NEW DELHI: After two key Indian state assembly elections in which prime minister Narendra Modi was the star pitchman for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, his critics are converging on a line of attack: that he does too much campaigning and not enough governing.
Modi was hard to miss as he canvassed in his home state of Gujarat, as well as the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, holding huge back-to-back roadshows.
In Gujarat, which voted on Dec 1 and 5, he offered floral tributes at statues of local leaders, while thousands of BJP supporters chanted “Modi, Modi” as his motorcade made a 50km trek.
Over several days, Modi staged three such roadshows and addressed over 30 rallies, urging voters to help incumbent Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel “break the records of Narendra” in the state he himself led for nearly 13 years. Never mind that Patel was conspicuously absent from all the events.
Modi’s electioneering in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh was similarly enthusiastic. He urged citizens to keep the BJP in power in a signed letter delivered to the state’s 1.5 million households.
Referring to Himachal as “my second home,” the prime minister personally inaugurated a slew of infrastructure projects to impress residents in the run-up to the vote.
Modi’s frenzied campaigning paid off in Gujarat, where the BJP’s victory did indeed break records. It was a flop in Himachal Pradesh, where the BJP lost its grip on the state to the Indian National Congress party.
Memes spread on social media slamming Modi for his obsession with electioneering and mocking the BJP’s heavy promotion of a “stage-managed election stunt” when the prime minister’s procession stopped for an ambulance.
Video of the moment posted on the BJP’s Twitter account even included footage taken inside his election vehicle.
Many have pointed out that Modi seems to be perpetually in “election mode” despite being in power for eight years and facing no serious threat at the national level from a splintered opposition. This looks likely to continue, with a full slate of polls due next year.
“While the criticism against Modi [might not] immediately dent his popularity given his huge pan-India support base, it should certainly make him pause to do some course correction on his governance style,” observed Jagdish Singh, a former associate professor of political science at Delhi University.
“In a democracy, criticism is always a pointer to public disenchantment, which can escalate in no time and should be paid heed to by all visionary leaders.”
The new Congress party president, Mallikarjun Kharge, has been hammering a similar argument about Modi’s love for the limelight as he tries to chip away at the prime minister’s seemingly impenetrable armour.
In November, Kharge pointed out that Modi was “going around the country” to launch a series of express trains as if he was doling out personal favours. Kharge noted that as a railway minister, he had overseen similar projects but did not trumpet them as his own achievements.
The Congress leader also accused Modi of “diverting people’s attention” from important issues.
“Every day inflation rises, [the] rupee is falling and unemployment is increasing,” he said, calling on the prime minister to address such problems.
Well-known columnist Tavleen Singh has also taken aim at Modi’s frequent campaigning in regional races.
“Has the prime minister developed a nostalgic desire to become a regional leader again?” she wrote in a recent column. “There seems no other possible reason why he spends so much time during election season campaigning so zealously in provincial, and even municipal, elections.”
Singh brought up the large rallies Modi held last year ahead of elections in the state of West Bengal, even as the country was facing a devastating wave of the delta Covid-19 variant.
“He was too busy campaigning in West Bengal to notice. It was only when bodies started floating down the Ganga and long queues formed outside crematoriums, that he paid personal attention to grave mistakes made by his vaccination task force,” she alleged.
At the time, tags like #ResignModi and #SuperSpreaderModi trended on Twitter, but the criticism did not appear to have sunk in.
The BJP is quick to argue that “Brand Modi” is its unique selling point, and that it only makes sense to leverage it to win elections.
“People love Modi. His oratorial skills are unmatched by any other politician. He’s a great administrator and has great vision. So, if he helms all our campaigns, why does the opposition have a problem with that?” a BJP spokesman from Gujarat told Nikkei Asia, pointing to the resounding victory in Gujarat, where the party won a seventh straight term.
Whether the criticism will have any broader, long-lasting effect remains to be seen, as India’s parties gear up for nine more state elections in 2023 ahead of the next national polls in 2024.
Some are framing the argument in the context of excessive spending.
Mahua Moitra, a member of parliament from the Trinamool Congress party, took a swipe at the BJP’s “massive expenditure” on election ads during assembly races in five states earlier this year, including full-page newspaper spreads and online promotions.
Indian media outlet Newslaundry, which analysed BJP ad expenditure in a 2020 report, concluded that the party’s outlays have skyrocketed in the last decade and a half.
“Is such profligacy justified?” the report asked.
Since then, not much appears to have changed. The same outlet found that for this month’s Gujarat election, the BJP took out 120 newspaper ads over a period of about two weeks, versus just six for Congress.
