The run-up to the general election this year is a propitious moment to interrogate the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition’s self-presentation of its rule to the electorate, in whose name it governs.
As the ruling coalition seeks a third consecutive mandate at the Centre, one can trace a tangible shift in the coalition’s campaign pitch to voters. At the surface, one finds a perceptible repositioning in the campaign’s mainline narrative: economic progress and ‘softer’ cultural rejuvenation have morphed into welfare guarantees and blunter Hindu majoritarianism. At a deeper level, the defining characteristic of the sought mandate has turned away from promises of socio-economic transformation and moved closer towards a referendum on a hegemonic political order.
The latter shift can be gauged from the disproportionate political capital expended towards demonstrating the ineptitude or venality of the opposition parties. The government appears on less sure ground on its billboard ‘Modi ki guarantee’ theme: a motley of stated government achievements (identified in a personalistic manner with the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi) across social, economic and cultural fronts.
