This is a simple short blog.
Modi is head & shoulders above anyone else in his entire world-wide BJP Party. He’s a visionary. He’s also a very effective implementer. He himself is only limited by an ideology of his Party and it’s masters the RSS. He cannot cross the Lakshman Rekha (red line) that the ideology propagates.
However, his achilles heel is not the ideology!
Modi’s achilles heel is the utter lack of talent (acceptable to him) in his huge party. It is made of devoted followers no doubt. But other than ‘loyalty’ they offer him little support. And growingly, he seems only to want that!
A look beyond 2-3 effective ministers and 2 State Chief Ministers, the other “leaders” are quite ineffective and even less “Leaders”. They are puppets of the “High Command” itself commanded by Modi.
How much can one man manage? Not a diverse, large, populous and fractious country like India. That’s one reason that BJP’s real reach has been limited India-wide, especially the more educated & intelligent South.
Until Modi brooks some real leaders in the States (the BJP does have them, lying low for now), the party has hit a glass ceiling in ruling states. Soon it will start losing those too. Ironically, the Modi BJP has started looking like the failed Nehru-Gandhi Model of Central Control instead of the de-centralised, aspirational party it once was.
Winning Elections, though important, can not be a winning long term strategy. Effective ground leadership that *attracts* citizens only can lead to sustained grip on power – in the centre and the states. Just gathering blind followers doesn’t work in the long run; like Sri Lanka has shown.
@jsvasan