Xi Jinping has made the familiar mistake of underestimating PM Modi

Modi gives his opponents several chances not to push him beyond the point of no return. He is willing to live and let live

Throughout history powerful leaders have paid the price for underestimating their opponents. 

The first that we know of was Ravan. He thought Ram was just another guy in exile and look what happened to him. Even 10 heads were of no use. 

There have been a succession of such guys in history, all over the world. For want of space, I will not list all of them here. Suffice it to say that it happens very regularly. 

Indeed, it has happened all too often in India and those who make the mistake of underestimation go into complete oblivion. Yet no one learns. 

Thus, the hugely powerful old leaders of the Congress completely underestimated Indira Gandhi in 1969. Result: nobody remembers them any longer. 

In 1986 Jayalalitha’s opponents in the AIADMK underestimated her similarly. One of them even called her a ‘luxury taxi’. What happened to him and the rest of them?

Rajiv Gandhi underestimated N T Ramarao in Andhra in 1983. Pop went the weasel there. He also underestimated Lalu Prasad Yadav in 1989. The Congress disappeared from Bihar. 

The CPI leadership (Russia bhakts) underestimated the CPI(M) breakaways (China bhakts). The CPI became vestigial to Indian politics and has now become a distant sentimental memory. 

And after 2008 the Gandhi family consistently underestimated Narendra Modi. It, too, has become irrelevant. Strangely, Mr Modi has been overestimating it. I wonder why. 

But it’s not just the Gandhi family that Mr Modi has vanquished. He has done it to all his opponents starting from other major BJP leaders in Gujarat to major BJP leaders at the national level. Along the way many minor leaders have been decimated.

The point is this: Mr Modi’s style is very Chinese. He doesn’t go straight for the throat. He waits and slowly erases his opponents. It’s a war of attrition he wages, using all means. No one manages to overcome him. 

That said he also gives his opponents several chances not to push him beyond the point of no return. He is willing to live and let live.

For instance, he did what he could to solve the Kashmir problem, even forming a government with a Kashmiri party that just stopped short of separatism. But when nothing worked and, to boot, Pakistan kept attacking, and the politicians of Kashmir kept opposing him, what did he do?

Poof! Kashmir ceased to exist as a state. 

The same thing has happened with the Uniform Civil Code (UCC). He split the Muslims on gender lines and pushed through the triple talaq law, banning triple talaq. It’s now only a matter of time before UCC is adopted in its entirety. 

Similarly, he has taken the Ayodhya issue out of political contestation. Finito. 

For the Congress, I think the point of no return came when Sonia Gandhi called him ‘maut ka saudagar’. That was a gigantic mistake. 

Xi Jinping, Emperor of China, has made a similar mistake. He has not just spurned Modi’s hand but tried to bite it. Not once but thrice. 

It’s going to cost him.