There is no doubt that every morning any head of State or Government, no matter whether it is in an advanced democracy or a consolidated dictatorship, wakes up thinking about how to make his people happy. All the orders that he will give throughout the day will be for the common good and he will go to bed thinking that he is a good shepherd because his flock is safe.
There is no leader without a trace of messianism and this faith in the manifest destiny of his country emerges in speeches, inaugurations and mass baths. Most of the time people, whether subjects or citizens, laugh at this transcendence, view it with cynicism and ignore it as much as they can. However, there are times and places in which the national epic and religious sentiment permeate the social fabric, and that is when the polls are filled with radicals and the trenches with soldiers. Racial, nationalist and religious supremacism has always been a good antidepressant. It is administered in generous doses to the aggrieved and the lunatics, to people who have lost faith in the future of man and the world.
These political therapies are common in depressed Western democracies, as well as in emerging countries with many inequalities.
India is a democracy, the fifth largest economy in the world and an unequal society. President Narendra Modi prescribes Hindutva to the 1.2 billion Indians who are Hindu. It is a nationalist doctrine with a strong religious content.
Religion in India is everywhere. It structures social life, imposes food and conditions personal relationships. The god Ganesh, a fat boy with the head of an elephant, protects homes. The believers caress his belly and he helps them as much as he can, which is a lot.
Ganseh is the god of education, wisdom and intelligence. He removes obstacles and each year helps the million and a half engineers who come out of technology institutes, among them prodigies such as Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet / Google, Satya Nadella, from Microsoft, or Arvind Krishna, from IBM.
India is a young and technological country. The average age is 27.6 years, which represents a great demographic dividend because it triggers domestic consumption and investments, boosting growth. Before the end of this decade, India will be ahead of Japan and Germany. It will be the third economy in the world, behind China and the US.
The 4G network covers 98% of the country. Almost every Indian has a smartphone and almost everyone has opened a bank account. 40% of global mobile payments are made in India.
It seems like a Chinese miracle: 400 million people have been lifted out of poverty since Modi came to power ten years ago. Stopping being poor in India, however, is cheap. It is enough to earn about three euros a day.
Women have a very difficult time working. Only 24% do so. 70% of the population is rural, but more than 50% of the economy is services. Wealth accumulates in very few hands. The 20 main business groups monopolize 80% of the profits.
The magnates are happy and so are the poor. Everyone seems happy. They laugh and cry with Bollywood, McDonald's serves spicy burgers and there is no foreign luxury that tempts them. They prefer a silk kurta to a Gucci or Chanel dress.
86% are optimistic about the future, according to a survey by the European Council on Foreign Relations, and there is no other country in the world with more confidence in its leaders and faith in tomorrow.
Modi is their shepherd and he goes to bed more satisfied than any other world leader. He has more followers on Instagram, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) than any of them. He has sent a probe to the Moon, hosted the G-20 and filled the windows with Chinese smartphones at 80 euros. In the spring he is assured of re-election for a third term.
His references are Lee Kuan Yew, father of contemporary Singapore, and Vinayak Savankar, ideologue of Hindutva. Religion, nationalism and liberalism underpin his ideology.
Modi has a dark side. Promotes the cult of personality. He considers that Mahatma Gandhi was a traitor because he sought coexistence with the Muslim minority and despises Nehru because he was a social democrat. He doesn't give press conferences. He has ordered the murder of Sikh dissidents in Canada and the United States, and in 2002, as chief minister of Gujarat, he tolerated a massacre of Muslims. Last week he inaugurated a temple built on top of a razed mosque. The states where his ultranationalist party does not govern hardly receive public investments. Kashmir has lost its autonomy. He would like to see India renamed Bharat, an old Sanskrit appellation, and for Bharat to crush China thanks to cheap Russian oil and American economic and military aid.
Five more years in power will increase his mystical and messianic authoritarianism, but it doesn't matter because he is a vegetarian, does yoga, trusts Ayurvedic medicine, prays to the Hindu gods and worships Buddha. He is the New Age politician par excellence, the guru in sandals who shows the way to eternal happiness. Wouldn't you change your local politician for one like that? It is a guarantee of good karma on the way to perfection. Don't think twice. Have faith.
