Opinion | In PM Modi We Trust: Four Reflections on What Makes Modi Click

Over the last five years, fate threw everything it had to test Modi. A scourge of biblical proportions called Covid-19, two wars – one in Ukraine and another in Israel – and a potentially destabilising axis of malevolence forged between politicians and farmer unions. Most leaders would have bucked under the combined weight of such a set of variegated challenges. Many appear to have, in the UK and US, for instance. But Modi, battered and bruised, has pulled through. Which is why it would be a little unfair to solely rely on time-worn phrases like “Hindutva polarisation” and “personality cult” to explain the historic outcome we are living through.

Modi as an idea

What does it mean to vote for Modi? The Opposition will tell you that support for Modi is a vote for the decanting of democracy. A veritable plunge into a fascist maelstrom of swirling animosities, cruelties, and oppressions. Indians have, of course, been there once before. In 1975, when Indira Gandhi plunged India into an autarky. But the people almost immediately exacted a punishing revenge. Indira Gandhi was banished. Why then would the masses elect to imprison themselves all over again, only this time, in Modi’s alleged gulag of tyranny?

The Opposition suggests that the people have no choice in the matter, hypnotised as they are by Modi’s Hindutva. The Opposition has gone on to insinuate that the election has been stolen. Surely, the Opposition can spot the contradiction. The BJP can only steal what they don’t have, which only proves that the voters weren’t under the influence of any dark lord.

If the Opposition was being truly honest, it would admit that it didn’t make an impression because its message essentially boiled down to promising the masses a “wealth transfer at pitchfork point.” Who wants a handout?

In sharp contrast, Modi presented a compelling idea. He went to the people advocating the need to pivot away from the outlook of whom he described as “wittering deracinated Nehruvian modernists”. Through his “panch prans”, Modi announced himself to the voters as a crusader for the reclamation of “Bharat”. A land liberated from the congeries of Westernised narratives that dismissed any “legitimate appreciation of the grandeur of Hindu civilisation as anti-secular.” Yet, Modi isn’t a Hindu revisionist. Modi called upon the citizens “to redefine our heritage in a modern way while embracing ancient values in a modern context.”

The Guarantor Of Providence

As for his economic vision, Modi has embraced wealth creation. The NDA has provided incentives to enable rapid growth. The returns are ploughed back to evolve an empowering welfare net. Over the last ten years, Modi has used a democratised digital public infrastructure to distribute without favour, cash, food, cooking gas, insurance, and MSP to the needy. The digital “X-ray” has allowed “Modi-care” to gift low-income communities houses and toilets connected to water and electricity sources. 25 crore Indians have been lifted out of indigence. That Modi’s efforts have found wide acceptance is borne out by the breadth of his victory.

Messiah Of the Audacious

It takes audacity to shrug off adversity in India. Audacity is kindled by self-belief. Self-belief is linked to a sense of accomplishment There is no satisfaction in living on a hand-out. Modi’s empowering welfarism has brought new converts to the BJP’s door.

The Ruler of All Realms

Notwithstanding the emergence of cracks in the BJP’s rainbow social coalition, especially in UP and Maharashtra, the BJP has attracted new voters in 32 new seats spread across 11 states and UTs. In some of these regions, the BJP was never a viable option for voters before 2024. ‘Brand Modi’ has found acceptance beyond the BJP’s traditional catchment area – the Hindi heartland. Modi’s acceptability now transcends the length and breadth of India. Without exaggeration, the fact is that more Tamils, Malayalis, Telegus and Odias have voted for the BJP and its Southern allies than ever before. A total of 39,465,778 voters voted for the BJP in the south. This far exceeds the total number of voters who picked the Congress in the south despite the BJP contesting fewer seats in this geography.

Clearly, even on the back of a diminished mandate, Modi’s family has grown, which only underlines his acceptability.

Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.