APCO's extraordinary projection of Modi could well polarize the national mood and yet augment the UPA's vote share in the short run. By this logic, UPA-III seems to be the emerging outcome in 2014. Which will be fine for the corporates and their multinational links provided key enabling legislations are pushed through parliament by the two parties.
Another reason why Modi's support team have been able to impose a fait accompli on the BJP is because of an acute fear that Modi and his Sancho Panza will, sooner or later, trip up in the course of investigations under way in Gujarat. Modi's fall will then be the BJP's fall too. But if Modi is allowed to fly high on a platform of Hindu nationalism, his being grounded will be blamed on intrigue by the forces of “pseudo secularism”. This pits Modi as an embodiment of an idea shaded in dark saffron, projected in Presidential style, against the secular formations, pale and wan, poised precariously on a rickety Parliamentary platform.
The real battle, then, is not being envisaged for 2014 but more like 2016.
