Banaras hopeful after Modi's visit

The PM came and went. The cloth-and-bamboo gateways have been left up, wherever he passed, and similarly the wooden blockades, which continue to block traffic. The shamiana in front of the BJP office and the bright lights have been taken down. The office looks as it did before, neat and organised, from outside its high gate, in a characterless and uncommunicative sort of way.

During the approximately twenty six hours that he was here, Modi inaugurated the new Trauma Centre at BHU and adopted Jayapura as his model village. He visited the site of the proposed Trade Facilitation Centre for weavers in Bara Lalpura and the charitable Anandmayi Ma Hospital. He did some cleaning on Assi Ghat. He addressed thousands of karyakartas in DLW, a handful of citizens at the BJP office, and the city’s prominent businessmen and professors at the Gateway Hotel.

Krishnakant Bajpai, a professor in Management Sciences at BHU and a karyakarta in the IT Cell of the Varanasi region, gave me the most hope-filled perspective that I have heard so far. “I was never interested in doing this kind of work,” Professor Bajpai explained, “Like many others, I only became a karyakarta because I have seen Modi ji’s honesty and sincerity. The reason things are different is that Modi ji is a different kind of leader – he sees things through to the end and believes in empowering the people. Take Swachh Bharat – that was one of the main topics of his address to us: he encouraged each of us to clean up, wherever we work or live. You don’t need a government to do that, you need every citizen’s sense of responsibility. The basic idea is that each person has goodness in them – the will to do good and to live well. That is what Modi ji is drawing out of everyone.” He added that the rally itself demonstrated this transformation, for when it ended, the karyakartas stacked up the plastic chairs themselves, even though it wasn’t their job to do so, and then filed out quietly, without any sign of pushing.

Yesterday, as I went about the city on Modi’s heels, there was an air of amusement and excitement but also sobriety. Banarasis on cycles and motorcycles called out to each other as they passed, “Modi ji ko dekha?” And jokingly – “Haan, abhi dekha, Lanka band tha aur hum vahi pe the jab vo guzre!” ("Did you see Modi?" "Yes, just now, Lanka was blocked and I was there as he passed!") Many did actually glimpse him, whether when behind the window of his car or when hacking at the monsoon silt piled up on Assi Ghat. One resident reported appreciatively that Modi chopped the mud for a full ten minutes, and with puri takat, or full strength. Another resident praised him for not having dark glass on the windows of his car and for shaking hands with the public whenever he passed.

And at the same time, one Banarasi commented wryly that the BJP office had selected only RSS supporters to comprise the group of citizens who met Modi in the BJP office. And another Banarasi, a rickshaw wala and a follower of the Aghor panth, with whom I chatted while sipping tea at a roadside shop, stressed the government’s responsibility in putting into place honest and efficient systems to improve civic life. The public will follow, he said, because they want to live healthily and honestly, rather than as they are doing now.

Towards the end of my interview with him, Professor added, “The biggest threat to Modi ji is not public opposition but opposition from his own party, the people closest to him, because he will never allow them to do the kind of politics they have always done. They are being forced to fall into line and they will not like that. ”

We may disagree or agree about the PM’s style of leadership, about how people-centred and democratic it actually is. But most of us Banarasis do seem to find the PM’s promises and plans for Banaras, in their present, theoretical and unspecific form, a reason for optimism. As to how these will unfold and take shape, we are still unclear – to what degree and in what ways the officials under the PM will give support, the details of the systems and structures he and his government will put into place to bring about improvements, and whether he and his government will be able to motivate and steer our will to act. Hopeful and ready for action, we are waiting and watching.