"The Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Pravin Togadia has said things that threw the Narendra Modi narrative off, but only for a couple of days... Modi condemned Togadia obliquely, by tweeting: "Petty statements by those claiming to be BJP’s well wishers are deviating the campaign from the issues of development & good governance"... I’m interested in talking about something else, which Modi did not tweet about. What sort of state in India has two decades of Hindutva rule produced where it is easy for Togadia to say what he did in a public gathering?
This blog recently commented that what makes Narendra Modi stand out amongst right-wing demagogues is a particular confluence of factors: his history, his governance style, and above all the mass movement which holds him aloft, with its vast membership and its portfolio of political, religious, vigilante, and terrorist activity. These, combined with some successful image management, have brought him to the brink of national power.
"God chooses certain people to do the difficult work. I believe god has chosen me for this work. Now I only need your blessings," Modi said in a 3D address telecast across the country a day before he is scheduled to file his nomination from the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat. [Also recall that he believes that God chose Dalits to do manual scavenging work.]
"Like all tyrants, Narendra Modi has a fundamentally primitive view of criticism. Let it be said of Narendra Modi that he is petty, that he does not forget easily, and that he never forgives. He had long disliked The Times of India (TOI), which was once the only really liberal newspaper in Ahmedabad. When Dileep Padgaonkar (then TOI managing editor), B.G. Verghese and I went to Modi for an inquiry report in 2002, Modi took up the “Newton’s third law” story that the TOI had run, being most upset with it because it revealed how casually Modi took retaliatory violence..."
‘How could you make Maya Kodnani a minister in 2007 when it was well-known that she had led the murderous mobs which killed dozens of innocent citizens in the Naroda-Patiya locality of Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002?’
Comparisons have been drawn in national and international media between Narendra Modi and Berlusconi, Putin, Abe, and a long list of other right-wing demagogues. The need for such comparisons is understandable (especially in articles in the foreign media trying to explain the significance of the Indian elections to a non-Indian audience).
"I have no knowledge in the field whatsoever. However, to be honest, the 2014 elections captured my attention and I liked the official Facebook page of AAP to be updated. Today, I saw a photo posted by the page and opened the comments. I saw this comment at the top... It had about 100 likes at that time. I looked away for a few moments, and when I saw it again, the number had risen to around 400. This might be normal for high-volume pages like this, but it got my attention.
"The manifest ideology and the oral tradition communicated through speeches delivered by him and the word of mouth propaganda by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are more important than the manifesto. Mr. Modi might avoid the Hindutva language for which he is known, but through signals, expressions, and symbols he has kept intact his image as the mascot of the Hindu right... The BJP’s campaign in Uttar Pradesh unmistakably exposes the doublespeak... Mr. Modi talks about development but allows other leaders of his party and the Sangh to raise communal issues..."
Modi: "The country does not want a deaf and dumb, handicapped government". Such contemptuous remarks fit naturally in Modi's authoritarian discourse: projecting himself as the "strong leader" involves constructing a "weak" other.
