Enchantment to Disillusionment: The ‘Modi Fanboy’ in Chetan Bhagat
On Bhagat’s birthday, let’s trace the course of his change of heart towards Modi.
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Last week, popular author Chetan Bhagat ran a poll on his Twitter account, asking netizens to rate Narendra Modi based on expectations the Prime Minister had set for himself.
Almost 40 percent of the votes bundled under the category “Well below expectations”.
This poll comes from a person who once called Modi “one of the country’s most fascinating politicians” in his column for a leading national daily, only months before he became the Prime Minister of India.
On Bhagat’s birthday, let's trace the course of his change of heart towards Modi.
May 2014
Soon after Modi came to power, Bhagat was visibly taken with his larger-than-life aura, fawning over his promises and policies. His columns were inundated with praise aimed at the Prime Minister, even urging other parties to find themselves a “Modi”.
In a column titled “And the people’s choice is…”, Bhagat recounted a Facebook poll he conducted to study the voting preferences of the youth. Though he admitted that the results may not be accurate owing to the sample size being heavily skewed, Bhagat wrote that more than 60 percent voted for Modi to be their Prime Minister. Why? He had an answer:
October 2014
Similarly, in another column titled “Maha message for other parties: Get yourselves a Modi”, he talked about… well, rather marketed... Modi to the other parties. And the fanboy in Bhagat scaled new heights when he tagged his idol as “one of the smartest politicians India has ever seen”.
May 2015
In a column titled “Bang the table for reforms: For NDA government’s first anniversary, 5 big bang ideas to break the stasis”, dedicated to the first year anniversary of the NDA government, the author offered some advice, still hopeful.
Bhagat urged the Modi-led Centre to think big in terms of reforms, pulling out all the stops to market for a capitalistic economy.
November 2015
Following the BJP’s humiliating defeat in the Bihar elections, Bhagat, in a column titled “To get poll maths right, BJP needs to remember three numbers”, rubbished the BJP’s claims of having lost the elections due to “bad arithmetic”. He argued that the party will only win if it keeps each of its vote banks happy, reminding them to be ‘inclusive and please different kind of voters’.
In this column, one could perhaps detect a change of tone in Bhagat’s commentary, that so far was hardly ever critical of the Modi government.
February 2016
Days before Modi's government took to the podium to announce the Union Budget for 2016, Bhagat, in his column, again offered the Prime Minister some advice. He urged the Prime Minister to go for the 'big hit'. Comparing the budget to a T-20 match, Bhagat positioned Modi akin to Sachin on the field, calling him the 'masterblaster'.
Batting for a ‘meaningful change’ in the budget, Bhagat wrote that a Modi government would truly live up to its name only if it managed to deliver on that promise.
March 2016
Three columns later, after Modi had delivered his 'rural-centric' budget, Bhagat termed the budget reminiscent of UPA's most lacklustre budgets.
The fanboy refused to believe that his idol's government had followed the UPA’s lead by pandering to the rural economy over the middle-class and tax-paying brackets.
May 2016
Commenting on the rumours that floated over Modi's degree (or lack of it) in the political landscape, Bhagat, in a column titled "The power of rumour: Modi’s degree controversy, Obama’s birth and the paranoid style in politics" compared the rumours to the ones that haunted Obama during his reign – the birther conspiracy that cast doubt on Obama’s nationality.
And while Obama dealt with the rumour with humour, Bhagat recounted how Modi's 'humble' background saw him take shelter behind his party's statements.
He, however, wished that the government had dealt with the rumours like Obama had.
January 2017
In another column titled "How blind bhakts can actually hurt India’s democracy", Bhagat warns India, and its Prime Minister, of the menace that it could churn up with 'bhakts' running riot.
But before getting into the psyche of the said 'blind bhakts', Bhagat, true to the fanboy in him, elaborated on why Modi has such mass appeal.
March 2017
"Is Modi 2019 a Done Deal?" In a column titled such, Bhagat padded up his argument with ample examples and sung praises of Modi to drive his point home on why he certainly thought so.
Peppered with words like ‘workaholic nature’, ‘radical schemes’, and ‘restoring Indian pride’ to describe the Prime Minister, Bhagat pitched for why a second-term for Modi was the most likely scenario for the country, come 2019.
Case closed.
November 2017
In a column written six months after he declared 2019 a 'done deal' with Modi at the helm, Bhagat suddenly appeared to be leaning over to the rival side, even praising Rahul 'flickering ray of hope' Gandhi, whose zesty tweets now resembled a 'daal with tadka'.
As for BJP, their honeymoon phase has ended, said a stern Bhagat. The onset of disillusionment was visible in Bhagat with this piece, as he validated any criticism that BJP might be facing from the Congress' quarters.
December 2017
The disillusionment continued with another column titled "Self-goals a bigger threat to BJP than opponent Rahul", where Bhagat took on a preachy tone, only this time his preaching was aimed at the BJP.
Chiding his idol's government for its complacency, Bhagat wrote:
And with that, Bhagat came clean about his misgivings with the BJP.
April 2018
Lastly, in one of his most recent columns, Bhagat drove a final nail into his inner fanboy's metaphorical coffin, by taking a dig at the unemployment scenario. Because...
In some ways, Bhagat's journey from enchanted fanboy to disillusioned citizen is resonant with the prevailing sentiment among the youth.
And lest we forget, Chetan Bhagat is one among the country’s leading authors, whose works have most consistently resonated with the youth.
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