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Modi Faces Multiple Challenges

Modi dodged a bullet when he got the NDA Parliamentary Party to acclaim him as leader of the coalition, neatly side-stepping the RSS demand that the leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party be elected by the party MPs through ballot.

By Prem Panicker
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Modi being welcomed by party leaders | Photo courtesy: Public domain

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THE games people play: the section of the media that is willing and able to follow instructions is being encouraged to refer to the incoming government as “Modi 3.0”, while Narendra Modi ostentatiously eschews any mention of himself in the third person and pointedly invokes the “NDA government” at every opportunity.

Much of this stems from the friendly fire the RSS has been directing at its political wing. Modi dodged a bullet when he got the “NDA Parliamentary Party” (within quotes, because there is no such statutory body) to acclaim him as leader of the coalition, neatly side-stepping the RSS demand that the leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party be elected by the party MPs through ballot.

Modi would have won such an election — but a section of the elected BJP MPs was poised to vote for Nitin Gadkari, the RSS choice, and Modi could not afford the ignominy of the public knowing that he was not the universal choice.

This led to a series of developments. RSS sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat called a vishesh yog of his organisation and delivered a speech that is worth listening to in full:

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Bhagwat said the Opposition should not be treated as the enemy, that it is not an adversary; that it is the job of the Opposition to present the other side of any debate and that this is the bedrock of Parliamentary democracy; that Manipur has been strife-torn for over a year and that peace must be restored.

As far as the Sangh is concerned, there is only one parivar, Bhagwat said. (Perhaps coincidentally, or not, Modi took to Twitter to tell his followers that the nation has given NDA a mandate and to ask them to remove ‘Modi ka Parivar’ from their social media handles.)

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There is more in the Bhagwat speech, and mu

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