In 2013, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had likened the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime to the tottering rupee when it was less than 60 per dollar. Under Modi, the rupee has already crossed 96.25 per dollar raring to reach the 100 mark. Modi, when he was Gujarat chief minister, squarely blamed former prime minister Manmohan Singh’s ‘lack of leadership’ and his ‘policy paralysis’ for the country’s economic slowdown. He had likened the state of the UPA itself to the falling rupee under it.When this year’s monsoon session ended on August 13, things were in a different mode. For reasons best known to today’s top two, both Houses of parliament were not prorogued. Then there was the hint that a brief three-day session may be called to pass the controversial delimitation Bill. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) top brass was moving ahead with full confidence. But then things began falling apart. There was much hype earlier about the ‘chintan baithak’ of the Cabinet to discuss ‘governance, reforms and outreach to women and youth on welfare and development schemes’. Nothing much came out of it except two things: first, no one in the government took much interest in discussing welfare schemes and outreach programmes. Second, the prime minister was not ready for a reshuffle of the Union Cabinet. No one knows why suddenly Modi developed cold feet. It will soon be two months with parliament in suspended animation. Yet there has been no sign of a follow-up nor any explanation about the two Houses not being prorogued or why the three-day session was not called. No reason has been given for dropping the delimitation Bill too. Compare this with how briskly Modi had recovered from the severe setback suffered in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. When it fell from the much trumpeted char-sau paar (more than 400 seats) to the modest 292, Modi stood firm and worked hard to recoup the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’s losses. There was no sign of fatigue or indifference. This has prompted some commentators to talk about Modi’s ‘legacy’. Is it time yet to discuss his legacy or ‘after-Modi’ scenarios? Some political analysts have started talking about the post-Modi situation in the country. We will discuss the 76-year-old leader’s problems later. Illustration: Pariplab ChakrabortyIn the meanwhile, the prime minister himself is being kept engaged in various public programmes. These came as image boosters for Modi. The most noisy public programme – his 76th birthday – this year came in a different format. Prepared by outside experts, it has all the trappings of a technical paper, including startups. However, mute public participation has discouraged sponsors.In some places like IIM Jammu, students were penalised for not participating in the official birthday celebration programme. In Kolkata, college authorities pressurised students, including students of Scottish Church College, to participate in NaMo programmes, which include screaming ‘Jai Shree Ram’ slogans. Many refused to join but the pressure persisted. In Ahmedabad, government schools forced their students to join Modi’s birthday programmes and light diyas (earthen lamps). In Rajasthan, a government order asking college students to participate in these celebrations led to a political controversy with a large number of the students refusing to obey. This year there were also counter protests, a new trend visible after the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP)-led protests. For instance, in Karnataka, youth Congress workers observed the prime minister’s birthday as unemployment day. The absolute control over the ECIThe capture of institutions has been a favoured method perfected by the Modi-Shah team right from their early days in Gujarat. However, it is perhaps for the first time during the Modi era that an institution like the Election Commission of India (ECI) is appearing to become dysfunctional due to repeated high-level government meddling. In the case of the ECI, the interventions are direct and intrusively invasive. Like other statutory independent bodies, the absolute control over the ECI was established by putting a pliable incumbent at the top. Gyanesh Kumar, a trusted favourite of Amit Shah, was made the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) with the brief that he had to coordinate with the government’s wider blueprint. For Gyanesh Kumar, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was not the first assignment. He had worked with Shah at the home ministry on the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir and later for setting up the Ram Temple trust. Both were seen as a hatchet-man’s job. Gyanesh Kumar was therefore made the CEC because of his proven ability and trustworthiness. Thus for all these years, Gyanesh Kumar has been very much an integral part of the Modi-Shah establishment. During the past year, Shah has at least a dozen times publicly defended the SIR. He asked people not to vote for ‘infiltrators’. The BJP victory in Bihar, he said, was a mandate against infiltrators. The BJP won only due to the ‘purification’ of voters list.Anyone who follows politics knows that SIR is an integral part of the home ministry’s wider plans for detection, deletion and deportation of foreigners or, in plain terms, Muslims. Shah has been working on it with full readiness. The idea has been inspired more to suit the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) dogma. The role of Gyanesh Kumar has been to do his part of the work and help support the process. Shah has repeatedly asserted that the constitution has empowered the ECI to enforce SIR. Thus the SIR is more of Shah’s baby than Gyanesh Kumar’s. He simply forced his CEC to go ahead with SIR with full force. Now we are told of another curious side effect of SIR. Among the voters whose names are flagged during the exercise and served notices, hold your breath, are Supreme Court judges, top government officials and former Union ministers like L.K. Advani, ex-Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Election Commissioner S.S. Sandhu, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and her predecessor Arvind Kejriwal, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar, historians Romila Thapar, Ashis Nandy, senior lawyers like Dushyant Dave, Indira Jaising and Anand Grover, Kapil Sibal, and the spouses of former Chief Justices of India D.Y. Chandrachud and B.S. Gavai, apart from the Archbishop of Delhi Anil Couto. The list of violators is rather long. Fortunately, proceedings of the EC’s latest meeting show that the CEC has finally accepted the sane advice of former election commissioner S.Y. Quraishi. According to him, Section 18(1) of procedures calls for unanimity in arriving at decisions within the commission. In case if that was not to be found, decisions should be taken by majority. “Unilateralism has no place,” he said.Does Modi now need protection from mockery?Does Modi need special protection, statutory or informal, from mockery, parody or caricaturing by his fellow citizens or professional mimicry groups? The question emerged from Rahul Gandhi’s Indore event in which mimicker Pulkit Mani was a participant. A decade before he became the prime minister, Modi had in 2004 called Sonia Gandhi a ‘jersey cow’ and Rahul Gandhi a ‘hybrid calf’. During the election campaign in 2012, he termed Manmohan Singh ‘Maunmohan’ Singh. He charged him with immersed in corruption. “Only doctor sa’ab knows how to bathe with a raincoat on in the bathroom.” Modi has even called Shashi Tharoor’s wife Sunanda Pushkar his ‘50 crore rupee girlfriend’.Recently, Modi also called for protection for himself from online lampooning and things like effigy burning. These are not isolated cases. Such things have been happening regularly.P. Raman is a veteran journalist.In an age of fractured mandates, personality cults and transactional alliances, P. Raman brings clarity to India’s shifting political equations. With Realpolitik, the veteran journalist peers beneath the slogans and spin to reveal the power plays, spectacle, crises and insecurities driving India’s politics.