Fareed Zakaria on Modi's genius: ‘Presents himself as insider and outsider'

Fareed Zakaria on Modi's genius: ‘Presents himself as insider and outsider'

Veteran journalist and geopolitical expert Fareed Zakaria spoke about the "unusual skill" that Prime Minister Narendra Modi possesses to be able to present himself as both "an insider" and "an outsider".

Addressing a session titled 'India in the Age of Revolutions', Fareed Zakaria said that the one theme that is being seen in the elections everywhere is an "anti-establishment" wave.

"The people who tend to win are the people who say 'I come from outside the elite, from outside this world of urban-educated, cosmopolitan men and women who have been running things'. There are few places where the person who's the most interesting is trying to be both an insider and an outsider," Zakaria said.Â

He said that it is PM Modi's "genius" that he is trying to present himself as both an insider and an outsider.Â

"He is, of course, the Prime Minister. He is, of course, touting his achievements. But, at the same time, he is reminding you that he does not come from the gilded elite of India. That he is not from the Nehru-Gandhi family. That he comes from a chaiwala background," Zakaria said.

"It's a very unusual skill to try to simultaneously be the insider and the outsider. And Modi is trying to play that game," he added.