Modi's biggest political achievement: Altered public perception of Rahul

On the other hand, a successful PR campaign between 2008 and 2014 transformed the perception of Mr Modi as a nasty piece of work to a messiah who would put right everything that was wrong with India

The first six months of Narendra Modi’s last year in office have gone by. The next six months will be devoted to two major state assembly election and after that the general election.

As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prepares to start on its final lap, it is useful to ask what Mr Modi’s single biggest achievement has been, one that he will actually be remembered for rather than what he would be like to be remembered for.

Had he been an economist we could have made the economy the context. Had he been a sociologist we could have made Indian society the context. Had he been a civil servant, we could have made administrative reforms the context. In each of these, he could claim varying degrees of success. Indeed, his government has been putting out endless lists into which we will not go yet once again.

But he is, alas, a politician and I think that is how he must be judged. As such as he had two responsibilities.

One was to make his party win. The other was to make the main Opposition party lose. He discharged both responsibilities magnificently between October 2013 and May 2014.

Biggest achievement

As a result, he became the prime minister of India. That altered the nature of his political responsibility because from seeking to maximise his gains he now had to minimise his likely loss. That is, willy-nilly he has to adopt defensive strategies.

Meanwhile, the target of his political strategy, namely, the Congress party, also changed. Its leadership passed into the hands of Rahul Gandhi who until the Gujarat Assembly election of December 2017 had been written off as a political cipher. This was even though the Congress had been giving the BJP a run for its money.

Since then public perception of Mr Gandhi has undergone a sea-change. Jibes about being a clown prince notwithstanding, he has become an adversary that Mr Modi can no longer laugh off.

This, I would say, has been the biggest achievement of Modi, the Politician. The public relations mojo that he has lost is being appropriated by Mr Gandhi.

This is the exact opposite of what had happened to Mr Modi between 2008 and 2014 when, thanks to a very successful PR campaign, Mr Modi went from being seen as a nasty piece of work, to a messiah who would put right everything that was wrong with India. It is obvious that just as Mr Modi did then, Mr Gandhi is also reaping the benefit of a successful image change exercise.

Image alone is not enough

This has been happening because just as in cricket batsmen score mainly when the bowler bowls badly, in politics also the challenger gains in stature only because the incumbent makes mistakes. This is what Mr Modi has done – he has bowled too many loose balls and wides. Mr Gandhi’s PR campaign is taking full advantage.

But the pity, if one can call it that, about this sort of thing that the basic person remains what he was, only his public perception changes. Amazingly, this happens without the challenger giving the slightest clue about the larger issues.

Thus, just as we had no idea about how Mr Modi’s mind really worked on these larger issues, we have no idea how Mr Gandhi’s works either.

In 2013 and 2014 Mr Modi told us precisely what he would do on the smaller issues. Mr Gandhi has not done even that. He should, now.