No scandal, least of all corruption, can rock BJP arithmetic. Adani or no Adani https://theprint.in/opinion/no-scandal-least-of-all-corruption-can-rock-bjp-arithmetic-adani-or-no-adani/1523063/ Shruti Kapila 17 April, 2023 While it is tempting for the opposition to focus on corruption, the real political question in India today is authority.
The prime minister is now routinely reminding people of his humble origins while describing corruption as a trait of the old order. In so doing, Modi is speaking to and shoring up his large gallery of converted and committed voters. Casting himself again as the new force in an old order helps reflect corruption as an outcome of a decadent passage of time. Modi’s appeal has rested on his rite of passage from modest origins to India’s strongman....It is this fine line between strength and authority that Adani-gate is testing. While strength is a signal virtue, authority is an ace political vice. This is precisely because authority is associated with weakness and will be the touchstone of the next national electoral campaign.
Authority is no strength: whether it is the stalling of a joint parliamentary committee probe or, more to the point, the slapping of civil or criminal suits – corruption, defamation, and what have you – against opposition party leaders. Lawsuits might not make a martyr out of a Rahul Gandhi or an Arvind Kejriwal, yet. What it leaves behind is the distinct stench of authority. The BJP’s spin doctors have already started to confuse strength with authority. In doing so, they are beginning to make Brand Modi vulnerable...
Strongmen might be loved, but authoritarians are only feared. As modern politics teaches us, only kings and monarchies can rule with fear and authority. Democracies and even their strongest leaders need and live on the love of the people.