[ramanan]

This downward trend has long been in the works.

The current government came into power riding on a wave of popularity, largely driven by their "IT cells". Now comfortably in power, they are probably dismantling the path, to avoid others who might try to follow.

The government is not just in a stand-off with big-tech companies. It continues to view its own citizens as adversaries with frequent internet shutdowns [1].

[1] https://internetshutdowns.in/

[jaldhar]

Can we stop with all this IT cell bullshit? Modi got in because he was more competent than the rajputra of the Nehru dynasty. My family are from Gujarat. We’ve known about Modi since he was governor. We moved out of our ancestral village several generations ago but still return on special occasions because our kuladevi is there. The area is semi-desert. Modi got water from the Narmada dam piped in. Now cash crops can be irrigated and the kids don’t die of dysentery any more. We used to have to stop at a larger town and walk a couple of miles down a dirt track to get there. Modi got a road built and regular bus service to the nearest city. That’s why he is popular. That area was staunchly Congress since 1947 and still is but you won’t find anyone with a bad word to say about Narendra Modi. He got things done and that’s what counts. The Hindu nationalism is just icing on the cake. (Remember there was a time when Congress also used to brag about how e.g Sardar Patel rebuilt Somanath.)

Now with the latest missteps such as demonetization and the COVID response etc. the bloom is off the rose a little but he is still genuinely popular and more importantly there isn’t anyone on the national scene “who might be trying to follow.”

[random314]

He also led pogroms, segregated living areas by religion and promoted rioters and terrorists. Gujarats gdp per capita is only slightly above the median.

And IT cell is a reality that has been exposed several times over. Identical copy paste tweets and interviews with ex-it cell employees.

[addicted]

All of this is indeed true.

However, he didn't win elections because of them. His win in 2014 was a reaction to a government lead by the Congress, where the Congress party leaders were intent on defaming and destroying their own Prime Minister.

And the 2019 success was a result of the focus on base infrastructure, economic, diplomatic and defense policy in the first term (the government made genuine and very noticeable improvements in terms of sanitation, electrification and water access across the country).

They also made some epic economic blunders, however, that pain is truly being felt several years later (besides the immediate pain which they were able to explain away by promising long term benefits, but as those benefits don't materialize, they are losing trust), and appear to have given up on economic and social development, and appear to be focused on purely extending their rule through policies of hatred.

It remains to be seen how successful their strategy will be, but the initial results seem to indicate that they are greatly underperforming local elections. And most of these were conducted before the impact of teh devastating 2nd COVID wave, which the government didn't just mishandle, but were probably responsible for, became apparent.

[naruvimama]

Tata Nano factory moving from WB to Gujarat, not exactly a paper tiger.

[colorboy]

Speaking of copy paste, what happened of the toolkit row? Whether the objective was good or bad, should the people actively trying to trend things be called "IT cell for XYZ"? It feels a bit hypocritical

[random314]

They are actually paid to do it. They are employed by the IT cell of BJP. Other parties do the same, but cannot match the scale.

[jaldhar]

I gave you actual examples of improvements I’ve seen with my own two eyes. People can’t drink gdp.

I don’t doubt there could be an IT cell. What I was reacting to was the idea that it is a major reason for Modi’s success. Like “Russian collusion” this is just cope by people who can’t accept that it is they who are the unpopular ones.

People don’t understand that propaganda like hypnotism only works on people who are already primed to believe it. Why does anyone listen to this BJP IT cell? Do you know?

[random314]

Well people can drink their own blood. I actually knew people who were massacred in gulbarga society. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulbarg_Society_massacre Your screed reads like an apologia for Hitler.

I actually know Muslim friends in ahmedabad that cannot buy or rent a house in normal housing societies and have been ghettoized into Muslim enclaves with non existent municipal services.

I am glad that I live in the United states where nobody asks me for my religion or caste before renting or selling a home. United states is never going to be "dharmic", it got rid of its "dharmic" tendencies with the civil rights movement.

Edit: The dharmic comment was in response to another poster talking about United states becoming "dharmic".

[jaldhar]

The village I’m referring to (in Rajkot district) is less than 5% Muslim and those are Ismaili, Vohra etc. Even for them what happens to Sunnis in Ahmedabad might as well be on Mars as far as they care. What the RSS think about Hinduism is also irrelevant. Modi is revered for one reason and one reason only; what he actually did to make those peoples lives better. I mentioned in my original post that his popularity has not translated into popularity for the BJP in the area. That too is for local reasons.

LOL my “screed reads like an apologia for Hitler.” You are getting too emotional. I’m explaining why Modi is popular. Don’t think about it if it upsets you but don’t shoot the messenger in any case.

[IgniteTheSun]

I suggest learning more about what the word dharmic actually means. It seems clear to me that you are using some non-standard interpretation of its meaning.

[csomar]

If that's the case, why would he fear the Internet so much? Your argument doesn't really hold.

[jaldhar]

Because that’s where his political enemies are? Most politicians don’t have very deep reasons for why they act.

The set of people who worry about the state of the internet does not overlap very much with the set of people who worry if they have water and the set of people who worry about Hinduism is separate yet. In a democracy whoever can cobble together enough of these different groups (and many more) to make majority will win. If he cannot he will lose. It’s as simple as that.

[npmn]

Modi government is competent at marketing everything as his contribution, he is highly egoistic, doesn't accept any mistakes, or tries to push the blame to the Nehru Dynasty, Opposition etc. BJP IT Cell is one the most active proponent in pushing the image of Narendra Modi as the savior, whereas in reality, literally any leader who would have listened to experts instead of the election gurus, would have taken more sensible steps. Modi government is full of yes man, and due to his popularity, the BJP party has itself become smaller than Modi, as elections are won in the name of the Prime Minister instead of the actual leader.

The government is also known for buying elected people post elections using money or power(CBI,ED intimidation) and known for manipulative numbers (they even changed the definition of GDP to make the numbers more attractive).

Modi actually follows Trump modulus of operandi, where instead of calling his opposition/critical news reports as fake news, he more conveniently calls them anti-national or pro-pakistani or western influences.

Anyways this stupid notion of no national alternative was also propogated the BJP IT Cell and BJP owned Media Houses only. Sadly a lot of Indians, including the commenter above have actually bought into it. If you actually look at numbers, India was falling behind on almost everything(jobs, economy etc) even before covid started. Factually speaking, the worst term of UPA(2009-2014) was actually better than the modi government's first term in lot of matrices. Here is a one such study, you can find several others by googling - (please be aware of pro-BJP sources such as https://www.opindia.com, Republic TV etc) https://www.livemint.com/politics/policy/manmohan-singh-vs-n...

[jaldhar]

Let us assume that this idea of “no national alternative” is stupid. Who is this person then? Name a name.

[boruto]

I don't think people are going to like this reply mate. :)

[the-mitr]

he is popular because of the propaganda, by that logic hitler was also very popular. You are cherry picking data to suit your needs. Two examples at personal level do not balance the screw ups he has done at the national level. You are speaking as if no development work was done during earlier regimes. All the development started only after 2014. Stats speak another story about the development but then that is not what you want to hear.

Since you are still defending him, you must be blind to all other things seeing them as international conspiracy to defame your great leader.

> there isn’t anyone on the national scene

At this stage anyone, literally anyone, would be better than him

But anyways people

[jaldhar]

Uh Hitler was very popular. (To be precise he was more popular than the other guys.). The problem people have with Hitler isn’t that he was unpopular.

Really the amount of projection in some of these replies is incredible. All I’ve done is explain why one group of people have warm feelings for Modi (and FYI no development work was done in that area by prior Congress or BJP governments.) I’ve even acknowledged that he has made serious missteps. But as in parts of the US, in parts of India ORANGE MAN BAD is the only acceptable response it seems. Just a different shade of orange that’s all ;-)

> At this stage anyone, literally anyone, would be better than him.

If you say so. In the real world there actually has to be a person. That person has to actually have a platform, preferably something more than HES HITLER YOU GUYZ, and has to appeal to a vast an diverse electorate who will be driven primarily by parochial concerns. That’s how democracy works.