Why Modi Won't Leave It To No.10

Someone rightly said “Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department”. This is the reason why CEOs and MDs in the most successful companies keenly look into every marketing strategy and tactic. They remain highly involved in marketing decisions and actions.

India were 254 for 6 when Sachin Tendulkar took an avoidable risk and was out caught. His glorious innings of 136 came to an end and he will never forget that test nor will many cricket-lovers in India. Sachin will look back on that innings, one of his best, with pride and regret. That was India V Pakistan at Chennai in 1999. India were just 17 runs short of victory. The last four batsmen added just 4 runs and India were bowled out, handing a 12-run electrifying victory to Pakistan. Sunil Gavaskar lamented “Sachin should have finished the job and not have left it to the remaining batsmen”. There is no way one can find fault with Sachin, although expecting him to have finished it off is fair, when the last four couldn’t manage even 17 runs. In a situation like that you finish the job.

There won’t be any dispute if I called Sachin a leader among batsmen although he may not have fared great as a captain. Amitabh Bachchan can be called a leader in acting and movies although he was miserable in politics. Our HATO club (Hammam Associates Treaty Organisation) in the media plays blind to the phenomenal leadership that stares them in their eyes. Narendra Modi’s story as a leader in contemporary world politics is by far the most outstanding story. A man hunted and pursued viciously by his political enemies with their bootlickers in media and establishment has not only survived them but has surpassed and beaten all of them hands down. He is the Prime Minister of India while the HATO club in the media and political domain languish in their bottomless pit of filth. Modi’s talent as a public servant has been nurtured from a young age. It stands to reason that he has acquired leadership skills in an area in which he possesses talent. If he had taken up acting maybe he would have fared as badly as Bachchan fared in politics.

Instead of analysing Modi’s leadership skills and techniques our media crooks have been talking nonsense all the time. They scream “Test for Modi” every time there is some event. America a test for Modi! Mangalyaan a test for Modi! China a test for Modi! Bye-polls a test for Modi! UN a test for Modi! I-Day speech a test for Modi! ISIS a test for Modi! LOC a test for Modi! Maharashtra and Haryana polls a test for Modi! Barkha’s make up a test for Modi! Oops! Not the last one. People are naturally laughing at our media clowns. While they pretend to be great political analysts, people are seeing them naked. Their eyes are so clouded with filth and hatred that they cannot see what is obvious to common men and women. Events of late aren’t any test for Modi. He has passed the toughest tests and become the PM. It is our media morons whose lives and survival are under a constant test. Along with Modi’s political opponents our HATO club made a lot of noise about Modi campaigning while there was friction at the LOC. His opponents made out the campaigning meant negligence of LOC. What do these idiots imagine or want people to believe? That a PM sits at his office and attends to only one thing during a day? Truth is that the Pakis have taken the beating of their life even as Modi continued with his campaign as this tweet reflects:

The action by Modi in empowering the Army/BSF to take appropriate retaliatory action is a huge deviation from the past. For a decade our stupid GOI usually came up with the nonsensical “Kadi Ninda” (Strong condemnation) for Pak atrocities on the LOC. Even the cartoonists did not miss the dramatic difference this time around with Modi as PM. This one below is among the best I have seen:

Now, those who are ranting about Modi campaigning heavily during these state elections had no complaints when the Limp Biskit MMS campaigned. It’s because MMS usually mumbles when he speaks and is a man who has never won a public election and nobody likes listening to him, except maybe Congi slaves. In contrast, Modi is a crowd puller, a great orator and has never lost a public election. That is what is causing them heartburn. Under Modi’s leadership the BJP’s stocks have grown dramatically and it threatens to wipe out our media’s crumb-feeder, the Congress and its Sicko alliance partners. In particular, in the large and important state of Maharashtra, our media crooks see a huge pot of gold for them disappearing if the Congress loses and BJP comes to power. So lately, they even started sucking up to the ShivSena that they genetically hate. Given its importance, Modi obviously lays huge value to the stakes in Maharashtra, a lot more than Haryana. It is natural that he chooses not to leave marketing to the marketing department. It is important to understand Modi’s leadership style which is demonstrated in various situations.

Leadership is a skill that can be acquired (if someone wants to). Leadership skills are also easier to acquire in a domain that one possesses talent in. No matter how much lipstick Barkha & Co. put on him, Rahul Gandhi’s talents clearly don’t lie in the political domain. Therefore, he is unable to establish leadership within his party or with people. Behind his back his own partymen scoff at him and some even openly call him a “joker”. There are broadly four leadership styles that are universally accepted. There are some who add one or two more as you can read here. There is no harm if you broaden your list with some variants. But the generally accepted four styles of leadership are plotted in this matrix below:

If I were to put Modi in one of these quadrants then it would clearly be S2. Modi is highly directive and also highly supportive. He does not take decisions which aren’t backed by full support or full scale action. The LOC action by our Army is a good indicator of that. It had the Paki PM running to the UN for help. Try and plot other political leaders and you will find a reasonable explanation on why some succeed and some don’t. Modi might take a decision and delegate but he will just as surely ensure that an issue reaches a desired outcome or as close as it can get. Do remember that there can be times when the leadership styles may float a bit here and there within these quadrants. Humans can be moody too but these styles largely define a consistent pattern for a leader’s style. The political leader forces and sets the agenda. Modi has left all the “caste & religion” discourse of the past far behind. He has forced every politician to talk about development, growth, cleanliness, employment. With such a leader a certain amount of chest-thumping is inevitable. What’s SoniaG’s chest-thumping all about? It’s nothing beyond Nehru-Gandhi because she doesn’t have major accomplishments to talk about and she certainly cannot be chest-thumping about her massive corruption and the corrupt govt she led.

What about Modi as a team player? He is often accused of being a dictator by his opponents and the media. Assertive, firm leaders do appear dictatorial at times. But what these folks forget is that Modi was a frontline RSS “Karyakarta”. It is impossible to survive in that position in RSS without being a team player. You have to climb the ladder the hard way in RSS no matter how much our media and sickular folks spew hatred against it. While spewing hatred against RSS our media never bothers to write about the team work or organisational structures of RSS. It is far from a dynastic organisation like the Congress or many of its clones and even others like AIADMK or DMK. For that matter it is extraordinary that in a country of feudal, dynastic outfits in politics BJP has managed to steer clear of such a structure. Democracy should count a blessing. So how would Modi fit in as a team player when it comes to it? Try and make your own decision with this chart:

Analyse Modi’s talks and walks. One will find he largely fulfils the roles demanded of him in various situations as a team-leader. At the heart of all his actions is the deep desire for his team to win. He wants BJP to win, he wants Congress obliterated. He has made no secret of his contempt for the dynastic and corrupt politics of Congress with his “Congress Mukt Bharat” call. He told street scumbag Rajdeep Sardesai after the 2007 Gujarat elections: “I am committed to a mission, not ambition’.

Will Modi make mistakes? Yes, he will. But as the leader of the country and of a political party his actions are oriented towards eliminating the risks of mistakes. That’s what any Marketing head does all the time in business. Doesn’t he? When push came to shove the BJP broke away from ShivSena. I had recommended this a long time ago. I don’t look at politics as a political analyst or expert. I look at it from a marketer’s angle on how best my products and services will fare and what decisions need to be taken. From that angle ShivSena was clearly a baggage that BJP should have thrown away a long time ago. Post-poll alliances from a position of strength is the way to go for a national party. The other thing is people are generally large-hearted and forgiving by nature. But they would forgive mistakes of any political leader provided they believe he is sincere, uncorrupt and there is no mal-intention in his decisions. Modi makes all that easy for people to forgive should he make mistakes. Can you say the same for Sonia or Pawar?  

Modi is highly determined to wipe out the Congress and make India stronger and better. Those are his only motivations and nothing else. In the process he will desperately want his team to win in an important state in Maharashtra (and, of course, Haryana too although the stakes are much lesser). That he campaigns so heavily for his party is not to occupy the crease all by himself. That Gopinath Munde, a CM contender, died suddenly added to BJP’s problems. Here on, BJP will have to develop stronger state leaders like in MP, Rajasthan and Goa if they have to carry the battle forward. But all this media crap about Modi being constantly under “test” is a big load of rubbish. Electorally, Modi has nothing left to prove.

The 136 by Sachin Tendulkar is considered by many as one of the greatest test innings. It was an edge-of-the-seat contest with Pakistan. That loss didn’t make Sachin any less a great batsman or put him under test all his cricketing life. Did it? You win, you lose battles. So too in politics. The exit polls so far show BJP as the single largest party in both Maharashtra and Haryana. The media will now make it out to be defeat if BJP doesn’t get a clear majority. That is utter nonsense. Considering where BJP was in Maharashtra, an outcome of being the single largest party is a clear victory for BJP. All that is of much lesser significance for me. What is indeed significant is that, unlike Sachin, Modi is not going to leave it to batsman No.10. One of the team-leader’s roles is that of the “finisher” (Remember Dhoni in WC 2011?). And that is what upsets our media morons.