Every PM after Nehru has tried to emulate him. They all wanted to be like him. Except Modi. He didn’t want to be like Nehru. He wanted to be him. To replace him. But he didn’t realise in his juvenile little head that Nehru was more than natty dressing, good oratory, and meeting world leaders. Much more.
And that, my fellow Indians, is a real tragedy.
What Modi has managed to be is, if one were to look carefully, all the style without the substance, all the appearances without the depth, all the bluster without the intellect. If someone had written even a parody of Nehru, it would have been less tragic than the reality that Modi is.
Someone said of Trump that he’s a poor man’s idea of a rich man, a weak man’s idea of a strong man, and a stupid man’s idea of a smart man. I believe this applies equally, and perhaps more so, to Modi. He is the perfect example of what an uneducated man thinks an educated man ought to be like, what a man with an inherent inferiority complex thinks a confident assertive man is, and what an unread, ill-travelled, uncultured man thinks a well-read, widely travelled, civilised man should be.
Similarly, his own actions, grand announcements, flourish, bravado, and loud style whether in his fashion or his uncultured behaviour with world leaders belies what he thinks Nehru was.
But he’ll never get there. Because he’s missed the point completely, which is a shame, to be honest…for he could have been an excellent authentic Modi instead of a cheap parody of a Nehru who he’ll never be.
Happy birthday, Chacha Nehru. You’ve been my hero for a long time. No, you weren’t perfect. Far from it. But you were, without doubt, without embarrassment, and without even much trying, inimitably you, which itself was quite a formidable package. We have been exceedingly lucky to have had you at the right time and place when we needed you most. And yes, sorry for what we’ve done with it and where we’ve gone with it. But happy birthday nevertheless.
tl;dr: Modi’s idea of Nehru is a child’s idea of an adult. It seems cute until you start acting it out. Then it’s weird.
