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Modi, the mask, ideology

Modi broke the hypocrisy of softening ideology once in power. Does he still need it electorally as his almighty personality cult overshadows it?

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Shekhar Gupta
One more round of elections is over and we can future-gaze. Let’s begin with a question we raised in a National Interest exactly three months after Narendra Modi had been sworn in as prime minister in 2014: Have you ever seen a political leader who resembles his mask as much as Mr Modi does?

It wasn’t just a rhetorical question. On the other hand, it made a substantive argument about his politics and ideology: That the man you see is the man you get. We had seen ideological leaders, or those representing various ideologies, in power in the past. They
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