There is a proverb in Malayalam that says that when a trivial man suddenly becomes wealthy, he will hold an umbrella at midnight to avoid the sun. That’s the story of cringeworthy Modi.
Image Courtesy: Reuters
His latest interview shows the extent of his megalomania, his vanity, his pretensions and pomposity. He is so in love with himself as PM, so enamoured at getting such a plum post that he perhaps never dreamt would be his, that he now cannot see any boundaries to that ambition. It’s overvaulting. It’s unchecked. It’s urgent. A monumental personality flaw.
So, in his manic hurry to grow exponentially in stature,he merely appropriates all the symbols available of greatness. In the first year, the monogrammed suit and meeting with Obama where he broke all protocols and went into first name calling and informal bear hugging on the first meeting, was intoxicating. It turned his head irrevocably. It catapulted him into a rarified space of wealth, influence, and most importantly power leading to hubris. It’s what classically happens when you get something too precious too soon. You lose its value. You begin to think it’s your birthright. You take it for granted. A niggle of worry about losing it ignites rabid fear.
Then your humble past, the housemaid status of your mother, the tea selling boy, the chowkidar nomenclature, the begging fakir, the visits to the lower middle class house of mother (almost stationed there like a prop) all simply add to the heights you scaled. You use it to fill the ordinary people harbouring modest ambitions, with extraordinary awe.
It is clear from the recent puke worthy interview with Akshay, that that first brush with the most powerful world leader, even today, makes him blush and flush with pleasure as he very immaturely brings in Obama’s name, completely irrelevantly into an unrelated question and claims intimacy of a childhood friend’s familiarity. The tu nonsense will be trolled for a long time. This paints over the grimy beginnings and appropriates all that Obama stands for. Education, class, power, wealth and prestige. In one sweep you try to own it. People who see through want to puke. Many, who don’t, are impressed.
This macro appropriation of colossal power is seen in the speeches where he never fails to tell you he represents 1.3 billion Indians. He made it 6 billion at Davos appropriating 80% of world population in a Freudian slip.
Then he talks about purana naata with all countries he visits thereby creating an earlier bond that increases his network of influence.
The travels, the hugs are part of this appropriation of international spaces where he probably thinks he has conquered hearts and loyalties by landing on the soil in a Caesar-like veni vidi vici mode. This is reflected in his bhakts telling you about how he put india on the international world map.
Then we have the threats. If you are not with Modi you are anti national, traitor, seditionist, terror sympathiser, Pak lover etc. Here, he appropriates nationhood, patriotism, loyalty, pride of all ancestral history, in order to again, in one giant sweep glutton up the country of its past, present, and future.
Furthermore, recently he appropriated the might and significance of our entire armed forces. His minions will swagger about how it is ‘Modi’s army’ as if he were Alexander on an interminable mission of conquest. He tries to buy votes on martyrs as he genuinely thinks they are his foot soldiers.
He will use every tragic event to politically push his agendas. All work done by previous governments are disregarded so that he can have that last applause by placing the cherry on top and claiming to have done the whole job himself.
A master of image management he will announce schemes with pomp and pretend they are achievements merely by virtue of their having been announced. He is not a man pretending. I do believe he is in a mentally delusional state where he believes that he has truly achieved. Hence the allergy to questioning. It will break the mould. That pain, a lot of self deluding mental patients living in denial will tell you, is excruciating.
Several interviews, created on the eve of the elections have put paid to the criticism that he fears the Press. But then, in those meticulously crafted interviews of Prasoon and Rahul Joshi and Akshay, we clearly see impotent anchors asking benign rhetorical questions that are all couched in predicated glorious praise embedded in, and preluded by How can you be so amazing Mr. superhero? Are you for real? There’s no one quite like you baby! kind of trash. Yes, it puts your teeth on edge.
This very small dwarf of a man then smiles in self indulgent pleasure desperately trying to control his ecstasy and dons a benevolent, self satisfied, karmic, wise expression before spewing forth a bunch of hallucinations, scripted to make him look progressive, contained, objective, magnetic and well connected. None of which is remotely true. A congenital liar needs no cloak of shame. One that has begun to believe his own lies lives in a parallel, altered universe.
The submissive, obsequious and pusillanimous anchor putty clan simper along with the patience of Job. They could be interviewing God Himself! No counter points, no uncomfortable questions, no interruptions, no interventions, no screaming , nothing! The one with Akshay on mangoes and other trivia tried to paint him as an accessible human while heaping praise and allowing for truckloads of bragging.
If Modi could make a trip to outer space, even if they flew him to a satellite station, he would appropriate the stars, the galaxy and the universe. They would come back with stories of miracles. And the bhajan mandali on Earth would say he is an avataar of none other than Sri Ram.
The megalomaniac’s journey from the regional, through the national and international, to the cosmic and divine would then be complete