Time stopped in the eternal city. Every school, college, establishment remained shut and the city turned out in splendour to welcome a humble Shiv-bhakt, a chai-wala turned conqueror, who has captured their imagination and their hearts. Varanasi is a chronicle of an election foretold. No prize for guessing the winner of May 12; rivals will have to scramble to save their deposits.
It seems inevitable that Narendra Modi will retain the Varanasi seat. The eternal city is critical to the geography, ecology and mysticism of the holy Ganga – its rejuvenation the key to the regeneration of India in all her civilisational glory. Nowhere in the world does the delta of a single river nourish so many people, so rich is the now defiled Ganga even today. Narendra Modi has chosen Kashi (or Kashi has chosen him, as he hinted before his arrival) because it is from here that India shall speak to the world in her own voice; the city is destined to be the epitome of what its newest citizen intends to do for the nation.
As Narendra Modi’s flower-decked open truck moved through the main thoroughfare of the ancient city, virtually every denizen turned up to see the New Sardar of an aspirational and resurgent India. Narendra Modi had predicted that the BJP wave would turn into a tsunami as the elections approached; his admirers in turn coined the term tsuNaMo, and that is what happened in Varanasi on Thursday. It is an event without parallel in modern Indian history; never ever has a candidate coming to file his nomination papers brought a city to a standstill.
The people lined the road, blocked the lanes, crowded the roof tops, balconies and even the tree tops, and the road show became a show stopper. BJP workers and enthusiasts set off an unending din with their shouts, conch shells and drums, but no one seemed to mind as they watched the cavalcade move slowly as the potential Prime Minister proceeded to garland the statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and later Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya at the Benaras Hindu University (BHU) founded by him.
The symbolism of garlanding Mahamana’s statue (a four-time Congress president) had Congress leaders in a tizzy; they approached the Election Commission to stall the event, in vain. Later, Narendra Modi also garlanded the statues of Swami Vivekananda and Dr BR Ambedkar. With lawyers and even magistrates coming out to see the BJP Prime Ministerial contender, it seemed as if the Collectorate was the only office that functioned in Varanasi on Thursday!
For Arvind Kejriwal and his colleagues in the Aam Aadmi Party, who spent the morning meditating on the banks of the Ganga at Assighat (to protest an attack on Somnath Bharti), the spontaneous reception accorded to Narendra Modi must have been a powerful reality bite. Kejriwal’s belief that he would give the Gujarat veteran a run for his money would have been roundly disabused.
At the Collector’s office, someone gave Narendra Modi a smart designer gamcha with the party symbol prominently displayed on both sides, a smart way of capturing national eyeballs on a day that is also the sixth phase of voting (117 constituencies across 11 states). Accompanied by Pandit Channu Lal Mishra and BJP leaders Ravi Shankar Prasad, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Amit Shah, Narendra Modi filed his nomination papers and took the oath of allegiance to the Indian Constitution. His proposers included Pt Madan Mohan Malaviya’s grandson Giridhar Malaviya, a retired judge of the Allahabad High Court, noted classical singer Pt Chhanu Lal Mishra, boatman Virbhadra Nishad and weaver Ashok.
Speaking briefly before filing his papers, Narendra Modi said he felt overwhelmed at the affection showered by the city. Paying obeisance to the land and its rich heritage, he said he felt like a child returning to the bosom of his mother, the holy Ganga. Appreciating the Ganga-Yamuna tehzeeb (culture) of the city, he promised special care for the weaver community that has given the city pride of place in the country’s couture.
Expressing determination to help Kashi regain prominence as a world spiritual capital, he said he hailed from Vadnagar, a small village in Gujarat which is also a tirth of Shiva, where the Nagar community is predominant and is also present in good numbers in Varanasi. The famous Chinese pilgrim, Hieun Tsang had come to Vadnagar and noted the presence of a flourishing Buddhist vihara there, and now fate, he said, has brought him in close proximity to Sarnath, where Buddha gave his first sermon. He recalled that the then Maharaja of Baroda (Vadodara) had patronised Dr Ambedkar. Besides being the land of Bholenath (Shiva), Varanasi is equally renowned as the land of Sankat Mochan (Hanuman).
Giving a hint of his plans for Varanasi, Narendra Modi said that those who go to Gujarat and see what has been done on the Sabarmati river front will understand what can be done for the Ganga also. Much can be done in Kashi, he said, in the field of technological upgradation for weavers, and in holistic health, where India could successfully compete with China. Even before he arrived, Narendra Modi penned a blog expressing satisfaction at embarking on “a unique and memorable journey from the land of Somnath to the city of Lord Vishwanath”. He cited American writer Mark Twain, “Varanasi is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together.”
Varanasi, he recalled, is the cradle of India’s glorious culture, a confluence of tradition, history, culture and harmony. The spiritual power of Varanasi is exceptional, he wrote, and it has drawn people from all over the world who seek peace and Moksha. The Buddha delivered his first sermon at Sarnath; the venerable Sant Ravidas and Mahatma Kabir were born here. Mirza Ghalib dubbed it ‘Kaba-E-Hindustan’ and ‘Chirag-E-Dair’ (light of the world) and it was the natural choice of Pandit Malaviya when he was looking for a place to set up a centre of learning. Above all, Varanasi is closely associated with Ustad Bismillah Khan, arguably the greatest symbol of India’s Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb.
The Ganga, Narendra Modi asserts, is the lifeline of Varanasi and at the core of our identity, our Mother; he laments that successive governments have not given her the attention she deserves. In large parts of Uttar Pradesh, the condition of the Ganga is pitiable and cleaning the Ganga and restoring its glory is the need of the hour. The Ganga Action Plan of 1986 (Rajiv Gandhi Government) was merely a plan without action, and the budgets allocated never reached the river, which situation applies to the Varuna river also.
A beginning, he promised, will be made with solid waste management, from collecting the waste to treating it, in as short a period of time as possible. Expressing sadness that a high voltage wire in a village near Varanasi fell some days ago and injured some people, including women, who did not receive timely medical help from the authorities, Narendra Modi said “this is a symptom of a larger decay across UP and this is the decay that we want to end”. This is clearly the language of a man who intends to stay.
Niticentral.com, 24 April 2014