The defining moment of Narendra Modi on his first visit to the iconic Central Hall in Parliament, his eyes welling up with tears as he attempted to talk about “Maa” his voice almost choking, is an image that has by now been etched in the hearts and minds of most Indians.
"Jaise bharat meri maa hai waise hi BJP bhi meri maa hai. (“This country is like my mother. This party BJP is like my mother)," said Modi; his partymen even the most hardened of them were lachrymose. “Aur isliye beta kabhi maa per kripa nahin karta, sirf samarpit bhav se Maa ki sewa karta hai” (Does any son do his mother ‘favours’? Can serving the mother be a favour? Not at all ) he asked tugging at their heartstrings.
"Jaise bharat meri maa hai waise hi BJP bhi meri maa hai. (“This country is like my mother. This party BJP is like my mother)," said Modi; his partymen even the most hardened of them were lachrymose. “Aur isliye beta kabhi maa per kripa nahin karta, sirf samarpit bhav se Maa ki sewa karta hai” (Does any son do his mother ‘favours’? Can serving the mother be a favour? Not at all ) he asked tugging at their heartstrings.
By late afternoon, it was not just the BJP partymen but scores of Indians who were left moist eyed.
For the sceptical few, (they are in a minority nowadays), Narendra Modi has so aptly tapped into the psyche of the Indian masses. The love of the Indian public for melodrama, the saas-bahu serials steeped in sentimentality and glycerine which spikes up the TRPs and of course Bollywood is now the stuff that PhD thesis’ are written about. The inextricable connection between “Ma” and Bollywood has kept the cash registers ringing for decades and kept the Indian audience teary eyed and glued to the silver screen.
For those highlighting the high melodrama content of the oratory and comparing it to the Bengali ‘jatra’, they should be reminded that the “jatras” are hugely popular drawing in the crowds. (Yesteryear star Moonmoon Sen, newly elected Trinamool Congress MP had a second successful stint in these “jatras”.)
It helps that the BJP has in its ranks Smriti Irani aka Tulsi Virani, the leading “Bahu” of the saas – bahu serials who was a trail blazer in this genre of daily soaps on television. In fact, Irani is known to be close to Narendra Modi and was even given a Rajya Sabha ticket from Gujarat in recognition of her work for the party.
In my view the power of tears has not been fully appreciated in our Indian polity. Mark Antony might have appealed to Romans to lend him their “ears”, in the Indian context, ‘Lend me your tears” would be more appropriate.
