Insulting the intelligence of voters is a
crime and in an election year it is a political suicide. In 2008 US
Presidential elections, Sarah Palin, the Republican nominee for the vice
president’s post committed that offence. In Circa 2013, Narendra Modi is
following her footsteps.
When Palin started her campaign, commentators
gave ‘hockey mom’ a real chance. After all, she was folksy – which America loves, good
looking and an up righteous grandmother. The concoction was deadly and
Republicans lapped it up. A war veteran, John McCain as the head and a mommy as
his aide was in some ways the zenith of the American dream.
Modi’s team has also created a similar aura
around him. Decisive, incorruptible and earthy – are the characters which
largely define Modi’s campaign. If BJP is to be believed, Modi is the slumdog
of Indian politics, a ‘chaiwala’ who through his sheer hard work has managed to
rise in the political hierarchy. In his own words, he is not a ‘shehzada’ but
‘sevak.’
Till this point, the script runs perfect. But
the American dream crumpled when mommy started getting her facts wrong. Palin was
ridiculed when she claimed to have an insight into country’s foreign policy
because Russia is next door
neighbours to her state of Alaska.
Back home, Namo replicated that feat in his Independence
Day speech at Bhuj. He almost took the same neighbourhood lane as Palin and
while lambasting Pakistan
claimed that his voice reaches Pakistan
first and Delhi
later. This came from the prime ministerial candidate who some months ago had
offered Sindh province in Pakistan,
the ‘Gujarat Model’ to overcome its power crisis.
While Palin called Afghanistan a neighbouring country, Modi brought
Taxila from Pakistan to Bihar. The uncanny resemblance between these two
politicians in getting their facts wrong, again and again perhaps stem from
sheer ignorance which their supporters mask as unpretentious.
Perhaps, the voters could have forgiven
Palin, the winner of the Miss Wasilla pageant for not knowing what lie beyond
the American shores but the crowd booed her down when at a public rally she
said that the state of North West Hampshire is in the Northwest of Americas. Modi
so far has been sparred of this public ignominy.
A closer look at their campaign and one
gets a feeling that perhaps the fate of Palin and Modi are intertwined. Days after
being nominated for Presidential elections, the Republican supporters were
shocked that Palin’s unwed daughter was five months pregnant. Palin, who by
then had projected herself as ‘Bible-believing Christian,’ ultimately lost out
on the traditional conservative Republican base. Modi, too, is now embroiled in
a snooping scandal as his aide Amit Shah has managed to score a self goal
against his ‘saheb’.
In the midst of this jamboree these down-to-earth
leaders and their supporters forget that the voter cannot be fooled, or at
least for long. So, when Palin described that the Iraq War is ‘a task that is
from God,’ voters knew that she is making less sense than ever. Unfortunately
for his supporters, Modi is catching up fast with Palin.
After historical blunders such as calling
Mohanlal instead of Mohandas Gandhi, and claiming that Nehru did not attend
Patel’s funeral, Modi is now treading on more difficult terrain. In his Jodhpur rally, Modi
carrying on with his rustic charm claimed that he may not be as educated as the
country’s finance minister but he knows that buying gold is not leading to
inflation. His first lecture in economics may have got a thunderous applause in
the rally but what he lost is the faith of lakhs of voters, who at least
believed that Modi is the architect behind Gujarat’s
vibrant economic success.
It is time that Modi should learn from the
mistakes which Palin committed. After all he would not like to be remembered as
Palin, who finally had to be told that there was no tradition of concession
speeches by running mates, and that she would not be speaking. Not anymore.
