From selfie booths, pop-up stalls, congratulatory posts for athletes, and vaccination certificates to the usual government billboards, trains, posters and broadcast advertisements, PM Modi's face seems to have become BJP's only badge of identity. The 2014 general elections in India marked the beginning of a new media that has since then, catapulted Modi/NaMo through innumerable slogans, ad campaigns, use of high-tech populism, and electoral campaigns. The unattainable but exhilarating promise of good times was not only translated into catchy campaign slogans but also acquired its own fast-circulating hashtags, domain names, and strong everyday presence on social media. Now Modi is everywhere, omnipresent, omniscient.
From ‘Har Har Modi’, ‘Har Ghar Modi’, ‘Modi hai toh mumkin hai’, ‘abki bar Modi sarkar’, to ‘Howdy Modi’, ‘NaMo’ to ‘SelfieWithModi’ and so on, today the idea of Modi is an amalgamation of hundreds of these slogans and images that has drenched the country ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Outlook’s next issue looks at what makes Modi tick, how he is one of the few world leaders who has gained in popularity even after ten years at the top, and the mega machinery behind keeping his image in every nook and corner of the country.
