The BJP won a higher share of the vote than any single party Since 1991, but never before had a 31% tally produced enough MPs to govern alone. Yet Modi was the undisputed winner, and few would argue with the assumption that had it been a genuinely presidential election, rather than a quasi one, he would have won and won handsomely. The New York Times has called an Indian election campaign 'the greatest show on earth.' Hillary Clinton described the supervision of the electoral process across a country of almost 1.3 billion people as a global 'gold standard'. This is not to say that there aren't problems in administering a poll across almost eight thousand towns and 640,000 villages. Bribery, corruption and vote-rigging are no longer endemic, but nor have they been rooted out altogether. Indian democracy has survived and grown stronger over the years, while in neighbouring countries like China it has never had the chance to take root; in others like Pakistan it has proved to be an extremely fragile plant, all too easily trodden underfoot by the military. As Modi pointed out to me, the eligible electorate in India of 814 million is almost double that of all fifty countries in continental Europe put together (492 million) and comfortablv exceeds the combined total
for the fifty-six countries in the Americas, north and south, and the Caribbean (645 million). Of those people registered to vote, over 550 million did so in 2014. To achieve a turnout of 66.4% in a country where a quarter of the population live below the poverty line and a similar number can neither read nor write and have little access to the news media is a remarkable achievement in itself. By way of comparison, in the American presidential election of 2012, the figure was 57.5%. Narendra Modi cannot claim all the credit for this impressive turnout, of course. Enormous efforts were made by the Election Commission of India to raise awareness and register voters ahead of the poll. But the 'Modi Wave', as it became known, undoubtedly contributed to the enthusiasm with which so many
people went to the polls, often queuing for hours in order to cast their ballots. The very high turnout among young, first-time voters was a notable feature of the election. And whether Modi created the wave or rode the wave, or a bit of both, he succeeded in reaching the holy grail that has eluded almost every other political leader of our age by inspiring a whole new generation of younger voters not just to listen to him but to vote for him. One of the many things that makes Modi such a fascinating figure is his ability to weave together and then to articulate so many of India's contradictions and make them appear consistent: to embrace India's future, through its young IT-savvy generation, and its past, embodied in the myths and legends of its cultural heritage. He showed how in that Independence Day address. From the ramparts high above the crowd, and with millions watching and listening at home, he was able to expose India's ugly side while still making Indians feel good about themselves. 'l strongly believe in the words of legends,' he told them. 'l have great faith in the statements made by ascetics, sages and saints.' He went on to quote from his favourite sage, Swami Vivekananda, 'I can see before my eyes Mother India awakening once again.' As he concluded his speech, I could sense that the crowd around me wanted desperately to believe him. But as the former governor of New York, Mario Cuomo, said of all politicians, 'You campaign in poetry, you govern in prose.' To live up to his promises, Modi now had to Show the whole of India and the watching world outside that he had as much of an appetite for the prosaic business Of getting things done as he did for the razzamatazz of electioneering. The outsider had come inside and he had to make the system work.
As he left the podium at the Red Fort and made his way to the bullet-proof car that was waiting for him, he might have reflected on what had been a momentous twelve months for him personally. A year earlier it was not yet certain that he would even be his party's candidate for prime minister. He had built up a large and fanatical following at the grass roots, but many party elders worried that he was too divisive a figure, with too controversial a past, to be acceptable to the country as a whole. So intense were the feelings he aroused on both sides that it is impossible to understand how he came to fight such a ground-breaking and ultimately successful campaign, without knowing a little about how he came to be such an emotive figure in Indian politics and how he saw off those who hoped to thwart him. The story of Modi's rise from humble beginnings to the office of prime minister is, in any case, a fascinating one.
for the fifty-six countries in the Americas, north and south, and the Caribbean (645 million). Of those people registered to vote, over 550 million did so in 2014. To achieve a turnout of 66.4% in a country where a quarter of the population live below the poverty line and a similar number can neither read nor write and have little access to the news media is a remarkable achievement in itself. By way of comparison, in the American presidential election of 2012, the figure was 57.5%. Narendra Modi cannot claim all the credit for this impressive turnout, of course. Enormous efforts were made by the Election Commission of India to raise awareness and register voters ahead of the poll. But the 'Modi Wave', as it became known, undoubtedly contributed to the enthusiasm with which so many
people went to the polls, often queuing for hours in order to cast their ballots. The very high turnout among young, first-time voters was a notable feature of the election. And whether Modi created the wave or rode the wave, or a bit of both, he succeeded in reaching the holy grail that has eluded almost every other political leader of our age by inspiring a whole new generation of younger voters not just to listen to him but to vote for him. One of the many things that makes Modi such a fascinating figure is his ability to weave together and then to articulate so many of India's contradictions and make them appear consistent: to embrace India's future, through its young IT-savvy generation, and its past, embodied in the myths and legends of its cultural heritage. He showed how in that Independence Day address. From the ramparts high above the crowd, and with millions watching and listening at home, he was able to expose India's ugly side while still making Indians feel good about themselves. 'l strongly believe in the words of legends,' he told them. 'l have great faith in the statements made by ascetics, sages and saints.' He went on to quote from his favourite sage, Swami Vivekananda, 'I can see before my eyes Mother India awakening once again.' As he concluded his speech, I could sense that the crowd around me wanted desperately to believe him. But as the former governor of New York, Mario Cuomo, said of all politicians, 'You campaign in poetry, you govern in prose.' To live up to his promises, Modi now had to Show the whole of India and the watching world outside that he had as much of an appetite for the prosaic business Of getting things done as he did for the razzamatazz of electioneering. The outsider had come inside and he had to make the system work.
As he left the podium at the Red Fort and made his way to the bullet-proof car that was waiting for him, he might have reflected on what had been a momentous twelve months for him personally. A year earlier it was not yet certain that he would even be his party's candidate for prime minister. He had built up a large and fanatical following at the grass roots, but many party elders worried that he was too divisive a figure, with too controversial a past, to be acceptable to the country as a whole. So intense were the feelings he aroused on both sides that it is impossible to understand how he came to fight such a ground-breaking and ultimately successful campaign, without knowing a little about how he came to be such an emotive figure in Indian politics and how he saw off those who hoped to thwart him. The story of Modi's rise from humble beginnings to the office of prime minister is, in any case, a fascinating one.
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