After years of decline, India was demoted in 2021 into the ranks of “partly free” democracies by Freedom House, which cited the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s increasingly harsh handling of both its critics and the country’s Muslim minority.
Now, the perception that India leads a global “retreat” of democracy is likely to deepen as the BJP bulldozes its way to victory in this month’s elections in four of five contested states, including India’s most populous, Uttar Pradesh.
Indeed, the BJP victory in Uttar Pradesh does demonstrate the appeal of its Hindu nationalist and majoritarian ideology, charismatically sold for almost a decade by its leader, Narendra Modi, and backed by an unrivalled political machine. But no single storyline can explain a country as diverse as India and the BJP’s success reflects the continuing appeal of the resumes of its top leaders as much as their strong-arm tactics. They are first generation politicians who rose from relatively humble origins and are seen as incorruptible figures, working relentlessly to advance their cause.
Contrast that to the fifth-generation scions of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty who lead the rival Congress party, with their palace intrigues, philosophical musings, pet liberal causes and overseas getaways. The mismatch — entrepreneurial drive versus elite entitlement — is more and more glaring.
The BJP has long had an army of support from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a civic organisation devoted to the idea of India as a Hindu nation. A decade ago the party was an also-ran in the Uttar Pradesh state elections. It rose to power only after Modi and his lieutenant, Amit Shah, took the reins. By 2017, Modi’s control was so complete that he was able to turn the next Uttar Pradesh state election into a referendum on his own performance.
The BJP took control of the largest state and put a conservative Hindu monk, Yogi Adityanath, in the chief minister’s office. The same steamroller is now returning Adityanath to power, following another state contest led by Modi. His playbook: overwhelm opponents with more funding, more feet on the ground, more advertising, more press coverage and no sleep.
When in India, those close to him say, Modi rarely spends a night outside his home in Delhi, so he can stick to a strict diet and schedule of yoga exercises that help stretch his working day to 18 hours. Like Modi, Adityanath is an ascetic who lives alone — proof to many voters of a party leadership largely immune to dynastic corruption.
At a recent rally I attended in Sonbhadra, once hailed as the “Switzerland of India” for its natural beauty but now a backwater of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Modi pitched himself as a hard-working saviour fixing India’s problems with countless welfare programmes. Of late, he has blown the BJP dog-whistle on Muslim issues more sparingly and, here, he left it entirely to his underlings. One reason: India’s tense relations with neighbours such as China have him working to expand commercial ties with the Saudis and other Muslim nations in the Middle East.
Comfortable now in his power at home, Modi’s ambition is widening. He and his aides see Congress’s original sin as infatuation with, and subservience to, western ideas and want to assert India’s rightful role as a Hindu “beacon to the world”. Hard work in the national interest strikes a chord with voters. The BJP has successfully mocked the overseas wanderings of rivals including Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party as a sign of elite indifference.
As Congress continued to fade, the regional Samajwadi Party put up the biggest fight in Uttar Pradesh. Its second-generation leader, Akhilesh Yadav, drew huge crowds but started his campaign in earnest relatively late, which may have hurt his party at the finish. His Samajwadi took a record high 36 per cent of the Uttar Pradesh vote, but still fell short of the BJP’s 45 per cent.
Rivals who have beaten the BJP of late did so by matching its hunger. A passionate former anti-corruption activist who is now the leader of the Aam Aadmi (which translates as “common man”) party, Arvind Kejriwal, led his movement to a landslide victory in the state of Punjab last week.
In West Bengal last May, longstanding chief minister Mamata Banerjee returned to power, another first-generation politician of humble origins tirelessly and perhaps excessively devoted to her cause — given widespread criticism of her autocratic tendencies.
This repeated embrace of autocratic candidates with democratic roots suggests that the well-worn story of democracy’s retreat in India is more complicated than it appears from afar.
The writer is chair of Rockefeller International
Modi’s wins show how the power of his personal story endures
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