When Shashi Tharoor approvingly mentioned a 'Modi 2.0' in a column for the Huffington Post, he was immediately attacked by 'deeply disappointed' Congress stalwart Mani Shankar Aiyar for his 'immature' praise of the new Prime Minister. Other Congress leaders like Digvijaya Singh also jumped in, reprimanding Tharoor for 'jumping to conclusions' about Narendra Modi. However Modi seems determined to prove Tharoor right and is sticking firmly to his '2.0' avatar - the picture of mature statesmanship. And this was evident yesterday in his conduct during the joint session of Parliament. While entering the house yesterday, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi clasped Rahul Gandhi's folded hands and squeezed them warmly as he passed the Congress leader in Parliament's central hall on Monday. The impromptu gesture was met with a smile," said the Times of India.
According to the Hindustan Times, the action was also met with great excitement from other party leaders. "Former Union minister Jairam Ramesh and Congress treasurer Motilal Vohra, seated next to Rahul, were seen smiling during this brief exchange. Many leaders rushed to Rahul later and were seen asking him whether there was an exchange of words as well," the report said. This is a far cry from the name calling of March and April. During his acerbic election campaign, Narendra Modi reserved some of his most vicious attacks for Rahul Gandhi. From dubbing him the 'shehzada' to mocking the 'maa-beta sarkar' Modi's jibes about the Congress vice-president were often the most awaited parts of his speech, eliciting roars of approval from the thousands of people who would hang on his every word. "I did not send her (Smriti Irani) to trouble Rahul Bhaiyya, he is troubled enough already," he said during his last speech in Rahul's backyard of Amethi. On another occasion, he referred to Gandhi as a 'specimen'. "If you want to relieve stress, listen to Rahul's speeches. As per his mathematics, there are 27,000 crore jobs lying vacant in Gujarat. How can this be possible when the total population of Gujarat is six crores ? What kind of namuna (specimen) has the Congress brought?" In fact one of the key elements of Modi's electoral success lies in how he made the entire BJP campaign an anti-Gandhi family one, successfully tapping into the anger of a population tired of the high cost of living and scam after scam, giving them someone to blame. By targeting the Gandhis he also successfully stripped away their strategy of standing apart from the government while controlling the ruling party. This unsurprisingly did not go down well with the Congress party, who were however not really able to counter the Modi insult wagon with quite the same fervour, apart from coining the term 'feku' on social media. Now suffering from their worst ever defeat and reduced to just 44 seats in the Lok Sabha, it is not surprising that they are still bitter and are not quite as ready to see or welcome 'Modi 2.0' as Tharoor is. And while it would have been easy for Modi to simply ignore the Congress's jibes - they are hardly even a Parliamentary force now - the fact that he has chosen to reach out is significant, especially given that the legions of Gandhi haters who voted for him would love nothing better than to see their beloved leader snub them. As Tharoor said in his Huffington Post op-ed, Modi's behavior post his great electoral win is a 'welcome surprise' from "a man with a reputation of brooking no dissent and riding roughshod over opposition during his twelve years at the helm in Gujarat". While it is unclear just how much an impromptu 'hand clasp' will help in terms of thawing relations, it is definitely a start. And Modi is being particularly clever here. He knows that a significant portion of India's population is watching him with trepidation. By choosing to consistently take the higher road as he did in Parliament yesterday, he is winning them over bit by bit. Of course it is still early days into Modi's tenure as Prime Minister so there is no real basis by which we can come to any kind of conclusion. But so far, and despite his massive mandate, the Prime Minister has not put a foot wrong.
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