Larger-Than-Life Personality Cult Around PM Modi? What Amit Shah Said

The idea of a "larger-than-life personality cult" built around Prime Minister Narendra Modi - which many feel is the secret of the BJP's success and cause enough to switch to a Presidential form of government -- was brushed off today by one of his closest aides and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. "Such a thing cannot be built," and it is the Prime Minister's personality, he told NDTV, that has grown over the years though many tasks and experiences.  

"From a child of a very poor family to working in an organization, to a person who fought the elections of the Sarpanch, to becoming a successful Chief Minister, then to becoming the Prime Minister, he has done a lot of impossible things.  The whole country and the world have been amazed by his achievements," Mr Shah said in an exclusive interview with NDTV CEO and Editor-In-Chief Rahul Kanwal.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been the BJP's go-to face at many elections -- especially wherever the party was unable to find a suitable, acceptable face. In most cases, it had ended in a victory. His compelling speeches draws millions to his rallies and his popularity has rarely dipped since the BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014. 

Asked about the matter this evening, Mr Shah said personality cannot be created. "Hard work, sacrifice, patience, and constant hard work is what makes it possible," he added. 

Asked how PM Modi's personality changed over the years, Mr Shah, who had seen him since the pracharak days, Mr Shah said PM Modi had excelled at whatever role he had taken on. 

"Modi ji was given the role of an activist, organizer, Chief Minister, representative of the people, and Prime Minister. He has played all these roles very successfully," Mr Shah said. 

"From an ordinary activist to the Chief Minister of the state, from the organization to the leader who implements the policy, and in all the roles, he has successfully met his responsibilities," he said.

"With all this, while maintaining the communication of his core ideology, all the issues of the core ideology, all the problems of the country, and the solution of the problems of the country's poverty, I have seen him doing all this in about 40 years. I have seen this in very few people," he added. 

PM Modi's Legacy

Asked about the legacy of PM Modi, Mr Shah said he has done much to change the thought process in the country, to eradicate the "collective inferiority complex" that had gripped the nation "because of the slavery of a long time, from Mughals to the British".

While it is easy to remove the inferiority complex of a single person, the job becomes much harder when it involves the people of a nation, he said.

"When 75 years have passed since the independence of this country, Modi ji imagined the creation of a great India in 2047, the idea of a fully developed India, and the idea of a self-reliant India, and the collective inferiority complex of the people of this country was removed in a way," he said.

"Today, in the minds of the 140 crore people of the country and especially in the minds of the youth, there is self-confidence that when the centenary of freedom will be celebrated, this country will be at the top of the world in every field," Mr Shah added.

There is also the way the Prime Minister thinks as a leader, he said. While most leaders strive to address a certain problem, eradicating it in its entirety has never been attempted. 

But PM Modi has done this -- be it in providing housing for those who never owned a house, to making the kitchen of the poor smoke-free by proving gas cylinders or giving priority to the country's security policy by dissociating it from diplomacy, he said.

Because of this quality of his, by the end of PM Modi's third term, 7 crore people will get housing, 10 crore extremely poor people were given gas cylinders, he said. 

And whenever there were terrorist attacks from Pakistan, "be it Uri, Pulwama or Pahelgam, we did not delay even for a moment and expressed our commitment, within less than a month, we gave such a response that Pakistan remembered for decades," he added.