FROM THE VIEWSROOM. Reversal of fortunes

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed power in May last year, he surely couldn’t have imagined that he would lose his aam aadmi mantle (that hurts, doesn’t it?) in a matter of months. Arvind Kejriwal’s win of sorts over Modi — it must be seen as such because Modi set up a personality clash on the streets of Delhi — is a mirror image of the latter’s ruthless dismantling of Rahul Gandhi last year. Modi’s professionally managed 2014 campaign pursued him this time like a mocking shadow.

Last year, he was the rugged crusader for a young, aspirational India — a tea-seller sweating it out to make his way to the top, gleefully disparaging Rahul Gandhi, the bumbling shehzada discovering poverty in his election campaigns. Modi’s sartorial and physical presence was calculated to evoke a sense of patriarchial authority and unalloyed self-confidence, in contrast to Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi. That worked wonderfully well then — but the script revolving around an angry, action-oriented outsider to Dilli Darbar , like a Bachchan movie, was bound to end. No Prime Minister can call himself an outsider for long, unless he wants to be seen as another Manmohan Singh.

Modi, quite thoughtlessly it would seem, distanced himself from his tea-seller past. Or perhaps it was the logic of unfolding circumstances. In no time at all, the Prime Minister was the jet-setting statesman, impressing himself upon influential people in world politics and business. The reversal was complete when he wore a ₹10 lakh suit while feting Barack Obama: he was the new shehzada . But can memories fade so easily even in this transient world of breaking news and tweets? The images of May 2014 seem farcical now. This is a lesson for admen, marketing men and, of course, Modi. The aam aadmi mantle has, for now, passed on to an engineer in strikingly unremarkable attire: a star in a low budget movie. But the Singham can be expected to return.

Deputy Editor

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