Why the pundits keep getting it wrong on Narendra Modi

When prejudice masquerades as punditry, you are going to misread the public mood. This is why the pundits have gone repeatedly wrong on Modi, The near-coronation of Narendra Modi as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate well ahead of the general elections shows up the poor quality of Indian political punditry. As an intelligent politician, Modi has the advantage of knowing that his hardline image helps with traditional BJP voters; but the same hardline image could allow him to make grand overtures to minorities and still not be seen as appeasing them. Pradeep Chhibber and Rahul Verma of the University of California and Berkeley suggest in The Indian Express the our elections have become unpredictable not because the voter does not know her mind, but because the pundits and political parties choose not to see what may be happening on the ground – especially on caste and communal identities. As a result, Indian politics still relies on the politics of stitching together coalitions based on caste, religion and region without any evidential basis of the value of such arithmetic.” 2014 may surprise us all on what the voters really think of Modi and his brand of politics.