Flamboyant Narendra Modi, silent Manmohan Singh

A picture is said to be worth a thousand words. If there’s one man who can turn this emphatic phrase into an utter understatement, it’s Raghu Rai. His recently self-published book The Tale of Two: An Outgoing and an Incoming Prime Minister, captures the personalities of the two men, Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi, and reveals a lot more.

“There was one who did not speak a word. His silence was deafening. And the other who spoke so much that it was deafening,” says Raghu. For almost 25 long years, Raghu was associated with active photojournalism before he lost interest after Indira Gandhi’s, and later Rajiv Gandhi’s assassinations. “There were no leaders left of Indira Gandhi’s standing... after her, I gave up,” he says. And it was after almost two decades that he again ventured into the political landscape with a hope, some skepticism and his camera.

He tells us why: “Basically, I am a photojournalist, that’s my training. I felt the country was going through a rough phase; scams after scams, unaccountability, lack of governance and crime. And then there was hope with the Anna movement. When the situation stares you in the eye, it becomes too much to stay away.”

It was in mid-January, when he got to know that there was a one-day Congress session happening and then a BJP session two days later. “That is the best opportunity for a photographer who wants to take any photographs of the game-play and political manipulations that go on within the parties,” says Raghu.

All the pictures were taken in those two days during the Congress Working Committee meeting on January 17, and the BJP’s National Council Meeting on January 19, 2014. “What I saw while looking at the pictures, shocked and pained me. Manmohan Singh had the same expression in each and every photograph that I clicked, and there must have been 150-200 of them. In every picture, he looked a lonely and a deserted man. But his expression was not just of loneliness, but as if he was living a nightmare. The question was who had done that to him, and why? Or has he done it to himself,” he asks.

About his experience in the other camp, he says, “There it was all Modi, Modi and Modi everywhere. All the senior leaders of BJP were under larger-than-life headshots of Narendra Modi, which formed the backdrop of the main stage. He was the man in focus. The seniors were tense, apprehensive and uneasy. When he started speaking, he was well programmed, tailored for it, neat and clean, and strong.”

He adds that while Modi was the centre of attention, it was glaringly opposite in Manmohan Singh’s case. He says, “He was still the PM and when a PM walks in, everyone salutes him, tries to talk to him or at least looks for a smile from him. But it was as if he did not even exist. All the focus was on Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, no one tried to talk to the PM. He sat away from them looking defeated.”