradition. Thus, he faithfully believes in and talks about “Main nahin, hum (Not I, it’s us)”.

He believes in collective and inclusive leadership. For us in the Congress, and also in politics in general, the present is not important. It is painful to see that senior leaders are getting a raw deal from the party to which they gave everything and merged their individual identities with that of the organisation. It is an Indian tradition that one should not show disrespect to a person who is retiring. This is bad and should always be avoided.