This election, the Constitution has emerged as the star of political rhetoric – and a symbol of hope

Ummeed par duniya qayam hain: the world is established on hope. There is talk of names being deleted from electoral rolls, of electronic voting machines being manipulated and of Muslims and Dalits being threatened to stay away from the booths. Opinion polls show that unemployment, particularly after Covid-19 devastated the labour market and small industries, is the main issue in this election.

The farmers of northern India are alienated from and annoyed with a government that sentimentally invokes them but treats them with a casual brutality if they protest. There is talk among the well-heeled as well as the person on the street that this will be a stolen election. This perception has led to dire predictions that if the Bharatiya Janata Party wins this election again, it will perhaps be the last election.

The prime minister, seemingly convinced of this, has provided a forecast for the next thousand years that sees a resurgent Hindu India scaling every peak of economic and social advancement. At the same time, there has been a bruiting about of the idea of an expansive welfarism, a politics of hope that speaks of transfers of money from the state to the people.

As Congress leader Rahul Gandhi put it dramatically, come June 4, khatatkhat, khatakhat, a...

Read more