Morphing and Morphology...beyond the Modi Mandapam

ON an astrologically appropriate date three months from now, watch every TV channel as our new prime minister strides towards Parliament just days after having taken his oath of office outside Rashtrapati Bhavan. The new cabinet has still not been announced, but this is the moment that the faithful have been waiting for.

- Dilip Cherian

 

That age-defining and historic moment begins as he alone strides forth. No one else can match step with him. None dare occupy centre stage, or even be on the edges of that stage he owns. His presence alone now keeps away not just intruders and interlopers, but any insiders too. For those tuned to listen, there may be sounds of the clanging of temple bells. The newly-installed Papacy at Ayodhya may symbolically be part of the visual stage setting. As India’s avowedly most blasé Image Guru, even I’m gobsmacked by the sheer scale of each spectacle.

This is a practiced and almost holy ritual. For observers like me, it’s by now a familiar visual, but enhanced each time. This one is several notches above its last outing. By now, even his closest claimants have realised that he is at his best alone, unalloyed. Best by himself with no props and most certainly walk within seven paces.

These images and the prolonged surround sound inevitably raise the question whether this imagery is indeed ‘par for the course’ as far as India is concerned. Does India ‘fangirl’ only to images of a strong and powerful leader? Of those who stride alone like a colossus, across our landscape, and mesmerise the largest population on earth? Like the reality show, do we need the complete and total sound and sight of just one Big Boss?