A DESI PRIME MINISTER

                                So far from Nehru to the present incumbent, there have been one dozen prime ministers in India. Pt. Nehru, the first PM being foreign educated, was in true sense an Anglophile. He loved western culture though not at the cost of our own rich traditions. He spoke good English and was an important politician at international level. Except his churidar, sherwani and Gandhi cap giving him an Indian appearance inside the country, he loved to get dressed in three-piece suit and enjoyed the company of European politicians and diplomats. Though very close to Mahatma Gandhi, he did not subscribe to his bucolic Indianness and native ideas.

Out of those one dozen premiers, to me the true desi models were Lal Bahadur Shastri, Morarji Desai and now Narendra Modi. I am leaving out a few who wore the mantle for some days or months only. In that case one cannot ignore Chandrashekhar, charan Singh, G.L. Nanda and Devegauda. We have to consider that only outer appearance is not sufficient to tell a leader that he is desi. One has to think and live a life in which the interest of the motherland is reflected in every decision and the democratic system is strengthened. On this yardstick, one can point out some decisions of Pt Nehru, Mrs Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Chandrashekhar not qualifying entry. What about NaMo ?

At the present juncture, it would be foolhardiness to compare Narendra Modi with some of the above giants of Indian politics. He will have to perform for complete five years to be taken in the estimation. For the present, we can only point out some of the personality traits of Modi which appear to justify that he is a desi PM. During his 12-year stint as the CM of Gujarat, he gave a very good account of solving the problems through measures enshrined in domestic talent and taking his state to a new height. His dress has already become a brand. He is not a product of any foreign university. In the editorial column of the Sulabh India (English monthly, May 2014), it is written: ‘History repeats itself again when a tea-seller of Gujarat becomes  the Prime Minister of India, struggling for 40 years without any advantages of high-born, English speaking elite or the power or money’.

He invariably speaks in Hindi even with the foreigners with the help of a translator like the Russians, French and Chinese. He eats native Gujarati recipes with no liking for non-veg and wine. He touches the feet of not only his mother but also the senior party leaders. He is deeply rooted in Hinduism with no illwill for any other faith. He says, India first, neighbours second and then the world at large. He has the ambition of India leading the world by making it economically affluent and militarily strong for self defence.

Let us hope that his tryst with destiny will see him through and he would carve a niche in  the domestic as well as international politics.