The 2019 elections resulted in an astonishing win for the incumbent government. BJP came crashing down not just on Congress but every other imaginable Opposition party. They literally swept away everything and as their slogan, ‘abki baar 300 ke paar’ (this time, more than 300), became a reality.
India, at this juncture, finds itself existing in a binary state of extreme ideologies and at the very centre of both these extremes is Modi. More than Modi, I think it’s the idea of Modi, the larger than life picture of him that has led to this situation where there is no middle ground; you either love his image, or you hate it.
In my opinion and experience, in this case, love and hate are not personal; I don’t think anyone hates him as a person and I am sure he must be kind to people around him.
The election results came as a shock to me personally and also to my peers who are not very fond of Modi. It was well established that the Opposition wouldn’t win the majority and NDA would rise to power but nobody really thought that BJP alone would rise to an astonishing number of 303 seats. It certainly was a shock and I think I know why.
Modi supporters didn’t seem as shocked, and even the exit polls were spot on. There was a lot of criticism against their predictions and methodology, but regardless of what we say, their numbers didn’t lie.
But the real question that arises here is, why were Modi supporters not as shocked as us, what did we miss and what did they see? Are we living in a completely different world? I believe we are. We are living in completely different worlds, our illusion of reality and their illusion of reality is vastly different.
In this modern world where connectivity and flow of information have gone beyond human comprehension, we have divided the world into small groups, and the thing that divides us is data. Our consumption of data is the only way we can communicate with the world, and with the rise of clickbait news and profit optimisation, we often see things the way we want to see them. For instance, if you are a Modi supporter the news you consume will probably not be from channels like NDTV, but you’re probably watching news that is overtly supportive of the BJP and everything they stand for.
Similarly, someone like me just can’t put up with channels like Republic TV, Zee News, India TV etc. To be clear, I am not talking about the quality of the coverage, I am talking about how people’s consumption of content shapes their illusion of reality.
Not just TV, but it’s also true for all the other content delivering platforms; if you are on twitter, and you are a Modi supporter, you probably will not follow liberal accounts or pages, you would avoid following people with contrasting views, and you’d rather follow and consume content that is consistent with your view of the world.
In this dense fog of flowing information and the rush that the life has become, who’s got the time to fact check? You’ll keep consuming whatever provides comfort. Yes, you might get into debating and that might change your opinion, but that is very unlikely.
The crux of the matter is, we are very much screwed because the web of information that is available to us will continue to create a false sense of reality which may or may not coincide with the real world. This is why many Indians were shocked by the election results.
To end this on a rather optimistic note, unless and until there is a people’s revolution that starts from the very bottom, like the classic ways it has happened in history, there is no possibility to change opinions. If nothing works, let’s just wait for an asteroid to get this thing over with.