Madison Square to Muscat Stadium, why Narendra Modi remains a crowd-puller
As I boarded the Dubai-bound flight, I could feel the weariness brought on by the travel and the hectic coverage of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the Gulf nations. I reflected on the past few days that I spent scrambling with cables and running from one airport to another, almost in Bollywood style.
I remembered Salaha, the Omani cab driver, calling me frantically as he waited for me at every stop. "Has the 'Indian chief' left the the temple? Is your work done, madam?" The answer was a "no" every time. Frankly speaking, it's never over until the last minute if you are covering a foreign trip of a media-savvy and people-friendly leader like Narendra Modi.
The breaking of protocol, the long-held handshakes, the selfie moments and the "jhappis" (hugs) are all trademark Modi gestures, and despite critics accusing him of being a showman, he has held on to the optics.
On a June evening last year, I was standing behind Willard Intercontinental hotel in Washington. It was getting dark and I realised that capturing the first glimpse of the PM won't be easy. As his cavalcade arrived at the rear entrance, he unexpectedly walked away from the hotel towards the crowd and the cameras.
If God had granted me one wish at that very moment, I would have begged him to grant me a few frozen seconds. I would have conducted my interview, a facebook live and a live chat for my TV channel. The latter sans the anchors to avoid wasting any time on their generally lengthy questions (at the cost of stereotyping anchors).
Alas! My wish couldn't have possibly come true because before I could fix my earpiece and the light microphone and the mobile-mounted selfie stick, my moment had vanished. Nevertheless, I waited for my moment.
It took some months and a bright and sunny Feburary morning in Old Muscat city for me to run into some good luck. Responding to the enthusiastically noisy crowd outside the temple, PM Modi walked up to them and right into my "Live MoJo (mobile journalism)" frame. He left a frenzied crowd that took a while to come out of the "Modi-induced trance".
For all the brow-beating by Modi bhakts, and "jhappi jeers" by his political opponents, it seems that the Indian prime minister is playing to optics, but in doing so leaving a deep imprint on the gathering he addresses. His persona, his style, the intonation, his oratory skills involve and indulge them like opium.
From Madison Square to Muscat Stadium, he has managed to captivate his spectators on foreign soil and how. That said, controversies like the recent letter circulated by the Indian embassy in Oman to get blue-collared workers to the venue, gave fresh ammo to his opponents. The fact remains no matter how orchestrated and staged the gatherings are, and I have no proof of that, the manner in which people remain glued to their seats to hear "Namo" out, is simply commendable.
He displays a spontaneity and ability to enthrall a large audience that is unmatched by any other Indian leader in recent times. From his first visit abroad to neighbouring Bhutan to the recent ones, it has been a pretty good show by Modi even as experts would argue that it hasn't translated into deliverables. This has given the "rashtradoot", a name coined by the PM for the Indian diaspora, a new sense of pride and a reason to look forward to their India moment.
The mood is upbeat and many feel that the small blue-coloured booklets with their country's emblem has started carrying more weight in the past four years. While Modi can be given a thumbs up for lending a new impetus to foreign policy back home, it remains a rough ride for his government.