Sycophancy bug bites BJP leaders, hail Modi as 'god's gift' and 'messiah'

These remarks are surprising, coming as they do from a party which has missed no opportunity to criticise its opponents of sycophancy

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was described as "god's gift to India" and a "messiah of poor" by senior BJP leader and Union Cabinet minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday.

Naidu sang his paeans to the prime minister while moving a political resolution at BJP's national executive. Naidu didn't stop there, though. According to The Indian Express, Naidu also mentioned that the prime minister has over 18 million Twitter followers and 32 million Facebook likes, and pointed out that "his (Modi’s) wax statue now will be unveiled in London’s Madame Tussauds museum”.

While it is common to see an Indian politician being heaped with rich praise by his party and subordinates, Naidu's remarks are surprising, coming as they do from a party which has missed no opportunity to criticise its opponents, especially the Congress, of sycophancy.

 

However, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju beat Naidu to the punch when he said last week that "French prophet Nostradamus" had predicted Modi's rise.

"French prophet Nostradamus wrote that from 2014 to 2026, a man will lead India, whom initially, people will hate but after that people will love him so much that he will be engaged in changing the country's plight and direction," reads a Facebook post shared and forwarded by Rijiju, reported NDTV.

While the post claims – citing the 16th century Frenchman who has been hailed through the centuries as a mystic and seer, many of whose prophecies seem to have come unerringly true – that Modi will lead India till 2026, it also describes him as a "superpower administrator".

The post goes on to read: "This was predicted in the year 1555. A middle aged superpower administrator will bring golden age not only in India but on the entire world. Under his leadership India will not only just become the Global Master, but many countries will also come into the shelter of India."  

Both Rijiju and Naidu, however, were following in Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's footsteps.

Earlier this month, in his address to a convention of Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha, Chouhan said that Prime Minister Modi had become the "most popular leader in the world" and was working to make India a strong and prosperous country.

"He (Modi) is a man of ideas and has the strong will to execute them. Wherever in the world he goes, people chant Modi! Modi! He is the God's divine gift to India. He will make India 'vishwa guru' by 2022," Chouhan proclaimed.

The prize for sycophancy, of course, could well go to Tamil Nadu leaders, who unfailingly send up one example after another of their deification of the state’s Chief Minister, J Jayalalithaa.

Of recent vintage, we had Jayalalithaa, also known as 'Amma', gracing a poster wherein she was holding aloft a baby and wading through a torrent of water.

According to Scroll, the posters, which combine Jayalalithaa's face with the famous poster of the film Baahubali, were put up by a local AIADMK leader. These tasteless billboards sprouted up even as the state had barely gotten over the shock from Chennai’s worst floods in decades.

Often the sycophancy can reach comical levels. In a a friendly T20 match between IAS officers and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akshilesh Yadav's team this month, the officers did everything in their power to ensure that Yadav's side won the match, reported TheNewsMinute.com. 

Of course, Yadav was declared the man of the match and the best cricketer, for the fourth year in a row.

According to a NDTV news report, the bowlers were happy to see Yadav hit boundaries on their deliveries; in the video, the bureaucrat who finally took the CM's wicket was seen holding his head in his hands the minute he "realised his mistake".  

With three runs to knock off from two overs in order to win, the officers, undoubtedly finding themselves in a tight spot, managed to score only two runs off the last 12 balls. 

The sycophantic gene in our politicians, of course, goes much further back. Dev Kant Barooah, who served as the president of the Indian National Congress during the Emergency, declared in 1974 that ‘Indira is India, India is Indira’.

As BJP leaders tread down the same path, party president Amit Shah's remarks, in contrast, on the Modi government last week come off as remarkably bland. Speaking at the India Today conclave 2016, Shah said, "I am satisfied with the overall performance of the Modi government. But lot is required to be done."