Modi’s ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’: The Making & Unmaking of a ‘Watchman’

PM Modi needs to reinvent himself. Perhaps he should learn from his friend, the great actor Mr Bachchan.

A fortnight after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’ campaign by tweeting the video of a song that is now central to his election campaign, he anchored a nationwide event from the capital's Talkatora Stadium on Sunday, 31 March evening.

But the gathering, comprising chiefly of party leaders and select cadre, in New Delhi as well as the claimed 500 destinations across India, underscored how enthusiasm for the Bharatiya Janata Party's campaign innovations has waned between 2014 and now.

Brand Modi’s ‘Over-Exposure’ to Constant Hype

Back then, there was spontaneity among people for participating in ‘Chai Pe Charcha’ and other outreach programmes. This time there was little exuberance and not just among ordinary people or the lowest common denominators in the party. Similar was the case at previous events held in across other states and cities.

Earlier too, shortly after Modi's tweet on 16 March, BJP party president Amit Shah took the lead in following Modi to prefix his Twitter handle with ‘chowkidar’, but several other leading lights, including union ministers, were not as prompt in using the 'C' word before their social media nameplates.

This need not necessarily be interpreted as evidence of Modi’s dwindling support, for it may well be a case of ‘over-exposure’ to constant hype.

But even if this is true, it does not augur well for the prime minister because the counter to the pitch on a higher octave is coming from the bass notes being struck on the electoral chord by the BJP's opponents.

Modi Hasn’t Learnt How to Reinvent Himself

The declining interest among people to participate in Modi's campaign programmes is a price leaders like him have to pay for being 24x7 in the news. Stagnation of interest in these public engagements events has to do greatly with their repetitive nature. Of all his public attributes, Modi has made the maximum impact with his capabilities as a performer and not as a visionary administrator or a philosophical leader.

But public events over the past six years, since September 2013 when he was formally anointed the BJP's prime ministerial candidate – whether speeches, ‘Mann Ki Baat’, engagement with the diaspora, on stage dialogue with Prasoon Joshi and his performance on Sunday – project the same attributes of Modi.

Good actors need to demonstrate their versatility but Modi has showcased just the same capacities – incisive phrases, flawless choice of words, well-define body language backed by voice modulations that appears to have been honed by domain experts.

Although Amitabh Bachchan is a great friend of his, Modi has not yet learned the art of re-inventing himself the way the septuagenarian leader recast himself every time he was with a professional challenge. Whataboutery remains the quintessential Modi tactic.

Modi’s ‘Watchman’ Act is Not New

It is not that Modi consciously shifted from his public persona of chaiwala to chowkidar in the run up to these polls. Back in October 2013, before his tea-seller tag became such a big draw – this happened in early 2014 courtesy Mani Shankar Aiyar's ‘self goal’ for the Congress – Modi donned the watchman's garb telling people at a public meeting in Jhansi, and to others nationwide through television, that he did not want to become prime minister and instead would stand guard on theirs and the nation's wealth.

Back in 2013-14 there were two reason for this tack to strike a chord with the people.

Firstly, there was no alternate narrative to Modi's as the Congress was trapped in the morass of its own creations since 2010-11. Secondly, Modi's pious analogy blended perfectly with the image he was weaving about himself – a self-made and selfless leader from a socially and economically deprived background, who had no mission but the nation's betterment and safety.

India had not seen such a leader because although his predecessor also had come up the hard way, Manmohan Singh did not make a virtue of his deprived childhood.

Most importantly such a branding of Modi enabled him to free himself of his association and taint of 2002 by enabling him to project his human side. Consequently, even those Indians who were squeamish about Modi and his involvement in the Gujarat riots, found an 'excuse' to latch on to him and extend support.

Brand ‘Pappu’ On the Decline Amid ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ Cries

The ‘chowkidar’ tag in 2013-14 could not be questioned by any of the Congress leaders because of rampant corruption charges against the UPA regime. For almost four years, Modi's use of the same name tag had no challenge, and every time he spoke about corruption, he invoked the image of the ‘chowkidar’ till Rahul Gandhi coined the slogan ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ last year.

Although empirical evidence as borne by some opinion polls or surveys demonstrated that the charges of corruption against Modi was not sticking, Gandhi persevered with this. But the accusation certainly annoyed Modi and his supporters because on the one hand their self-branding was being eroded, albeit slowly, and on the other the branding of Gandhi as ‘Pappu’ was also being diluted.

It was no coincidence that Modi's stock began declining from August-September 2017, around the same time that Rahul Gandhi began coming into his own.

Moralistic Veil of ‘Chowkidar’ Lifted

Initially, Modi appeared to have struck gold with the ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’ campaign because he suddenly equated himself with thousands of working people and encouraged others to symbolically join this tribe by prefixing their names. But within days, a counter narrative also emerged, this time not publicised by the Opposition but by independent people and satirists on social media.

The moralistic veil of Modi as ‘chowkidar’ was removed and people were reminded of the images that take shape in the minds of people in the middle-classes when they look out for a watchman – usually never found when most required.

In 2013-14, Modi controlled social media discourse, but now this arena is much altered and often loaded against him.

BJP’s Uphill Task in Making ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’ Decisive

The failure of the ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’ campaign so far to resonate with the people and establish the connect Modi established with the people in 2013-14, is possibly indication that the focus has somewhat shifted from the national concerns to personal worries over livelihood and individual futures.

The recent address to the nation to publicise the A-SAT achievement, is indication that people’s sentiment in these elections is still not being shaped by an overarching national issue, but is instead being driven by bread and butter issues.

Modi's ‘chowkidar’ is not committing himself to safeguarding individual granaries and securing jobs for the people, and this is possibly the reason for the lack of spontaneity in backing this campaign. The BJP faces an uphill road in making this campaign decisive, unless it succeeds in getting people to endorse the ‘chowkidar's’ brief as theirs.

(The writer is an author and journalist based in Delhi. His most recent books are ‘Sikhs: The Untold Agony of 1984’ and ‘Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times’. He can be reached at @NilanjanUdwin. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)