The most remarkable thing about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day address was the change of tone since May. The man who promised ‘acchhe din’ in a emperor-like gesture did a change of tack: he spoke little of what policies he would adopt, but rather divested some of the burden of governance on to the people, urging them to work ‘selflessly’ for the country (or the party?). It was an exercise in scaling down the expectations that he had created on his campaign trail; an insurance plan against political risk.

But the real message of his speech was, ‘I’m trying to pull it off, but I need your support. Become political, join the BJP.’ So, Modi was still the campaigner affirming his rapport with the masses. The subtext remained the same: a commoner, an outsider to the power and intrigue of Dilli Darbar and, importantly, as a result of this alienation, a victim.

This is the Modi we will see for a while — till the outsider tag wears off. He was the outsider chief minister in Gujarat, taking on the pseudo-secular elites of Delhi for the sake of Gujarati asmita . But at the apex of power, he faces a unique problem: he cannot be an outsider and victim for long.

Then what? Lalu Prasad made a hash of this transition. Modi has a strong organisation and a dominant ideology to fall back on – but one can’t really say.

Modi understands better than any politician the social friction between the lower middle classes — ambitious, functionally educated, but grasping for social recognition — and the established English-speaking, often hyper-educated elite that holds sway in public forums. His support base, situated in the former, identifies with his sense of victimhood. This is a neo-OBC category, an amalgam of caste and class up against a social enemy: the over-rational, non-religious, Nehruvian, metro-based class. Modi’s political idiom is a product of this divide. Is it here to stay?

This could depend on events beyond Modi’s control, such as upheavals in the world economy and its impact on ours. Economic shock could hit his constituency hard. No wonder he’s playing safe so early in his tenure.

Deputy Editor

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