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21 October 2020

Five ways in which Modiji owns you

It is obvious that Modiji has some influence over his supporters. Even when they don't like BJP, they find it difficult to dislike Modiji.

While reading the book 'Influence' by Cialdini, I was wondering about the hold that Modiji has on his supporters despite twenty years of delivering average / below average governance. So here is my attempt to fit the phenomenon to a theoretical framework.

1. Commitment and Consistency: As per this principle, once you have committed to something, you modify your behaviour to live in line with your commitment. And the acts of commitment have exploding effect. You could make a very small commitment and later could behave in a significantly huge way to live true to the commitment.
Modiji is a past master at getting you to commit. You may go to a BJP meeting as an independent and once you answer the question 'Congress ko Nikaalna chahiye ki nahin nikaalna chahiye' and the Crowd chants 'Nikaalna chahiye' and you chant alongside, you have committed publicly to vote against Congress. Note that in this sentence he never explicitly asks anyone to vote for BJP. It is just implied.

2. Scarcity: If you make people fear that something is becoming scarce, you have had them by the balls. By his various statements like 'Shamshan / Khabarstan', 'Jersey Cow', 'Hum Paanch, hamare pachees' and others, Modiji makes it look as if with minorities will make the 'Hindu way of life' scarce. Even when data do not support this narrative, it has the outcome of making many people run to the person who looks like they can save 'our way of life'.

3. Getting supporters to do things and Commitment Principle: One insidious way in which Modiji manipulates his supporters is by getting them to do things. And he makes it look as if they did it on their own volition. There is commitment principle number one, right there.
On yoga day he gets people to publicly do yoga. As a part of Swachh Bharat, thousands of Indians were on the streets with broomsticks and what not. He got people to clang their plates and light Diyas. Conditioning people to do as he wants them to do is the surefire way of creating a nation of subservient populace.

4. Whatsapp forwards and Commitment Principle: BJP got the WA game right in 2014. Till early 2017, when it was clear that most of the messages you get in WA are fake news, BJP ruled the WA roost. Every message that one received was forwarded as if it was gospel truth. There was an obscene photoshopped image forwarded by a well known RW guy which showed Pundit Nehruji in the company of some bar dancers. This was forwarded by many people. Every time a person forwards the message, he / she was committing to that message.

5. Scarcity: Another way in which Modiji makes himself scarce is by avoiding press conferences. While the objective is to avoid being asked tough pointed questions from the press, his avoidance of PCs makes him scarce and paradoxically more valuable in the eyes of the supporters.

It is obvious that Modiji and BJP have played their supporters like violin. Will the supporters realize that they are being manipulated?

No, I don't think so. The mind meld has been very powerful.

My only hope is the the next generations will behave like responsible citizens and start asking questions of the government of the day. That is their democratic duty, ain't it?

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