It's insane how high Modi's approvals are 9 years in
Maybe this is way too early to guess anything, but Modi really is the new Indira Gandhi in how popular he has been in an enduring way despite having been on the scene for such a long time.
Anti-incumbency? What anti-incumbency?
Modi like Indira does have a cult of personality too . When I last visited India , you could see his picture almost everywhere (on rickshaws , on stores , one restaurants etc) and one time a rickshaw driver in an unprompted manner start telling me how great he is when he passed by a building that had his photo . When I visited India prior to Modi , you almost never saw a photo of the Prime Minister anywhere and people generally seemed to hate politicians regardless of party .
I would say a lot of this has to do with the rise of social media . Prior to the mid 2010s , very few people had access to Wi-Fi and that included many UMC Indians too while now the vast majority of street vendors have access to a smart phone and a data plan . That means far far more people have access to social media in a way that didn’t exist before and Modi and the BJP have been absolutely masterful in their usage of social media and smart phones in general that has allowed him to control the narrative in unprecedented ways .
An example of this , is that Modi has created an app for himself where the BJP is able to push Modi message on a daily basis , give their interpretation of the daily news and even respond to what unfriendly media outlets post too and I have seen family members use it . It’s insanely effective and that’s probably a huge part of his success.
