Bottom Line: Serial hugging, global voyage & mocking every political opponent shows Modi still suffers from inferiority complex to conduct himself with grace of the PM. Ravi Sinha analyses method in Modi’s madness.
It is easy to dismiss Modi as a temperamental fascist. But understanding the man and the method in his madness needs psychological analysis of a personality. Freud would have probably termed it as confused contradiction between the rational mind and emotional mind. However, the hidden guilt, shame & aspirations of that emotional mind often compels a person to bravado, as and when one can afford to.
Let’s give the man his due. There are reasons why Modi carries the persona of a man who has weathered political untouchability for long. The man had his last laugh in the end. He got his moment to overtly assert to the world that he not only belongs to the place but is also more than equal.
In management, Peter’s principle might give an easy definition that ‘everyone rises to his own level of incompetence’. But Modi’s fascist temperament and all-weather arrogant body language suggests he is more than that. He looks for opportunity, rather creates it, to mock everyone who does not fall in line. Even his most ardent admirers often admit that his conduct is unbecoming of the graceful position of Prime Minister. But Modi is venting out what the political space had to offer to him – insult. He gets a sadistic pleasure in the process.
History is full of leaders with fascist temperament. Right from Indira Gandhi at her peak political space to Arvind Kejriwal at his peak of befooling the nation that he stands against corruption, the country has been witness to fascist political faces. Modi is nevertheless much different. His fascism is pathological because he not only believes in ‘I, Me & Myself’ but is inventing opportunities all the time to mock at those who still give him inferiority complex.
The message that comes out of Modi’s hysterical & theatrical overtures is loud & clear for any student of human psychology: your personality, my envy; your education, my envy; your elite upbringing my envy; your social acceptance, my envy. The undertone remains that you have no choice but to accept that I am no longer inferior to you.
Post 2002 Godhra riots, Modi had been practically ostracized by the political class cutting across the party lines. Even the vast universe of the BJP leaders hated him. Public rejection beyond Gujarat, media rejection and rejection of global leaders nevertheless were fueling the inferiority complex in him. The only way he could come out of it was to bulldoze voices of dissent and emerge a fascist who does not care about perceptions so long he can survive with his methods.
It was not just the stroke of luck that he survived; it was his shrewd political maneuvering that the man not only survived but also rose to the highest level of political position. However, Modi still in his words & actions give the impression that he does not belong to the space.
India has been witness to different leaders – competent, incompetent, not-so-competent and confused survivors – yet none of them displayed their insecurities the way Modi does. His words and body language say it all – he is nervous at the thought of losing power and that insecurity is behind his fascism.
He wants to crush all the opposition and democratic institutions that might question him. He wants to hug, even if it is deliberate hugging, to the world leaders who did not entertain him, forget giving equal space. He wants absolute control over his destiny, nation’s destiny and destiny of those who questioned him or might question him in future.
Media has not been kind to Modi either. Post the Godhra riots, media has been extremely critical of Modi and his methods. What could have served a better cold revenge with the journalists than controlling the media ownership by proxy. Today having a personal opinion against Modi is the confirm ticket for a journalist to lose his job with institutional media. Attempts are also being made to control the independent media and social media platforms. After all, it takes a democrat to digest the opposition and criticism, fair or foul.
Modi, of course, has never been a democrat even though he has used the tales of emergency as narrative against fascism of Congress. The world outside Gujarat never approved it till 2014. And the man is in a hurry to show it to the world that I was right and you were wrong.
Remember Modi was denied a formal US visa after the Godhra riots. Now as the head of state no country having diplomatic ties with India can afford to refuse him. They have to rather welcome him, even though reluctantly at times. The inferiority complex of the man wants to display it to the world that he too is equal, he belongs to the place. And hence he is on a global hugging spree to make himself, if not others, convinced that he too is ‘somebody’.
Inferiority complex has been, more often than not, catalyst to emergence of fascist leaders across the world. Modi is no different and yet so very different. A man with questionable academic credentials is capable of winning over or crushing those who have proven academic credentials. That is the last laugh of the man who has weathered the political rejection, rejection of intelligentsia, media and global leaders.
However, where his critics could have the ultimate laugh is the fact that despite of overtly offensive body language and fascist temperament to conceal his inferiority complex, Modi more than reveals it.