Modi has the largest personality cult in human history: Ramachandra Guha

New Delhi: One of the foremost public intellectuals Ramachandra Guha in an interview on the occasion of India’s 75^th years of independence restated concern on the country’s diminishing democracy while underlining increasing personality cult around Prime Minister Narendrea Modi.

In the interview, conducted by Karan Thapar for The Wire, Guha said that today the country is a 30:70 democracy. Notably, 15 years ago, he had called India a 50:50 democracy and a flawed democracy. Today he said it’s slipped significantly further. The noted historian identified three key reasons for this: decline of institutions, majoritarianism and personality cult around Modi.

He further explained that the decline of institutions such as the press, parliament, the judiciary and the civil services has led to disappointment among large sections of people, mainly opposition parties and minorities. He hit out at the incumbent dispensation for encouraging majoritarianism, saying it is ‘conscious attempts to convert Muslims into second class citizens. He held Modi’s cult-like personality responsible for most of the ills in the country.  He said: “Modi has the largest personality cult in human history”. He added ministers and Supreme Court judges compete to lavish sycophantic praise on him. He named BJP President J. P. Nadda, former Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, Home Minister Amit Shah and Urban Development Minister Hardeep Puri.

In the 35-minute interview Guha was sharply critical of the fact that a cricket stadium in Ahmedabad has been named after Modi during his lifetime. “Nehru would never have countenanced that and even Indira Gandhi didn’t do this”. With this, underlined Guha, Modi is now in the same league as Hitler, Mussolini, Gaddafi, Kim il Sung and Saddam Hussein.  Guha said that just as the personality cult surrounding Mao has been bad for China “the cult of Modi will be bad for India”.

On ill-treatment meted out to the Muslims, Guha said: “It is an utter and total betrayal of what we said to Muslims in 1947”. He called it “terrifying”. He said that although discrimination against Muslims predates Modi, it has become “explicit under this regime” and “legitimate”. (INDIANEWSSTREAM)