Modi gets a Red Card

One, as they rush to promote democracy in the Middle East and elsewhere, America8217;s ebullient neo-cons need to recognise its complex nature. Simply, it doesn8217;t always give you results you may deem desirable.

Take Modi. Strictly speaking there is no legal case against him. He is as guilty of murder as, say, V.P. Singh was of burning students during the anti-Mandal protests.

What he can be accused of is cynicism, passivity before mob fury, using the anger in Gujarat in 2002 to earn a mandate built on prejudice. This may make some feel queasy, but it is hardly a unique phenomenon.

There is political space in India 8212; as in the US 8212; for a nativist, socially conservative vote that draws from faith-based sources. Modi has come to represent this space in Gujarat/India, just as, say, Jesse Helms, Ronald Reagan8217;s Republican colleague, did in North Carolina/the US till recently. If Modi disappears tomorrow, this political space will not also go away.

Curbing this space is not a matter of law but of politics. Democracy has its own built-in correctives. Take another example, that of George Wallace, Democrat governor of the US state of Alabama on four occasions between 1963 and 1987. In his first term, Wallace was a segregationist, the hard face of Jim Crowism. He opposed the civil rights movement, shrugged his shoulders at racial violence. In one chilling incident, four black schoolgirls were killed when a bomb exploded outside a church in the Alabama city of Birmingham.

Was Wallace guilty of this bombing? No. Did he contribute to and feed upon the mood? Yes. Wallace was loved by his people, demonised by those he dismissed as 8216;8216;pointy-headed pseudo-intellectuals8217;8217;. He was 1960s America8217;s Narendra Modi.

Yet, in 1983, Wallace was elected for his final term by a surging black support. He had made his peace with the community, was one of the African-American citizen8217;s biggest champions. He still attacked the liberals, this time for being anti-religion, pro-big government.

Today, Wallace is dead, but the Wallace coalition 8212; old white southerners, now mobilised by Baptist churches and joined by religious blacks 8212; is very much alive. It 2004, it helped George W. Bush win a famous victory.

Why did Wallace change from, frankly, racist to integrationist? He reacted to market conditions. He realised the political framework had evolved, the popular pulse was different, and sought to tailor his politics to new realities, a 8216;8216;new South8217;8217;.

The Wallace of 1963 was defeated not by legal means 8212; or by denied visas 8212; but by the wondrous nature of democracy, a system that ensures you cannot ignore some of the people all of the time. If Modi is ever to be sent a message, the Indian voter will do it, not the US embassy8217;s visa officer.

There are three ancillary but more immediate lessons too. First, in snubbing political entities that are potential tactical allies, a Republican administration has, paradoxically, pleased only those protest groups that are no friends of Uncle Sam. Does America want to cultivate a constituency in India beyond the outsourcing industry, liberal arts visiting professors and Track II seminarists? It is a question only it can answer.

Second, India and America may be proverbial 8216;8216;natural allies8217;8217; but in Washington there is no 8216;8216;natural8217;8217; logic. If the anti-Hindutva brigade has got away with claiming Modi approved a textbook glorifying Hitler 8212; it was actually prescribed under a Congress government in 1993 and can hardly, in any case, be pinned upon the incumbent chief minister 8212; it means saffron lobbying on Capitol Hill is woefully inadequate.

Finally, despite the rhetoric, it is in Modi8217;s interests to get that visa revocation annulled. It is all very well to argue that former Nazi Kurt Waldheim was kept out of America while he was Austria8217;s president, 1986-92. The fact is India has more of a stake in America now than Austria did 20 years ago.

It cannot seriously serve Modi8217;s quest for higher office if America decides to be bloody-minded and persists with the red card. The sooner this ends, the better for him.