AN UNSUBTLE ART OF PERSUASION

KERALA is a small state. One end to the other can be covered in less than 20 hours by road. And everywhere you go in this congested state today, you will see mostly one person smiling at you: Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister of Kerala and leader of the Left Democratic Front, now in the last leg of its second consecutive term in power.

- C P SURENDRAN

The thing with power is that it must be seen as doing good to perpetuate itself. Few understand this better than Prime Minister Narendra Modi. All of India is Modi's mirror. We see him as he sees himself, everywhere. He is the source. He is not merely seen as doing things, but as giving things.

The visibility of power is exponentially greater in smaller states. Kerala's CM, through relentless self-promotion, has achieved a seemingly godlike status. If he is not cutting ribbons at events, he is giving things away to the needy. To the brave, he gives medals. To the poor, he gives money. To writers-and there are many of them in Kerala, a state that famously produces more writers per capita than anywhere else in India-he gives golden shawls. Never mind the tropical humidity.

Vijayan smiles at you from large hoardings by the roadside and across green paddy fields. He hangs from bridges. He looks at you from behind speeding buses, from newspapers, from stages. He is everywhere. He inaugurates lower primary school sports events, university arts festivals, free-speech seminars, and literature festivals. Everywhere, Vijayan is seen as giving.

In Gerontion, T S Eliot talks about history as full of "supple confusions" and, because of that, its "giving famishes the craving". Something similar is at work here, but it's not Vijayan's fault. This is how power works. He, like Modi, is a relentless exponent of the art.