A real Hindu king
With every grand temple inauguration, Modi is fortifying his civilisational stature.
On 13 December, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first phase of the Kashi Vishwanath corridor project in Varanasi. A flagship initiative of his government, it seeks to connect the Kashi Vishwanath temple with the nearby Ganga ghat through an upgraded pathway flanked by various structures, such as a Vedic Kendra, museum and library.
The inauguration ceremony was no less than a grand spectacle, covered by a massive Doordarshan crew manned by 100 people, 55 high-definition cameras and a drone. The daylong spectacle at Kashi was synchronised by senior BJP members conducting similar ritualistic ceremonies at various Shiva temples across the country.
The visuals that emerged from the whole event – the saffron hues, the flower petals, the bedecked temple pillars, the frenzied crowds flanking Modi’s slow-moving convoy, the wide-angle shots of the Prime Minister walking around the dham, his ritualistic dip in the holy Ganga, him bowing before a statue of Bharat Mata, or his intimate prayers to the Shivalinga – cannot be laid aside as anything ordinary or mundane.
These aesthetics carry an elaborate semiotic context, which capture the story of today’s India.
Make no mistake about this — Modi and his followers see him as a central figure in the continuum of Hindu "civilisational history", someone who appears once every few hundred years to exorcise all evils from society and restore the natural goodness of it.
So, when he talks about one Shivaji or Ahilyabai Holkar for every Aurangzeb, he means that he is squarely in their league — a restorer of Hindu temples, a protector of Hindus. That's punching a few notches above just politics. It really is touching a sweet spot of mortal divinity.
Add to this, his mastery of the optics game, played out through a domesticated PR machinery — airing his prayers to the gods and his sacred ablutions on the state broadcaster; having food with workers who reconstructed the Kashi Vishwanath temple, showering petals on them; letting people shower petals on his grand convoy, even making a protocol break by stopping his SUV in the narrow streets of Kashi, and allowing a fan to place a saffron turban on his head and a scarf around his neck, while the camera zooms in methodically.
He is a Hindu king, anointed by the holy oil of Kashi and Kedarnath. But, a king that his subjects — occasionally and at his own discretion — can approach at close quarters and touch and admire.
The more terrifying part of this story is that his monarchical divinity isn't just narcissistic indulgence anymore. It is no more an intra-personal muttering; it has transformed into an interpersonal sermon. It has broken the fourth wall — thoroughly validated by a very large group of Indians who have accepted, rather submitted to, his re-imagination of this country.
I have no idea how this frenzy can be stopped in its tracks by any opposition leader today. It is easy to bring down a political leader, but how does one defeat a cultural redeemer, a monarch, a civilisational hero?