IThe time has come to face the facts. Since the debacle in the Karnataka elections, things haven’t really gone well for the Narendra Modi government. Despite its ‘influence’ over the mainstream media, through which it not only communicates but also ensures the suppression of any dissenting views, the government has been unable to prevent a certain influence from capturing the public imagination Is.
The perception is that the Modi government is not all-powerful and invincible after all. It may lose the election. It makes mistakes. It has to change course. It may bow to pressure. And it is at the mercy of unforeseen events just like any other government.
It is a great thing? In general, no. We don’t expect omnipotence from most governments. But yes, it is a big deal for this government. Until recently, most of us believed that the Modi government would sweep through every crisis by holding on to power forever, while its incompetent rivals struggled helplessly.
Over the past month, I think that has started to change. As every single week a new incident or crisis rocks the government, Prime Minister Modi is starting to look a lot more human.
You could argue (as the BJP does now) that the Karnataka result was inevitable because of anti-incumbency. But during the campaign, BJP itself did not see it like this. It really believed it was winning. He felt it would be enough if he asked the people of Karnataka to forget the failures of the Basavaraj Bommai government and vote for the ‘Modi magic’ again as the Prime Minister took the state by storm.
It did not work and now questions are being asked about the supposed electoral machine of the party. Yes, the BJP is in a much better position than the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, but are the assembly elections a bargain? What about Rajasthan? It seems less obvious now than it was a few months ago.
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troubles are piling up
Over the past month, the woes have piled up. The Balasore train accident in Odisha was a national tragedy and should remain above party politics. But because PM Modi has gone to great lengths to associate himself with the Indian Railways’ metamorphosis, a disaster of this magnitude has damaged his legend of super-capability.
Same is the case with the data leak from the CoWIN app. The government’s official position (as far as I can tell) appears to be that this is not an actual data breach and that the data that is being leaked was obtained in a previous breach – an explanation that is hardly convincing.
Leaks matter, not just because people don’t like their personal information being leaked, but because the Modi government has repeatedly told us how the CoWIN platform will not leak anything; That the government is technologically savvy enough that we don’t need to worry about its ability to securely store our data.
And then there is political management which is suddenly not going so well for the BJP. After months of ignoring wrestlers protesting against sexual harassment, watching them get assaulted by the Delhi Police, being abused on social media, and then thrown out of the venue where they were protesting, the Modi government must Hate to do: retreat.
Home Minister Amit Shah met the wrestlers, the framework of a settlement was negotiated, and Sports Minister Anurag Thakur later assured the wrestlers that accused Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh would not be allowed to hold any official position in the Wrestling Federation of India. Will not be given. More action has been promised and I believe it will follow.
More importantly, Manipur may go awry. When politicians from the Northeast rushed to join or ally with the BJP, the government announced that the BJP had now won the Northeast and become the dominant party in the region.
In such a situation, ask the critics of the government why it took a month for Amit Shah to visit Manipur, which is still burning? The state is ruled by the BJP and its failure to contain the violence makes a mockery of the BJP’s claim that it can guarantee smooth and peaceful governance while in power.
And as if this was not enough, now former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey claims that during the farmer’s movement, the Modi government had asked Twitter to silence critical voices. Failure to do so will result in raids on Twitter employees. Dorsey claimed that Twitter was warned of a variety of negative consequences.
The claim is an innocuous appeal to those who believed that Twitter was not giving enough space to anti-government voices and was restricting the dissemination of their tweets. Plus, it’s that old saw: who benefits? Dorsey has sold Twitter. He has nothing to gain by lying about his experiences in India. On the other hand, the government is bound to dismiss these claims.
While each person’s upside may not be much, the fact that they have followed each other in quick succession should be of some concern to PM Modi.
Read also: This is the difference between TV news and newspaper coverage of Jack Dorsey vs Modi government
BJP’s USP
The BJP has two unique selling propositions. First, ‘Vote for Narendra Modi; He is super-competent and a great leader’. This USP has recently come in the form of a cloud.
This saves BJP’s second USP: ‘We will make a Hindu India!’
It is starting to look like the BJP will have no option but to go into the 2024 Lok Sabha elections with that slogan. The ritualistic nature of the Sengol celebrations at the opening of the new parliament building – unprecedented in modern India – suggests that the government has already started down that road. The inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya will be the next great religious spectacle.
Will Hindutva be enough for Modi to maintain his record of a landslide? Looking at the events of the last two months: It would have been better. Because if the government does not control the narrative soon, this is all that can be left.