Lok Sabha Elections 2024 | I'm afraid there is no expiry date for cult of personality style of elections, says Shashi Tharoor

As the election storm subsides and the dust settles down, in an interview with DH, Tharoor recollects how he thought the 'election was safely in the bag' before the tides turned, why the exit polls have a dismal record in Indian elections, and how there is no expiry date for cult of personality style of politics.

Now in his fourth term in the Lok Sabha, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor won 2024 elections from Thiruvananthapuram. In a nail-biting finish, he defeated BJP's Rajeev Chandrasekhar by a margin of 16,077 votes.

As the election storm subsides and the dust settles down, in an interview with DH's Anupama Ramakrishnan, Tharoor recollects how he thought the "election was safely in the bag" before the tides turned, why the exit polls have a dismal record in Indian elections, and how there is no expiry date for cult of personality style of politics.

Dr Tharoor, this is your fourth victory. Did you expect it to be a cliffhanger or a clean drive?

It was certainly a greater cliffhanger than I expected. Having canvassed in every corner of the constituency and seen the tremendous amount of support for me, I thought this election was safely in the bag. So I was surprised to find that as the rounds of counting advanced on June 4, my BJP opponent, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, soared, at one point, to a lead of nearly 23,000 votes, which was disconcerting. But by the last few rounds I began faring better, and ultimately won by a margin of 16,077 votes.

What message do you think has the electorate sent to the Modi government this time around?

In my view, the electorate has sent out multiple messages, loud and clear, to Mr Modi by ensuring that his third stint in power is now contingent on his partners in the NDA, particularly the JDU, TDP and LJP-RV. Our people have decisively rejected the arrogance and overweening authoritarianism that the BJP-led government displayed over the past decade.

It was evident that should the BJP sweep into power with another standalone majority, India would intensify its descent into what has been dubbed “a Republic of Fear”. But our populace rose against this phenomenon, protecting our democracy and Constitutional freedoms. Then there’s the fact that the people roundly repudiated the hate-filled rhetoric of the Prime Minister — such as in Rajasthan’s Banswara, where he breathed fire against the Muslim community, only for the BJP to lose by a shattering 247,054 votes — and his acolytes’ bulldozer politics which got its comeuppance in Ayodhya, where also the BJP was soundly defeated.

All in all, this verdict will serve to chasten the Prime Minister: having been cut down in size, his BJP will have to be more consultative and deliberative. No longer will he be able to ride roughshod over Cabinet and Parliament, for in the former his coalition partners will hold him to account and in the latter we, the members of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc, will.

Do you trust exit polls? And what do you think happened this time?

I have long held that exit polls have a dismal record in Indian elections; in the case of these general elections, they were not only widely off the mark but downright laughable. We in the Opposition dismissed them out of hand because we campaigned throughout the country — I too canvassed for the Congress Party in a dozen states — and as such knew what the pulse of the people was. Also diminishing the credibility of these exit polls were the numerous gaffes besetting them, as in predicting that the BJP and NDA would win in several states more seats than those states actually have! The fact is that exit polls are deeply unscientific and we must stop sensationalising them.

How do you look at the future of the new coalition government at the Centre?

4 June 2024 was indeed a jubilant day for Indian democracy, for it shattered the cult of personality around Prime Minister Modi and the shield of invincibility around his BJP. A coalition government once again assumed power in New Delhi on Sunday, 9 June 2024 - a development that will have several positive upshots, chief among them being changing the BJP’s style of governance.

No longer can the PM continue with his “my way or the highway” approach: he can’t anymore demonetise the currency without even informing Cabinet, let alone the Finance Minister or the Governor of RBI; and he can’t anymore impose a nationwide lockdown without consulting the Chief Ministers who have to implement it. Mr Modi and his government can no longer operate how they have for the past decade, exercising untrammelled power and presiding over a servile polity. Now Mr Modi and the BJP will be constrained to work with partners who, if they withdraw support, can cause his government to crumble. Facing him in Parliament will also be a formidable and robust Opposition, whose views he will be obliged to accommodate. How well Mr Modi adjusts to this new reality — to which he is completely unaccustomed since his days as Gujarat CM — is the big unknown that will determine the future of the government.

What were the issues you wanted to raise in the previous parliament that you were not able to? Would you like to raise them this time, now that there is a stronger Opposition?

The Congress Party, including myself, wished to debate such vital but contentious issues we had sought to raise as unemployment, inflation, farmers’ woes, the Agniveer scheme, and the border situation with China. But instead, during the Monsoon and Winter Sessions, the Lok Sabha was assigned an innocuous and inconsequential discussion on sports. We would hope that a united Opposition can restore such serious subjects to the agenda of the Lower House. In addition, as Thiruvananthapuram’s MP, I have repeatedly raised the vexed issue of coastal erosion — which is threatening lives, livelihoods, homes, and beachfronts in my constituency — to no avail so far. I am hopeful that the Government will pay more attention this time to the major crisis this represents.

Will you be contesting the Kerala Assembly election?

At the moment I have been elected to perform a duty, which is to continue serving my constituents and striving for the progress of Thiruvananthapuram. While we are still two years ahead of Kerala going to the polls, I promise to do my bit to lead the charge against the CPM’s misrule of the state and help bring a Congress-led United Democratic Front government into power. Even in the last assembly elections I headed the manifesto committee of the UDF, and I will be happy to play whatever role the party assigns me in 2026.

How do you see the future of cult of personality style of election? Is there a future for it?

I am afraid there is no expiry date for this style of politics. In recent years, Mr Modi’s manufacturing of a personality cult had exceeded all known limits: Covid vaccination certificates came with his picture rather than with the picture of the vaccinated individual, bags of grain distributed to 800 million people bore his photograph prominently on the packages, and railway stations across the country featured “selfie points” where life-sized cutouts of the Prime Minister were available for grateful voters to pose next to. Despite the cringeworthy aspects of this kind of conduct, the public appeared to lap it all up, with Mr Modi obtaining 74 per cent approval ratings in a recent survey of global leaders.

Globally, despite being convicted on all thirty-four counts for the falsification of business records in a hush money scandal, Donald Trump — the first presidential felon — is well on his way to return to the White House, his conviction having enkindled a wave of sympathy in his favour. Individuals are and always have been instantly accessible political symbols, seen as embodying many a value that none else has the courage to espouse. In most constitutional democracies, such as the United States and India, cults of personality rely heavily on shock value, championing values that are conservative, indeed revivalist. Yet we must remember that however formidable a leader may be, no nation can be allowed to be reduced to their shadow. Only when the institutions — especially the watchdogs — of a democracy thrive does the country prosper.

Prime Minister Modi’s cult of personality is no longer unassailable. These elections have assured him that, lest he have any doubt at all, he is very much biological: and if he truly wants to do the Parmaatma’s work, he should begin working for all Indians, regardless of their faith.

Lok Sabha Election 2024 results | Check all constituency results here

Odisha Assembly poll 2024 results| Check constituency results here

Andhra Pradesh Assembly poll 2024 results | Check constituency results here

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