RIGHT ANGLE – Brand Modi’s Shelf-Value

Though I have always voted for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, I am getting increasingly convinced that when people in India go to the polling booths to determine who will represent them in the country’s governance, many of them make a last-minute change in their decision.

They may be angry with a party or the leader because they did not live up to their expectation, but still vote for that party and that leader at the final moment.

The most plausible explanation that comes to one’s mind for such behaviour could be two reasons. One is that there is no concrete alternative in sight, and the alternative is far worse. And the other is that all told, the party or the leader’s overall performance or record at the macro level is good enough to be voted for again. Here, factors such as nationalism, national security, political stability, economic progress and various welfare measures do influence the voting behaviour.

Let me now narrate why I have drawn such a conclusion.

Last fortnight, I was in my home state, Odisha, where there is now a “double-engine” government, both led by the BJP. I must have asked at least 10 taxi drivers that I had engaged during my stay, ordinary villagers as well as well-read and well-employed ladies and gentlemen from middle-class housing colonies in urban centres of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Dhankanal( my home district).

As high as 90 percent of them said that they were very unhappy with the nearly two-year-old BJP government in the state. City roads are broken, not maintained. Officials at the lower level, be it the block or district, are least sensitive to the complaints. Political representatives are not easily accessible.

In fact, the impression that one got was that were elections to be held now in Odisha, the ruling BJP would find it extremely difficult to get even 30 seats.

Let me give two concrete examples in this regard from my village, Tubhinali, and Sadashivpur Gram Panchayat, just within the radius of 10 kilometres from the district headquarters of Dhankanal town.

A Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana through my village has been sanctioned for the last year. But the Sarapanch and the people in my village, the majority of whom happen to be the Scheduled Castes, are not able to get the sanctioned money released from the Block, despite many requests. Apparently, some of them wrote a letter regarding this to the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister’s Office, as a matter of routine, referred it back to the District or the Block office.

Now, the matter, one is told, worsened. The officials literally threatened that, as the villagers had complained to the Prime Minister, there was all the more reason why they would not release the money now. And they said the villagers were most welcome to complain to the Prime Minister again.

The second example is equally shocking. There is a young graduate named Hiranya Kumar Nayak from the village of Baulpur. On 27th December 2025, he wrote a letter to the Prime Minister, with a copy to the Petroleum Minister. Because he is expecting justice.

His story is this – He was given a temporary job in BPCL (Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd., Tentiliapada of the same Panchayat of Sadashivpur. This he got after he had helped the BPCL in land acquisition for the depot when there was great discontent among and unwillingness of the villagers to transfer their lands for the depot.

In fact, unlike the neighbours, his family agreed to transfer the land, and he, a graduate, was promised by the Depot manager, one Mr Arup Kharna, an immediate temporary job that would be regularised in a few months. But this land-loser’s job was terminated the day Mr Kharna was transferred to Kolkata.

When Hiranya Nayak pointed out that this was the negation of BPCL’s promise to him, the present authorities of the Depot further insulted him by saying that he should arrange “a phone call from the Petroleum Ministry to reappoint him”!

Could anything be more perverse than this? It was pouring salt on the young man’s wound. He is now desperately looking for help from the local M.P., Rudra Narayan Pani of the BJP. But till the time of writing this, Nayak has not been successful in getting an appointment with Mr Pani.

In fact, such examples of apathy of the lower-level officials are something I have heard in plenty from places like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and even Delhi, where I have been living for the last 49 years. The Prime Minister, or for that matter my local M.P. ( I am a voter in Delhi), who is a union minister, should visit my locality of the I.P. Extension to see the crumbling roads ( a single rainy day results in hundreds of holes on the roads), blatant encroachments of the pavements, and dirty garbage on road sides to see the reality.

And all this is happening when Prime Minister Modi is emphasising on how governance should be taken to the people, not the other way, by eliminating red- tapism, something he had pointed out eloquently on January 24 while handing appointment letters to more than 61,000 newly selected young recruits at the 18th Rozgar Mela in New Delhi.

And that brings me to the point I made at the very outset. Why do people still vote for Modi and the BJP?

After all, the latest India Today-CVoter Mood of the Nation (MOTN) survey, released last week, indicates a significant political turnaround for the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA). It suggests that the NDA would secure a massive victory if elections were held in early 2026.

The NDA is projected to win 352 seats, a gain of roughly 28 seats from its previous strength. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi would emerge as the single largest party with 287 seats.

The opposition INDIA Bloc is projected to win 182 seats, showing a decline in momentum. The share of the Congress led by Rahul Gandhi would reduce to 80 seats, a drop from its present 97.

Narendra remains the top choice for Prime Minister with 55% support, up from 52% in August 2025. This is in contrast to the backing of 27 percent for Rahul Gandhi.

And all this despite the fact, as revealed by the survey, that there are many areas where the voters are dissatisfied with the Prime Minister.

And one of these areas of dissatisfaction happens to be the resistance of the lower-level bureaucracy (“babus”) to change, leading to bottlenecks. These babus seem to have the patronage of the lower-level political functionaries as well.

In fact, it is now an open secret that during the Modi regime, high-level corruption may have ended, but nothing moves at the lower level without greasing the hands of these bureaucrats and political functionaries.

However, as I had pointed out at the very outset, people, including me, vote and will vote for the “Brand Modi” for his undeniable efforts at generating among Indians a strong sense of nationalism, providing political stability, and keeping on rails a steady momentum towards a developed India.

But then, there is a limit to everything. India cannot be truly developed if Modi continues to turn a blind eye to the apathy of officials and corruption among his own party men at the panchayat, block, and district levels. Justice cannot be denied to the likes of Hiranya Nayak.

After all, every brand, and that includes the Modi-brand, has a shelf-life. It cannot be prolonged if detached from people at the lower level. They cannot be kept silent just by the freebies and Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), which seems to be the case at the moment.