What the Modi wave actually stands for
The much-hyped Delhi Municipal Corporations (MCD) elections are over, and the BJP, as expected, has registered yet another thumping victory, retaining over two-thirds of the seats in the civic body it had been controlling - and as many would argue, made a mess of with massive accusations of corruption, lethargy and nepotism - for a decade. As a columnist-politician put it, the party swept the elections despite never sweeping the Delhi streets.
That bucking of what should otherwise have been an overwhelming anti-incumbency was made possible by the Modi wave - a nearly four-year-old phenomenon that began with Narendra Modi staking his claim to be India's prime minister in 2013, and storming to power at the Centre a year later with the highest-ever seats won by the BJP.
In most elections since, barring a few exceptions including Delhi, the Modi wave saw the BJP rise and rise, with the party-led National Democratic Alliance now controlling 16 of India's 29 states, and ruling over nearly two-thirds of the country's population.
In nearly three years that Modi has been in power, there has not been any spectacular turnaround of the India story, as was promised through a high-decibel media campaign in the run-up to the 2014 general election. Even as one ignores the outrageous promises that turned out to be mere "jumlas" (Rs 15 lakh in every account, recovery of black money in foreign banks, a home for every Indian by 2022 etc), there has been little to ensure India stays the course.
On the contrary, one of the major, and expected, developments of Modi coming to power has been a massive cut in social spending. One of the headlines today is the Rs 1 increase in MGNREGA wages in most states - a clear message to India's most wretched that being poor in a New India is akin to crime.
The economy, already in poor shape, was dealt a death blow in November last year with the announcement of demonetisation: the decision to withdraw 86 per cent of India's high-value currency from circulation. In one apparently unilateral stroke, the fledgling economy was brought to a screeching halt. The informal sector of the economy - that involves the most poor workers, artisans, farmers and traders - has not yet recovered.
While serpentine bank queues and massive cash crunch remained the headlines through the end of the last year, a pliant media did not bother to probe the long-term implications of demonetisation, which, as most "anti-national" economists including a Nobel laureate, declared, are disastrous.
(A side note. Imagine for a moment if Manmohan Singh had decided to ban Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, with the same intentions that his successor Modi had announced: checking terror funding, swooping on black money, and making India cashless. It's not hard to imagine it would have been a political suicide for Singh and the Congress.)
Even other claims of a secure and strong India are out of the window. Insurgency is at an all-time high, with the Sukma massacre of 25 CRPF jawans by Naxal militants being the latest blow to India's security apparatus. Kashmir, where the BJP is an ally in the government, is on the boil. Cross-border terrorism remains unchecked. Even India's foreign diplomacy has seen new lows, with old and trusted allies like Nepal mollycoddle to China.
One could go on, but the point is this: Narendra Modi as India's prime minister, by even a generous assessment, is just about average.
So, what then is the Modi wave?
Let's make no mistake here. The Modi wave is a stand-in for Hindu Rashtra. There is a reason why the BJP has made all the elections, including those for civic bodies like Delhi, about Modi. A vote for Modi can, ironically, even be a vote despite the BJP, as we saw in the MCD elections. Modi is now beyond and above the BJP; an image for the Sangh Parivar's project to realise a theocratic India.
For 15 years now, Modi has been the mascot of a Hindu Rashtra. Riding on the "success" of a state-sponsored pogrom of Gujarat Muslims as the state's chief minister in 2002, Modi was a natural choice to be the Sangh's poster boy to nationalise that "Gujarat model". The image of an unapologetic Hindu nationalist was carefully sustained through the mythology created around him. As the BJP gains foothold over more parts of India, that image gains more power and currency.
It is the Modi wave that has created an unprecedented atmosphere of fear and insecurity among India's Muslims, which outnumber Pakistan's population. A "maestro of the art of political seduction" as Pankaj Mishra wrote in Time magazine, the "charisma" associated with Modi by a generous media is actually the lure of a messiah guiding his flock to a Hindu India.
It is the Modi wave that emboldens the gau rakshaks to pursue their blood thirst with impunity. It is this wave that has resulted in the lynching of at least six Muslims since 2014, Pehlu Khan being the latest victim. It is the sleight of hand that allows the Delhi Police to arrest the three Muslims attacked by self-appointed cow vigilantes, and not the perpetrators.
It is the Modi wave that prompts Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje to tweet about the Stockholm terror attack, and not Alwar. It is the Modi wave that permits Alwar MLA Gyan Dev Ahuja to say he has no regret over Khan's murder. To quote Aatish Taseer on Alwar: "A lynching is a majority's way of telling a minority population that the law cannot protect it."
Modi heads that majority. It is the Modi wave that guides the pervasive hatred and xenophobia on social media. Himself a social media star with millions of followers on Twitter and Facebook (some dubious ones followed too), Modi's "charisma" helps a group of young men deny an old Muslim man a seat in the Delhi Metro.
The wave perpetuates the pulling of a man - wearing skull cap and a beard - inside a car by purported Vishwa Hindu Parishad men and forced to chant "Jai Shri Ram".
It is this wave that, helped by a press in perpetual awe, normalises a former "fringe" element like Yogi Adityanath. The old narrative that he once exhorted his followers "to kill 10 Muslims for every Hindu" has now been replaced by mushy stories on India's next emerging statesman.
How does such a wave go unchallenged?
In an election, there are waves. And then there are shockwaves.
What has been the most unfortunate development, especially in the last four years, is the emergence of a myopic, uncritical and reactionary media, mainly television, which, perhaps even willingly, refuses to see the signs or the grand design.
It has come to a point where a Union minister gloats to a TV reporter how "people like him who want a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya" have now come into the media, which was "earlier dominated by Leftists and liberals". It explains how a certain noisy news channel, which once prided itself for incessantly questioning the powers that be, today targets Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid for the Sukma massacre.
Let's look at the popular assessment of the MCD election results. The Modi wave credited for the BJP's big win was once again legitimised through expert analysis of how Delhi voted. TV anchors after anchors kept on exhorting the Aam Aadmi Party to read the writing on the "Kejri-wall". Or force the Congress to acknowledge it is now irrelevant.
If only those TV anchors and experts had cared to acknowledge the cow in the room.
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