Democracy as Performance: Modi’s Welfare Schemes and the Politics of Credit

When welfare services, advertised as “gifts”, reach the common people, it comes with the subconscious urge to reciprocate the favour. This subconscious urge has the potential to become a driving force for voting for the Prime Minister, and thus “returning” the favour.

Within the social ties between the Prime Minister and the beneficiaries, reciprocal exchange often finds its expression during elections. This is because elections provide an opportunity where candidates often go to citizens to request their support, and those who have previously received a favour are positioned to now reciprocate it, thus fulfilling the cycle of exchange.

This nexus of giving and returning the ‘favour’ is a part of a larger phenomenon that we mentioned above as “populist mimicry”, a practice of governance where leaders imitate democratic practices within populist frames. This means that leaders of the government, while operating within populist frameworks, mimic democratic principles.

To put this definition within the framework of our argument, Narendra Modi is a prime minister elected through democratic procedures, but operates within the broader characteristics of a populist leader, targeting only certain sections of society through the schemes, their advertisements, and even his larger political campaign.

Populism often carries an element of ‘personal’ in it as leaders claim to represent the ‘authentic’ voices of the common people, or the masses. The project of personalisation of welfare works in alignment with this idea of resonating with and thus also belonging to the ‘common’ class.

As India continues to be a country where large sections of society still struggle and negotiate with day-to-day hardships emerging from socio-economic conditions, welfare distribution is a major source of relief for such people.

“Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikaas” is a political slogan that is always accompanied by the smiling picture of PM Modi alongside a person from socially and economically backward sections. What actually happens is an imitation of a democratic delivery, as argued previously, where welfare services are being attributed to the Prime Minister. This “impartial state responsibility” is reimagined in the minds of the beneficiaries as a “gift” provided by the Prime Minister.

What we term “mimicry” refers precisely to this appropriation of democratic delivery as a personalised project that frames any benefit provided to the people as a favour rather than an impersonal obligation of the state. This phenomenon is a threat to the core values of democracy enshrined in our Constitution.

A leader, irrespective of which government is in power, often represents less than half of the eligible voting population, owing to the first-past-the-post system. Yet, such a leader can increasingly become the face of the State itself, rather than the face of government, if the line between things bestowed by the state and those granted by the government continues to blur.

(Sharmistha Shivhare and Anamta Husain are students at Ashoka University. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)