Narendra Modi (left) with Lakshman Rao Inamdar, shortly before the latter's death Narendra Modi (left) with Lakshman Rao Inamdar, shortly before the latter's death

The first time Narendra Modi publicly entered 7, Race Course Road, Delhi, was on August 18, 2001. He was then based in Delhi as BJP's national general secretary and was there to launch his biography on Lakshmanrao Inamdar, his mentor in RSS. In Setubandh, Modi compared Inamdar, who passed away in 1984, to the mythical bridge Lord Ram built to Sri Lanka. Then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee burnished his credentials as the first RSS pracharak-turned-PM by paying a glowing tribute to the veteran Sangh worker. Over a decade later, Modi jets across the country, addressing whirlwind rallies, perhaps eager for a chance to thank his mentor again from the Prime Minister's residence.

Master and protege

The Modi narrative is a singular one. The stubborn, strong-willed son of a tea-vendor, Damodardas Modi, from Gujarat's Vadnagar town who, by sheer hard work and dedication, rises through RSS and then, within BJP. A life inspired, you would think, only by bronze Sardar Patel statues and Swami Vivekananda calendar art. The narrative changes, only slightly, at the mention of Inamdar, also known as Vakil Saheb. "Narendra Modi's formative years were spent in RSS and Vakil Saheb has had the greatest impact on him," says Seshadari Chari, member of the BJP national executive. "Modi attributes his entire personality to Vakil Saheb," says Prabhat Kumar, who has published four of Modi's books, including the Inamdar biography. In the few pictures that exist of them together, Modi's smile is soft, almost beatific. Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of the 2013 biography Narendra Modi: The Man. The Times, calls Modi's respect for Vakil Saheb extraordinary. "I haven't seen this kind of reverence in Modi for anyone, living or dead," he says.

Modi first met Inamdar when he was still a boy in the early 1960s. Inamdar, deputed to Gujarat since 1943, was an RSS pranth pracharak who travelled around the state inspiring youngsters to join shakhas. Modi was captivated by his future mentor's flawless oratory skills as he addressed a meeting in Vadnagar in fluent Gujarati.

As Modi writes in Jyotipunj, his 2008 compilation of the biographies of 16 RSS luminaries including Inamdar, "Vakil Saheb had the ability to use everyday examples to convince his listeners. "Modi illustrates how Inamdar convinced a reluctant RSS worker to take up a job. "If you can play it, it's a flute, if not, it's still a stick."

Inamdar was born in Khatav, a village 130 km south of Pune, in 1917. One of 10 children of a government revenue official, he joined RSS in 1943 soon after he completed his law degree from Poona University. He participated in the freedom struggle, led agitations against the Hyderabad Nizam's rule and then opted for the austere life of a pracharak-of bachelorhood and a rootless existence-in Gujarat.

Steeped in the sangh Steeped in the sangh

Andy Marino, author of Narendra Modi: A Political Biography, which was released in April, regards Modi's increasing focus on RSS and his friendship with Vakil Saheb as sources of friction with his father Damodardas. "Inevitably fathers see their sons growing up, escaping their influence, and sometimes, a fierce love causes them to resent it. When it also happens that a replacement father figure is involved, especially one so locally glamorous as Vakil Saheb, the hurt can be significant and the paternal feelings of redundancy and emotional loss powerful," Marino writes.

Modi's RSS odyssey

Modi, 17, left his home in Vadnagar after completing high school in 1969. "I wanted to do something, but I had no idea what," he recounts in Kishore Makwana's Common Man Narendra Modi, published in 2014. He started from the Ramakrishna Mission ashram in Rajkot to the Belur Math on the bank of Hooghly river near Kolkata. He spent time in the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission and then travelled to Guwahati. Later, he reached another ashram set up by Swami Vivekananda in Almora, in the Himalayan foothills. Two years after, he returned to Vadnagar. After a brief halt at his house, Modi left again for Ahmedabad, where he lived and worked in a tea stall run by his uncle. It was here that he re-established contact with Vakil Saheb, then based at Hedgewar Bhavan, the RSS headquarters in the city.

"Inamdar re-entered Modi's life when he was at a crossroads," says Mukhopadhyay. "Modi left home to get away from his marriage in 1968. When he returned, he found his wife still waiting for him so he went away to Ahmedabad," he says. Once Modi moved into Hedgewar Bhavan under his mentor's wing, he never looked back.

For RSS, which venerates the collective over the individual, Inamdar is just another distinguished name. "There have been many swayamsevaks like him who have melted their essence into the Sangh," says Pradip Jain, the RSS spokesperson in Gujarat. Indeed, there is nothing distinctive about Inamdar's former dwelling, a spartan 100 sq ft room on the ground floor of the RSS headquarters, apart from its serial number 1 painted in red, an indication of his first-among-equals status within the state unit. The room is now occupied by three pracharaks. Twin portraits of the walrus-moustached RSS eminences K.B. Hedgewar, the founder, and M.S. Golwalkar, his successor, adorn the walls of the room.

The peripatetic Inamdar steered the lives of thousands of RSS workers, often meeting their families over dinner. Modi lived in room number 3, across the hallway from his mentor. He started at the lowest rung in Hedgewar Bhavan. He woke up at the crack of dawn, made tea for the pracharaks, swept the entire complex (then just a single-storeyed building) and washed his mentor's clothes. This routine continued for a year. Modi watched Vakil Saheb closely as he propagated RSS throughout the state. Inamdar was of medium height and build, and always wore a white dhoti-kurta. He was a voracious reader and carried a transistor radio always tuned in to BBC World Service. He had been an avid kabaddi and kho kho player in his youth but now kept himself fit through pranayam. Inamdar was friendly, unassuming and used the term "bhala maanas" (my good man) when he was mildly irritated.

But behind the self-effacing exterior was a relentless organisation-builder and networker. In 1972, he formally inducted "Narendrabhai", as he called him, into RSS as a pracharak. Inamdar, the indulgent father figure, had by then goaded Modi to enroll for a BA degree. "Narendrabhai," he told him, "you have many God-given gifts, why don't you study further?" Inamdar brought his protege study material for the Delhi University course. Modi completed his BA in political science in 1973.

"Vakil Saheb was really the father of RSS in Gujarat and to an extent he was also a replacement father for Modi, after he left home and eventually arrived in Ahmedabad," Marino told india today. It was likely that the veteran RSS activist saw Modi's organisational abilities as suited to RSS. Gajanan Inamdar, 86, Lakshmanrao's sole surviving sibling who retired from the Ahmedabad Electricity Company, recalls the sturdy youth with a thick black beard, who, in the early 1970s, would drop his brother off at his home on a cream-coloured Bajaj scooter and took time out to teach his son Deepak, then 10, to ride it.

Modi's life, however, took a turn after the declaration of Emergency in 1975. RSS was banned and the police swooped down on its activists across the country. Inamdar and his understudy, Modi, went underground. They lived the next few months in disguise. Inamdar abandoned his dhoti-kurta for kurta-pyjama. Modi, the showman-in-the-making, used two disguises, of a Sikh gentleman and a sanyasi, to stay a step ahead of the police. Like other RSS activists, they stayed in the homes of RSS sympathisers, thus making it difficult for the police to track them.

Modi's activism to sustain RSS during the Emergency gave his life a fresh impetus. After that, it was a swift rise up the RSS ranks. He was relocated to Baroda where he was promoted as vibhag pracharak, in charge of Baroda district and, by 1979, a sambhag pracharak in charge of Nadiad, Dang and Panchmahal districts. In keeping with his mentor's wishes, he completed his MA in political science from Gujarat University in 1982.

In the early 1980s, Inamdar, now a senior RSS official posted in Pune, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He carried on with Sangh activities till his very end. "At the last public meeting he addressed in Rajkot shortly before his death, he apologised to the audience as he broke protocol to sip a glass of water," says Kirtibhai Pancholi, a former associate.



Modi on autopilot

Inamdar's death left a void in Modi's life. How deep, he revealed to Marino. He was the only person Modi ever confided in. "Whenever I was facing any problem at that time, I used to talk to him," he said. "Now, he adds, almost mechanically, "I have an autopilot in my thinking process.

But Vakil Saheb did come to his rescue again, albeit indirectly. He was Modi's inspiration for a project to build a residential high school for boys on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Modi had been marginalised by his political rival Shankarsinh Vaghela within the Gujarat BJP. Marino writes that Modi diverted his energies towards supervising the building of Sanskardham which opened in June 1992. The 125-acre complex housed the Laxman Gyanpith Secondary School. It was the first of many projects that Modi would, as chief minister, make a hallmark of the bitterly-debated 'Gujarat Model'.

Kishore Makwana says Inamdar's contribution is far greater. "Modi has inherited Vakil Saheb's organisational skills, his rapport with people, the ability to remember thousands of names and fine details," he says.

Among Modi's most precious possessions today are his mentor's diaries. Inamdar recorded his daily experiences over the decades. Modi revealed last year that he too has maintained a daily diary since the mid-1980s. If Modi does succeed in his push for power, the Lakshmanrao Inamdar diaries could well be among the items he will bring to 7 RCR. His master's voice from the great beyond.

Follow the writer on Twitter @SandeepUnnithan

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