Talking Turkey: Modi’s saffron needs bands of white and green

India has turned a page in its political history and the Bharatiya Janata Party in the shape of Narendra Modi bears the immense responsibility of taking the country in a new economic direction without destroying the idea of India. Mr Modi’s task is made more arduous by his polarising campaign, as opposed to his more reasoned television interviews, and the dead weight of his party’s mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

Mr Modi’s first main challenge is to convince the army of his doubters — not only from the parties opposing him but also numerous members of the civil society and minorities — that he will not take the country down the road of a narrow culture and identity honed by the tenets of the RSS. As a loyal member of the RSS, one trained by the organisation, he has proved during his 12 years at the helm in Gujarat that he is capable of keeping the more extremist elements of the Sangh Parivar at bay and maintaining a distance from the party’s mentor in performing his constitutional duties.

However, Mr Modi’s life in Delhi will be immensely more complicated because of the unspoken compact between him and the RSS in letting him conduct a lavish personality-oriented campaign because it believed he could help win the national elections.

It remains to be seen whether the first gathering of leaders in Ahmedabad on Thursday — Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and Arun Jaitley — will become his kitchen cabinet in running a BJP government, with his indispensable man Friday, Amit Shah, acting as the main link. Such a cosy conclave would be very much in character with Mr Modi’s style of governance. Whether or not Mr Modi mollifies the bruised egos of his party veterans will be an indication of his governance style.

Mr Modi’s biggest challenge will be to convince the country at large that his will be an inclusive government and that he will not seek to end 67 years of consensual politics the Congress Party and its short-time successors, including the BJP’s Atal Behari Vajpayee’s six-year government at the Centre, followed. As opposed to Mr Modi’s style of aggressive politics, Mr Vajpayee’s renowned catholicity of outlook put minorities and dissenters at ease, despite his occasional forays to appease the RSS.

As an intelligent and politically savvy person, Mr Modi realises the risks he faces in giving too much rope to the RSS ideologues. The RSS will demand its pound of flesh for not merely letting him get away with a self-glorification campaign, but also the hundreds of thousands of foot soldiers they provided to help him win the elections. And one of his most delicate decisions will be where and when he draws the line in refusing RSS entreaties in converting the country into a more Hinduised India.

But Mr Modi starts with one advantage: given the hiccups of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government in its second term, the country is ready for a leader capable of taking prompt, decisive action in resolving problems, one of the qualities that led many, particularly the young, to vote for him. The end of the dual power structure of the Congress dispensation, which diminished the office of Prime Minister, will be a great relief to all.

Despite Mr Modi’s touting of the Gujarat model, he probably realises that in a vast and diverse country, no one model fits all. But if he succeeds in streamlining the decision-making process, the bane of Indian administration, he would have achieved a considerable victory.
Of one thing the country can be sure of: Mr Modi’s ability to use modern technology to great effect. As his strikingly successful election campaign has shown, he has a knack for putting across his policies and plans in a most advantageous way. The danger lies in the other direction — when efficient propaganda is employed to varnish the truth.

The country is waiting to find out whether Mr Modi of 2002 Gujarat infamy is capable of transforming himself to rule a highly diverse country, as opposed to one state. It will, indeed, be very important for him to start on the right note. The BJP might deride the concept of secularism as pseudo-secularism, but in a country hosting the world’s third largest Muslim population, in addition to significant other minorities, an avowedly Hindutva agenda will make governance that much more difficult.

One presumes Mr Modi knows the dangers of advocating Hindutva to the health of his new administration. Essentially, it would depend upon the RSS leadership’s impatience in extracting concessions from the BJP for a triumph it feels is, in large part, its handiwork. But can Mr Modi emancipate himself from his mentor’s control sufficiently to be able to govern effectively?

The main dangers to Mr Modi are not from the likes of Giriraj Singh and Praveen Togadia, but from the stalwarts of the RSS, some of whom are already raising cries of proceeding with such pet themes as the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya, abrogation of Article 370 governing Jammu and Kashmir and enforcing a uniform civil code. Mr Vajpayee successfully put these issues on the back burner during his time in office, and in a bow to electability the BJP manifesto was discreet. It underplayed the contentious agenda. Much therefore will depend on the power play between the BJP and RSS leadership.