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Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

BJP’s good times are perhaps ending. But Modi is no Indira Gandhi

Narendra Modi's popularity has carried the BJP through three general elections. But when one leader claims every success, he also risks being blamed for every failure.

Sometimes your biggest advantage can also be your biggest disadvantage. Something like that is happening to this government.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the reason the government exists. Poll after poll has told us that Modi is more popular than the government he heads. The BJP has won three general elections in a row because of his charisma. The cabinet rules in his name: you could sack every single minister tomorrow and replace them with new ones and nobody (except for the sacked ministers, perhaps) would care.

And the Prime Minister’s rhetoric reflects the personalised nature of his leadership. Like many strongmen, he often refers to himself in the third person. And his terminology acknowledges his position as the Supreme Leader: it’s always ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’ rather than an assurance given by the government as a whole.

The rhetoric of his colleagues takes the same line. No speech or announcement is complete without ritual genuflection to him. Everything always happens under ‘the leadership of our beloved Prime Minister.’ Even on the rare occasions when ministers deserve credit or congratulations, they always refuse to accept them, attributing all achievements to the Prime Minister’s leadership and vision.

Modi’s critics laugh at all this adulation and worship, but what they cannot deny is that his popularity wins votes. In the general elections where Narendra Modi has led the BJP, the party’s vote share has ranged (broadly) from 31 per cent to 36 per cent. At 36 per cent (at the last general election), the BJP under Modi is a full ten percentage points ahead of where it was in 2004, the last election in which Atal Bihari Vajpayee led the party.

Opponents of the BJP like to draw parallels with Kim Il Sung and North Korea. But there are enough contemporary comparisons to be found. Even today, with everything going wrong in America, The Economist’s tracker shows that 36 per cent of US voters approve of Donald Trump. President Trump, like........

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