The Brand Modi

A  NaMo store is opening in an upmarket mall in Ahmedabad to sell NaMoMantra apparel, books and other merchandise. A boutique in Ahmedabad has registered a trademark for those half-sleeve kurtas Modi favours. It’s now eyeing an international trademark for the brand.

At least 30,000 made-in-Surat long sleeved kurtas with the words NaMo Mantra embroidered on them are on their way to Patna’s Gandhi Maidan for Modi’s October 27 Hunkar (lion’s roar) rally.

 It's not just BJP that is trying to cash in on the frenzy around Brand Modi. Smartphones to saris and kurtas to sweets, just about everybody is riding the wave in this political season.

The store  will be eventually rolled out in 18 other cities on franchise model. To begin with, it will have Modi apparels under the brand name NamoMantra, followed by books and other merchandise. A separate brand, Modi Lion, will sell toys to attract kids.

The group has hired half a dozen graduates from the Ahmedabad-based National Institute of Design to design the store. One of the promoters, who hails from a family that is extremely close to Modi, said: "The profits will go to Beti Bachao and similar programmes initiated by Modi for the girl child."

Not just election rallies, chants of the ‘NaMo NaMo’ mantra will now also be heard at rock concerts. A group of city youths, most of them ABVP members, has decided to organise gigs to promote Brand Modi across India over the next two months. 

The music events will be part of a campaign called Modi-fying India, which would also include merchandise such as comic books, video games and T-shirts.

Apart from songs, the campaign is also working on a video game that will show Modi as a hero fighting the demons of corruption and vote-bank politics.

The campaign has also developed stickers for cars and bikes, T-shirts and coffee mugs bearing Modi's face. A popular T-shirt is one with a favourite NaMo quote: "India first is my definition of secularism".

First, there were the Modi masks. That was back in 2007, when Modi’s national ambitions, if any, were still well hidden.Six years on, the ambitions are out in the open, and the nascent emphasis on merchandising has grown into a full-fledged industry, supported by a well-oiled publicity machine.

BJP hired a Ludhiana based knitwear group to manufacture and design apparels and Delhi based corporate gift selling group to make wristwatches and clocks with modi's images printed on them.  Comic book writer has been approached to do a book on Modi so a biographical comic book on Modi is going to be released in the coming months.