Infraboost, Hindu Politics and Charisma: The Enduring Popularity of India’s Modi

“Over there is the pond where he fought a crocodile, the school he went to has been renovated and there at the station is his tea stall.”

Vikram Shambhu, tea seller in Vadnagar, lists the sights there. All places are reminiscent of the mythical childhood of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was born here in 1950.

As a child, the prime minister is said to have helped his father as a tea seller, a humble origin that Modi gratefully uses in his election campaigns. The family story stands in stark contrast to the elite Gandhi political dynasty to which his main rival, Rahul Gandhi, belongs.

“The fact that a tea seller can become prime minister in our country is something to be proud of,” says Shambhu.

Modi hopes that his party BJP will win the parliamentary elections again this week, so that he can start a third term. Tomorrow will be the seventh and final vote in the six-week elections. The results are expected on June 4.

The BJP has a good chance under Modi. The prime minister is consistently the most highly rated head of government in the world, according to a ranking by research firm The Morning Consult. Of all adults surveyed in India, 78 percent support him. By comparison: in the US, 37 percent of adults support President Biden, in Canada 29 percent appreciate Prime Minister Trudeau.

In Vadnagar, a town with less than 40,000 inhabitants, they know what makes Modi still so popular after ten years in power. Residents point to visible developments. “The train station has been renovated, the bus station too, there is industry,” says Suresh Bhai, who is waiting for the train with his wife.

“Modi built roads,” said Sharda Bane, who lives in Modi’s hometown. She also speaks highly of social services for the poor, such as free food during the pandemic and subsidized gas bottles in rural areas. Chanabhai Jagjeevandas Patel, a shopkeeper, cites India’s increasingly prominent place on the world stage. “No world power can intimidate him. No one dares to contradict him.”

Such visible developments are one of the three main factors that make Modi popular, says analyst Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, who wrote a biography of the prime minister. “Modi is also a charismatic personality and a great public speaker. The third factor is his greatest ideal: Hindu nationalist politics. With this he serves the underbelly of the Hindu majority.”

The opposition accuses Modi and the BJP of promoting a climate of hatred against minorities. According to critics, democracy is also under pressure. Mukhopadhyay agrees. “In the past ten years, democracy has deteriorated enormously. Many national institutions have lost their autonomy. For example, the election commission is less neutral than ten years ago.”

Mukhopadhyay considers the response of the Election Commission to a controversial speech by Prime Minister Modi in April to be an indication of this. In it, Modi called Muslims “those who have many children” and “intruders”. According to the opposition and other critics, these were clear examples of hate speech. “However, the Election Commission decided to send a warning only to the party office, not to Modi personally.”

There was little criticism of the speech in India. “These kinds of things don’t get much publicity because the BJP has the biggest publicity machine in the world,” says Mukhopadhyay. “When a lie is repeated a hundred times, it becomes the truth. This is what is happening in India now.”

Modi’s speech was remarkable, he says. It is not unusual for other BJP politicians or Modi’s supporters to speak negatively about Muslims, but as Prime Minister Modi usually steers clear of this. India is home to around 200 million Muslims, who make up around 14 percent of the total population. “What strikes me is that Modi turns to mocking Islam when he feels insecure,” says Mukhopadhyay.

Other analysts also see a panic reaction in Modi’s anti-Islam rhetoric. The prime minister may choose this “to attract Hindu voters”, wrote political columnist Tavleen Singh in the Indian Express newspaper.

For now, the polls indicate that Modi will emerge victorious and can look forward to a third term as prime minister. It should be noted that polls in India are notoriously unreliable, especially as voters are often not honest during exit polls.

Mukhopadhyay expects a further breakdown of democracy if Modi’s victory is significant. “If he wins more seats than in 2019, the government will become more authoritarian and less inclusive.”

But in Vadnagar, hope for prosperity prevails. “Modi comes from a very poor family, but it was…