Narendra Modi wave or an undercurrent of change?

Predicting a poll outcome has never been easy, and more so when 90 crore people from far-flung places as diverse as Arunachal Pradesh and Lakshadweep exercise their franchise to elect a national government to lord over their destinies for five years. The government has officially denied the data, claiming this was “not verified.” But unemployment, acute agrarian distress, price rise and the economic slowdown have virtually shattered BJP’s 2014 slogan of “Achhe Din” and “Vikas.” In an article entitled ‘In the world’s biggest election, India’s Narendra Modi pushes fear over hope,’ the Washington Post sums up the Indian voters’ dilemma: “Five years later, those lofty expectations have not been met. But a section of saffron watchers feel that the Prime Minister’s resorting to low rhetoric by launching personal attacks on Congress president Rahul Gandhi could be a “sign of desperation”. By all accounts, while Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s labelling of Modi as a “chaiwalla” was a game changer for the BJP in 2014, PM Modi’s attack on Rahul by shaming his father and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi with a “Your father was termed ‘Mr Clean’ by his courtiers, but his life ended as ‘Bhrashtachari No. Time magazine cover story which describes the Prime Minister as ‘India’s Divider in Chief’ does touch on the lack of a strong opposition to the BJP poster boy: “Modi is lucky to be blessed with so weak an opposition — a ragtag coalition of parties, led by the Congress, with no agenda other than to defeat him.” But, given the complete absence of a discernible pro-Modi wave that buoyed the then Gujarat chief minister to Delhi in 2014, whether the lack of a strong opposition will power the prime minister back to Lok Kalyan Marg, with the numbers needed to form a government, is the question.