Raghu Rai Brings Images of Contrast Between PM Modi and Manmohan Singh

“Though it was the month of January, the weather outside was pleasant but during those four hours I spent inside, there was a strange kind of stuffiness in the arenas… A strange kind of sycophancy and personality cult is entrenched in both the parties; as if the other members are lesser beings who seem entirely accepting of their lowly status,” he writes.

On January 17, Rai spent four hours at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) session held at Talkatora stadium in the capital and photographed the mood with a special focus on the then Prime Minister Singh. The photographs used in the book were taken between 9.30 AM and 1.30 PM on that day. Next day when Rai went through the pictures on his computer, he says he was “pained by what I saw”.

“Earlier on I have photographed and experienced in various political sessions of leading parties, relationships, manipulations, sycophancy and power play. But the prime minister of the day used to be the focus of attention and interest and everyone in the party looked up to him for an interaction or even a smile,” he writes.

“In Singh’s case, he walks in behind Sonia Gandhi at 10.30 AM, and sits a few feet away looking lonely and isolated. There is only a tinge of a reluctant smile on his face when he stands between Sonia and Rahul Gandhi sharing a big garland meant for the trio,” Rai writes.

He says that every moment he photographed Singh, there was the “same fixed expression of gloom on his face, as if he was living a nightmare”.

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