Recently, there was a social media chat with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee’s election strategist, Prashant Kishore. In that discussion, Kishore was candid about Prime Minister Modi’s popularity, much to the dismay of his audience, which included a fair number of Modi-baiter journalists.
At one point his listeners expressed incredulity at Modi’s continued popularity, which in his sixth year in office should be on the decline, but instead saw an ascent in poll-bound West Bengal; a state which has never had a BJP government.
Modi is a phenomenon -- he is the most popular prime minister in decades, and despite the tumultuous conditions of the present day, seems to pass by the times unscathed. The fact that there is no credible opposition to him at the national level is a given; after a second win with a greater margin of seats in parliament, it is not even a topic of discussion anymore.
It is astounding that in his seventh year in office, PM Modi continues to leverage his popularity in states where the BJP has not even been a player, leaving many analysts puzzled. As was evident that day during Kishore’s media interaction.
In many ways, Modi is a man of destiny -- India’s first prime minister to be born post-Independence, he has redefined Indian politics in a way that no other political leader has. Assumptions like dynastic privilege in Indian electoral politics have been challenged by him with notable success. A defining win in recent memory is Smriti Irani’s win over Rahul Gandhi in the Gandhi family bastion of Amethi in the 2019 elections.
This defeat of the scion of India’s Congress Party sent a message to the public as well as the political class that no one was insurmountable. It increased the murmurings in the Congress against the dynastic control in the party, which operates as a family concern. But Modi was not done. With the Congress increasingly marginalized by their own inertia and inability to formulate an ideology whilst being torn between a group that wants to hold on to the Gandhis and another that wants a more democratic style of functioning, he set his sights on states that had never had a BJP government, achieving success in the Communist state of Tripura and unseating the longest sitting CM in the country and its assertive presence in West Bengal.
Prime Minister Modi, a member of a backward caste himself, has through his dizzying ascent from a poor man’s son to the most powerful prime minister in decades, set standards of aspiration for millions of young Indians. He has become emblematic of all that is possible, in an India approaching its 75th year of Independence.
When critics accuse him of supporting big business, or mock his clothes, or refer to him as a “chaiwallah” to the common man, they reveal their elitism and deep suspicion of social mobility. Modi’s disappointments in office do little to dampen his appeal and his clean image with no heirs and family waiting in the wings, give him an aura of selflessness, which mitigate any mistakes of his government.
Even in a state like West Bengal which has a powerful chief minister, the prime minister (by the CMs own political adviser’s admission) is just as popular.
In a political landscape that is carved up into caste blocks, Modi has created a coalition of the poor, by introducing schemes that help them gain financial independence and dignity. His Ayushman Bharat is the largest health care scheme in the world. More than 500 million of India’s poorest have access to cashless health care through this program.
In the present day, as the Covid crisis rages, political opponents of the prime minister see this as an opportunity to bring him down. However, yet again, they misjudge the reality of India, inadequate and inaccessible medical infrastructure may be staring the middle class and the upper-middle class in the face today as Covid devastates, but for most of India, health care is prohibitive, getting beds in hospitals or access to specialists is an intimidating and challenging process.
It is those people whose lives have been improved by the PM’s scheme, it is from them that the gaps in the health care system have never been concealed. Will they do a volte-face on a prime minister who is trying to guide the world’s second-largest population through this crisis? It is yet again unlikely.
Advaita Kala is an Indian author, screenwriter, and columnist.
