Ram rajya, the Bharatiya Janata Party would like the nation to believe, has arrived. So it is perhaps not surprising that some of the tallest leaders of the party have started to spot the divine — albeit in a human form. The closing day of the 17th Lok Sabha thus witnessed the Union home minister, Amit Shah, deify Prime Minister Narendra Modi, comparing him to Lord Rama — well almost. The trouble is that the comparison, just like many other claims of this regime, may not stand up to objective scrutiny. For instance, Mr Shah is of the opinion that Mr Modi, much like maryada purushottam, has accorded dignity to the deprived, thereby cementing all sections of society. The sad truth is that Mr Modi’s prime ministership has witnessed an unprecedented strain on India’s pluralist, inclusive fabric on account of engineered majoritarian hatred and division directed at its minorities. This surely goes against the pious tenets of Ram rajya. Mr Shah also sought to draw an oblique parallel between the valour of the two leaders: he found echoes of Rama’s battle with Ravana in Mr Modi’s countering of threats from India’s hostile neighbours, including China. This assertion, too, needs to be taken with a generous pinch of salt. Had Mr Modi’s ‘red eyes’ thwarted China, there would be no need for the Indian army to be engaged in protracted and seemingly futile negotiations with its Chinese counterpart to recover lost ground on the northern borders.

It may be tempting to view Mr Shah’s remark deifying Mr Modi as rhetorical or a mere turn of phrase. But there is method in such lofty praise — idolatry? The curation of a charismatic authority has been a singular mechanism to transform a democracy into an authoritarian entity. It leads to the elevation of a leader above accountability and transparency, leading to the subversion of the system of checks and balances that are organic to a democratic set-up. The orchestrated adulation also fosters the cult of hero worship, a phenomenon that B.R. Ambedkar had been wary of. The emergence of such self-proclaimed, charismatic strongmen is, in fact, a global phenomenon and has been instrumental in democracy’s retreat in several nations. India needs to decide whether it will walk that troublesome path as well.