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A tale of two rallies

— Photos: Agencies

Study in contrast: Sonia Gandhi and Narendra Modi are both charismatic and wildly popular, but their campaign styles couldn’t be more dissimilar.

Narendra Modi and Sonia Gandhi are both phenomenal figures — charismatic, wildly popular and towering over their respective parties. Yet they could not be more dissimilar on the campaign trail. Mr. Modi is flamboyant, cultivatedly arrogant and works the crowd like a magician. He banters with them, provokes and teases them, using the unfailingly effective Q&A format. An outsider watching the Gujarat Chief Minister is unlikely to know he is looking to win a third term.

In the absence of anyone to take on Mr. Modi in the Gujarat Congress, the burden has unsurprisingly fallen on Ms. Gandhi. And she never ceases to surprise. The Congress chief is almost colourless by comparison. Forget humour and witticisms, she is distant and sedate, reading her lines like an automated machine. Nonetheless, her mesmeric hold on the audience is to be seen to be believed.

Mr. Modi’s audiences could be the personification of “vibrant Gujarat”: they are smaller in size, mostly upwardly mobile and rapturously responsive. Ms. Gandhi’s rallies are massive and the milling crowds — always in the region of one lakh and above and usually made up of the very poor, Dalits and Adivasis — look visibly impoverished. If there was a lesser Gujarat — and there is one behind every shining expressway, every dazzling mall, never mind what the official spin machine says — you would spot it here.

Consider two rallies held this week. The first at Mahuva, off the coast of Saurashtra in Bhavnagar, and the second up north at Idar in Sabarkantha.

Mr. Modi arrived in Mahuva two hours late — time enough for the thinnish crowd to grow in numbers. Suddenly, a familiar figure, complete with trademark salt and pepper beard, bundgala kurta and spectacles, approached the press gallery. Was this … could it be Narendra Modi? It was and it was not. The man was a Modi double, wearing a mask so startlingly life-like, it was difficult to tell the duplicate from the original. The surprise did not end here. There were many more Modi look-alikes in the audience. As the real Mr. Modi went full throttle on his one-liners and wisecracks, the multiple Modis clapped and cheered — in a bizarre, disconcerting assertion that in Gujarat the Modi cult had reached the zenith.

In the run-up to the election, Mr. Modi had promised that development would be his only election plank. In Mahuva, the development man quickly dispensed with the subject: “We will create history. We will prove development can win elections.” The surcharged crowd knew what was coming, and together the man and his audience rekindled the passions of the past. The transition to Hindutva electrified the gathering even as it raised the obvious question: was the Gujarat Chief Minister more nervous than his confident body language suggested? When in doubt reach for Hindutva?

Mr. Modi seized on a remark made by Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh the previous day. Releasing the party manifesto, Mr. Singh said those who spoke of “Muslim terrorists” must know that there were some Hindu terrorists too. A sting operation, he said, revealed the latter made bombs with which they maimed and killed innocents.

Thundered Mr. Modi, now in his practised Q&A mode: “The Congress has called Hindus of Gujarat terrorists. It has called Gujaratis, the most patriotic of India’s children, terrorists. Are you all terrorists?” No, roared the crowd. Ordered the Chief Minister: “If you are outraged by the charge, then avenge it by grinding the Congress to dust in Gujarat. Will you do it?” Yes, they shouted back.

The Q&A continued: “These are people who say Ram and Sita were never born. Does Ram exist?” Crowd: Yes. “Does Sita exist?” Crowd: Yes. “Did Ram go to vanvas?” Crowd: Yes. “Was Sita kidnapped?” Crowd: Yes.

Mr. Modi departed to shrill cries of “Jeetega Gujarat,” the Bharatiya Janata Party’s catchy slogan. Minutes earlier, the Chief Minister had ripped apart the Congress’ slogan, “Chak de Gujarat.” Laughed Mr. Modi, “Chak de? Is that Italian? No, no it is Punjabi. And in Punjab they use it when the going gets tough!” Clap. Clap.

The scene at Idar was a complete contrast. If the Mahuva meeting was held under a protective shamiana with Mr. Modi in close, mirthful conversation with his audience, in Idar, the stage was a distant blur in a maidan the size of a football ground. And the crowds came in waves, by foot and on tractor. By 1 p.m, when Ms. Gandhi arrived, the ground was filled to overflowing. Ms. Gandhi spoke in Hindi. Her listeners understood only colloquial Gujarati. Yet they heard her in rapt attention. In the audience were Adivasis and Dalits who had voted for the BJP in 2002 but who now seemed to want to return to the party they had deserted, impelled by the communal frenzy of the Godhra aftermath.

Admittedly, crowds are no indication of which way an election will go. Ms. Gandhi — not to forget Rahul Gandhi — has always been a crowd puller, with the attendance not always converting into votes. That Mr. Modi has a vocal fan following across Gujarat is also evident. Go to any shop, go to a random mohalla, and even in rural Gujarat, you will hear hosannas sung to Narendrabhai.

Yet there are conflicting signals that are difficult to ignore, starting with the disconnect between Mr. Modi’s “Shining Gujarat” and Ms. Gandhi’s “downtrodden Gujarat.” The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is displeased with the man as is a party structure alienated by his arrogance.

Also consider this: policemen on bandobast duty at Mr. Modi’s meeting in Mahua spoke about parivartan (change). They estimated the crowd strength at 6,000 when it was about 10,000. At Ms. Gandhi’s Idar rally, policemen lifted me off my feet to show me the mammoth turnout. I disputed their contention that the crowd size was over two lakh. My estimate was 70,000. To prove that I was wrong and they were right, they lifted me on to a chair: “Ben, dekho (sister, see for yourself).” Did the crowds mean anything, I asked. “Yes, parivartan,” one of the cops whispered conspiratorially.

Gujarat 2007 is as much about the one-man battalion called Narendra Modi as it is about the gap between him, his party structure and his administration.

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