Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi (Pic: www.narendramodi.in)
All successful politicians are crafty spinmeisters, but perhaps none in India does it better than Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. He is now turning the publication of WikiLeaks cables in The Hindu newspaper about his 2006 meeting US Consul-General in Mumbai Michael S. Owen into a personal triumph.
What began as a fairly businesslike and even courteous encounter between Modi and Owen, during which the US diplomat acknowledged the chief’s minister’s success in promoting economic growth in his state, turned frosty when it came to the question of communal relations. Specifically, when Owen raised the way in which the 2002 Hindu-Muslim riots were handled by Modi, the chief minister was none too pleased.
The Hindu quotes this bit from the diplomatic cable: “A visibly annoyed Modi,” the Consul General reported to the State Department, “responded at considerable length.” The Chief Minister, he said, made three essential points: “the events of 2002 were an internal Gujarati matter and the U.S. had no right to interfere; the U.S. is itself guilty of horrific human rights violations (he specified Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and attacks on Sikhs in the U.S. after September 11) and thus has no moral basis to speak on such matters, and; Muslims are demonstrably better off in Gujarat than in any other state in India, so what is everybody griping about?”
The cables also noted, quoting Congress party Member of Parliament Digvijay Sinh, Modi’s reputation as a politician who is “completely incorruptible.”
When you consider that everything Modi says, clearly in confidence since the contents of such meetings are never meant to be made public, is consistent with his public pronouncements on the subject, you get the measure of the politician. It is almost as if he is saying these things with a calculation that if they ever got out, he could use them as yet another proof of his deeply felt convictions. To Modi’s good fortunes, they have indeed gotten out in the form of the WikiLeaks cables.
Inevitably, Modi has instantly latched onto this opportunity to reassert what he in his mind as well as that of his uncritically receptive political constituency in Gujarat and beyond believe to be genuine convictions. He told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Gandhinagar today that the Indian government should address the issue of US interference in the internal affairs of India. He also pointed out that the US knew how incorruptible he was.
And then to bolster his nearly worshipful image among his followers as someone who takes no non-sense from any quarter, Modi told reporters "I looked into his (Owen’s) eyes and said do not preach... I am a son of India, I know what human rights violations you have done. Good that the dialogue has been faithfully reproduced.”
On balance, from Modi’s standpoint everything in the cables is personally glowing and politically sanguine. I would not be surprised if after reading The Hindu stories, he went to his personal bathroom in the antechamber of his office, stood in front of the mirror and punched air in utter triumph, even while exulting to himself in Gujarati “Joi leedhu ne? (There, you have it).