JOIN US2023 and the mystique of Narendra Modi
The year 2022 ended on a note of personal loss for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who performed the last rites of his mother on December 31. BJP chief ministers, Union ministers, party leaders and sections of the media extolled the PM as a true karmayogi who "returned to the service of the people just two hours" after cremating his mother.
In 2022, the BJP credited its electoral wins, particularly in UP in March, and in Gujarat in December, to the PM's talismanic leadership, adding to his mystique. The year 2023 could be more challenging, given the tough elections in Tripura and Karnataka in the first half of the year. However, the BJP is sure to head into these elections showcasing Modi's leadership rather than that of its respective chief ministers.
But even in the absence of electoral wins, India will host international events that are likely to be vehicles to burnish the PM's credentials as one of the tallest world leaders. India is the current president of the G20 and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) groupings, and will host the two summits by September. The PM playing the host to the most powerful leaders in the world would be used to increase his stature in the public perception in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The inauguration of the new Parliament building before the Budget session will be another event to highlight the PM's leadership.
The 2024 elections are already being presented as a done deal. As Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said on the last day of the year, whoever might lead the opposition, Modi will be the PM in 2024. But with the Centre doing away with the post-Covid PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, subsuming it in the National Food Security Act, but effectively halving the subsidy amid food inflation that remains a concern, the Union Budget would be keenly watched for its welfarism. It would be the last full budget of the current government before the General Elections.
In 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi benchmarked the year 2022 - the 75th year of India's independence - that will scale peaks once thought unattainable. He had promised the 'new India' by 2022 would become a $5 trillion economy, housing for all, tap water for all homes and doubling farmers' income. The failure to achieve these has now been attributed to two Covid years. But there are new benchmarks for 2023.
For example, on new year's day, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the PM's vision for 2023 is to have mobile phone exports with the segment featuring in the top 10 export category from India. The government announced on Sunday that it has lined up a series of millet-centric promotional activities across the country as the International Year of Millets (IYM) kicks in and the PM's vision is to make IYM 2023 a "people's movement" alongside positioning India as the "global hub of millets."
Union Home Minister Amit Shah credited the PM for redeveloping Kashi, Kedarnath, Badrinath, and Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. The PM's visits to some of these shrines, including Assam's Kamakhya temple, which is also undergoing redevelopment, and Ayodhya where the temple could be inaugurated before 2024 polls, are likely in the coming months. But as the BJP's Himachal loss showed, if upset about their livelihood issues and presented with a credible alternative, no charisma can prevent people from booting out a government.