Within four days of election results being announced on May 4, Union home minister Amit Shah went to Kolkata, called his elected MLAs and announced Suvendu Adhikari as West Bengal’s first BJP chief minister. Nobody questioned the high command’s decision. In Kerala, Congress swept the polls with a two-thirds majority. Yet it took ten days for the party leadership to appoint its chief minister from among the three contenders. In neighbouring Karnataka, the leadership tussle between the chief minister and his second man has been raging for quite some time while the Delhi leadership watched helplessly. Illustration: Pariplab ChakrabortyThe contrast between the two styles is striking. On one side are the quick and curt orders of the big two, which the contenders silently accept. On the other is the confusing, chaotic and rebellious ranks and a helpless leadership. This is the standard reason trotted by the admirers of dictatorship, like Kerala BJP president Rajiv Chandrashekhar, who chided the Congress for taking ten days to settle the leadership claims. Incidentally, it had taken almost 11 days for the BJP’s top two to appoint Rekha Gupta as Delhi’s chief minister last year. Such delays do happen, perhaps more so in democracies. No one can claim that parliamentary democracy is perfect. What distinguishes democracy from the spin dictatorship is the inbuilt flexibility and safeguards in the system. Unlike authoritarian systems, internal democracy puts emphasis on individual rights, separation of powers, political freedoms and rule of law. It encourages diverse opinions, representation and institutional checks and balances. On the other hand, spin dictatorships rely on controlling the flow of information at every level in order to maintain public support and suppress opposition. Thus, procedural democracy is the essence of parliamentary democracy. It covers all aspects like universal adult franchise, secret ballot and periodic elections. While dictatorships can bring short-term stability, they invariably lead to human rights abuses and lack of accountability, making them highly detestable and unsustainable in the long run. Shah now claims the BJP and its allies have already ‘captured’ 80% of India.Modi’s most severe loss of faceEarlier this month, Modi suffered his most severe loss of face. His frantic appeal to the people to tighten the belt had ended up in utter fiasco. The seven points of the charter he had put forth read: work from home, use public transport, stop buying gold, cut down on cooking oil, reduce fertiliser-use, avoid foreign travel and reduce use of foreign goods. This was followed up by a ban on sugar exports till September and to increase the import duty on gold from six to 15%. Duty raise on gold invariably triggered fears of massive smuggling of the yellow metal. This happens every time the duty is raised. There were also two increases in prices of petrol and diesel in quick succession, with consequent increases in a variety of consumer goods.This has never happened to Modi before. Remember his appeals during demonetisation and the pandemic – when people impulsively followed him, put off lights and lit lamps? That wasn’t the case this time. Hence, the government was forced to come out with a ‘clarification’. His other appeals regarding gold and fuel too had to be rolled back after protests by jewellers in Varanasi, Modi’s own constituency. Frustrated people have put up resistance and open protests are no more anathema. Look at the frequency with which workers all over the country have gone on strike. India saw two country-wide strikes recently. First, a three-day all-India strike by transporters against two fuel hikes in a week that hurt them badly. The second, a protest by pharmacists. These are warning signals that the ruling duo cannot ignore people’s sentiments. The problem with the Modi-Shah duoThe problem with Modi and Shah is that they have been wholly preoccupied with political operations and manipulation. They have no time to spare for any other government responsibilities. As prime minister, Modi is obliged to care for the government and its departments. However, it appears that he has left all policy formulations and supervision of the ministries to the concerned ministers. Consider the recurring exam paper leaks. Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, said that 89 paper leaks have happened during Modi’s ten years. A media study showed 69 leaks occurred at all-India level in seven years. Whatever the exact figures may be, here is a government that presides over constant paper leaks and disruption of students’s careers.It is such colossal neglect of prime ministerial duty that has led to the present situation, where unofficial appeals for austerity are now being made. Did the finance ministry, especially the finance minister, inform the prime minister of the full gravity of the situation before it reached a breaking point? The public has a right to know the truth. If he was already aware of how precarious the situation was, why did he not take the nation into confidence before it deteriorated further? These are questions that deserve answers.Shah’s Bengal conquest last month was accompanied by certain significant transformations in the BJP duo’s political control system, especially among its middle-level leaders. In the early years, the offices of Shah and J.P. Nadda had to send frequent directions on how they should act on each situation. Today, government officials, media outlets and middle-level party functionaries have learnt to act on their own. They no longer wait for formal instructions from leaders in Delhi. A self-generating system seems to be at work. Every political player in this government appears to know their role in strengthening the edifice of the Modi-Shah government. They have learnt to act proactively on their own, taking cues from the leaders’ periodic public appeals and help demolish their political enemies. When it comes to the media, they have an entire unwritten play book that they are expected to follow. Look at the efficacy of the loyal media’s filters. Two years ago, there were credible allegations that certain BJP leaders were linked with the NEET paper leak. Another report this time pointed out that the man who was arrested in Rajasthan is associated with the BJP’s youth wing. However, the loyal media avoided mentioning such unfavourable facts. Such ‘auto-filters’ work in every field of information all the time. When the opposition was in power, the sarkari media was hyperactive in highlighting the negative stories against its government: like the rise of corruption everywhere, inefficiency and unkept promises. From the day the Shah-picked BJP chief minister was sworn in in Delhi, everything became hunky-dory for the mainstream media. This has been the story everywhere from Rajasthan, Delhi and now West Bengal. Gupta took charge as Delhi chief minister in February last year. So far, the sarkari media, which had lost no opportunity to demolish the AAP regime, has not carried any story even distantly critical of her performance. They played down Delhi’s pains under 46°C heat right in the midst of a fuel shortage and price rise. The Sarkari media’s many rolesAnother role assigned to the sarkari media has been to widen the cracks among the opposition parties. This was to ward off any possible pooling of votes against the BJP. The strategy contributed to the division of Muslim votes in Bengal. Statements by the rival opposition groups were thus played up and accusations against the Trinamool Congress, made by the Left and Congress camps, were blown up throughout the election campaign. The BJP continued its divide-and-rule strategy even after the assembly polls. In Punjab, the BJP’s next target for state capture, every Congress allegation against the AAP chief minister is being magnified to create an anti-AAP atmosphere. Early signals from West Bengal indicate the state is set to undergo forced saffronisation and outright demolition of the remaining democratic institutions. The Shah-Suvendu double engine sarkar is doing everything possible to remove all obstacles in its way. And then there is the omnipresent bulldozer justice. The TMC candidate from Falta, where repolling took place, was forced to withdraw from the contest without the knowledge of its Delhi leaders. This is the Gujarat model. In the recent panchayat elections in Gujarat, the BJP won as many as 736 seats even as opposition parties accused it of forcing their candidates to withdraw. Suvendu has already announced his plan to ‘detect, delete and deport’ the foreigners, which could be loosely translated to anti-BJP voters. 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.