Modi fever in Motihari

It is still election time in India. The polls in the world’s largest democracy started on 9 April and will end on 1 June, and is in full swing across the Nepal border. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP is campaigning on a fail-safe Hindutva-agenda in India’s northern heartland. Despite the BJP being weaker in the south, Modi is looking to continue his premiership for the third consecutive year but perhaps with a smaller margin. 

On Tuesday, Modi was scheduled to address an election rally in Motihari in East Champaran district of Bihar just across the Nepal-India border. Even as the fifth phase of voting came to an end on 20 May this week, a noisy election rally supporting Modi was going on full blast. 

 I reached an hour ahead of Modi’s arrival via helicopter in Motihari, but was not allowed at the premises inside Gandhi Maidan without a special press pass issued by the PMO in New Delhi. Nepali press credentials were not sufficient. 

Chants from die-hard BJP supporters of “Jai Shree Ram” rang in the air, and it all sounded like a personality cult. Larger than life portraits of Modi are everywhere.  

 The attendees were also shouting “Abaki Baar 500 Par” (BJP will get over 500 seats in Parliament). Some were even shouting “600 Par” (over 600 seats) which is funny because there are only 543 seats in India’s Lok Sabha.

So far, Modi’s BJP has surpassed the 300 seat mark as per the Indian media. 

Female participants of the rally had nowhere but to go behind tin sheds and bushes to relieve themselves. This is ironic given that when Modi came in power in 2014, his election campaigns prioritised building ‘Suchalaya’ (public toilets) before ‘Dewalaya’ (temples).

 A decade later, Modi’s journey has come to a full circle: he is building temples to garner votes from Hindu-majority states.