Narendra Modi begins with graceful speech, ode to cadre

Narendra Modi’s acceptance speech, after the BJP parliamentary party nominated him as the party’s leader in Parliament and Prime Minister, was graceful, emotive, designed to reassure his audience that he intended to stick to Raj Dharma, the righteous duty of the ruler. This is welcome. At the same time, he did not forget to pay homage to the organisational base that had toiled to make him prime minister, but did so obliquely and with minimum abrasiveness. He also did not forget to remind his audience that he is planning, right now, for a second term at the top. He held out the promise of good times for Indians, who today have to leave the country to excel.

Modi dedicated his government to the poor, to the youth, to women and to all Indians but in strictly non-denominational terms. He paid rich homage to the Constitution of India and to those who had constructed it and to those who had built on it. He attributed his own personal journey from humble beginnings to the highest office of the land to the Constitution’s efficacy.

This was designed to reassure apprehensions that the first BJP government at the Centre with a majority of its own would have designs on the basic democratic essence of the Constitution.

Modi showed grace when he acknowledged the good work that has been accomplished by preceding governments, including the last one that he had trashed in his campaign. This served to show up the Congress leadership’s failure to show similar magnanimity towards their electoral rival by complimenting him by name for his victory.

The homage to the Jan Sangh and its long-time general secretary and ideologue Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya was meant to tell his Sangh Parivar base that he has not forgotten them or his own moorings. But to the 10 crore new voters, most of whom have reposed faith in him, these references to obscure entities mean nothing. So, with the same speech, Modi has sent each of two different audiences the message they wanted to hear. The action that unfolds will, of course, matter more than intelligent use of semiotics.