Even to a cynic like me.

To say I felt disconnected from this election is an understatement. I moved to India from Hong Kong where the democratic process had been decimated, but life was going on, and not badly either (freedom of speech wasn’t what it used to be, almost every politician from the democratic camp – and then some – was in jail but the government was still accountable to the people more or less. Most recently, the so-called authoritarian government had to pull a waste-charging scheme in the face of public opposition, rubber-stamp legislature or not).

In India, I was resigned to the BJP winning and continuing its transformation of the country into a Hindu rashtra. I couldn’t register to vote and so couldn’t get the endorphin hit that comes with an inked finger.

Ironically, the Indian election results were declared on June 4, the day 35 years ago that the Communist Party brutally cracked down on student protesters in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. It seemed a fitting day for another autocrat to consolidate his position.

And then India surprised me.

The BJP’s 370/400 target was a tall order, but who could have predicted the thumping in UP, the gains the India alliance made, the loss in Ayodhya?

Maybe the BJP had some inkling that it had talked too big a game, because some of Modi’s comments during this election campaign were truly shocking. The man is a two-term prime minister, convinced that he is directly descended from the divine no less, but he still felt the need to say: “When they (the Congress) were in power, they said Muslims have first right over resources. They will gather all your wealth and distribute it among those who have more children. They will distribute among infiltrators.” 

It may be too much to hope that Nitish Kumar will jump ship once again, but after too long, we will have an opposition with some teeth.

Because I am a pessimist, I also have some feeling of foreboding. When the prime minister was seemingly in a position of strength, he didn’t hesitate to get down to the level of the street and appeal to the lowest common denominator, proving he will do what it takes to win, regardless of what befits the leader of a country.

Now that he has been dealt a stinging slap, what will he do? The verdict in UP seems to suggest that people care more about jobs than temples. But jobs, unlike temples and hate speech, are harder to produce out of thin air.

The easiest strategy for politicians in a corner is to lash out at an enemy within and without. The BJP doubled down on the former in this election, inaugurating the Ram Mandir a couple of months before the polls and making noises about temples under other mosques. In 2019, it seemed to have been more successful with a surgical strike on an external threat. Will it lean in that direction in the next four years?

Now that Modi-Shah have been shown not to be invincible, will this trigger a power struggle within the BJP that will result in someone even worse, willing to go even further, an actual, say, yogi, perhaps?

For now though I’m enjoying the memes.