UPSC Aspirant 2025-26

"Today New Delhi’s critique has become part of global consensus on BRI. The acceptance of the logic of the Indo-Pacific from the West to the East, despite China’s strong disapproval, would not have happened without India’s enthusiastic response to it. And the emergence of the Quad would have remained a pipedream if New Delhi hadn’t clarified its foreign policy choices", writes Harsh Pant. https://t.me/iv?url=https://www.orfonline.org/research/indias-rise-is-a-reality/&rhash=e36df4d42d3427

(Christophe Jaffrelot) 👉 Charisma has been defined by the sociologist Max Weber as a “certain quality of an individual personality, by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities.” 👉 Charisma is above accountability and Modi apparently benefits from the same phenomenon. 👉 Some Hindus continue to see Muslims as potentially violent. This, partly, is a legacy of a complex that developed during the Raj. 👉 The international dimension of Modi is important, precisely because of the colonial roots of the stereotype of the “effete Hindu”. Before the pandemic, Modi constantly travelled across the globe and his trips were systematically publicised. He has made a point of hugging world leaders and of sharing the dais in large rallies with the powerful. Some of Modi’s achievements have been projected as unmatched in the rest of the world, like commissioning the statue of Sardar Patel — the tallest worldwide — or the International Yoga Day, introduced by the UN thanks to his efforts for promoting the global status of India. 👉 He is now above accountability, not only because of the strongman syndrome, but also because of his “guruhood”. 👉 In his closing speech to the Constituent Assembly in 1949, Ambedkar criticised the submission to authority that could result in a personality cult: “There is nothing wrong in being grateful to great men who have rendered life-long services to the country. But there are limits to gratefulness. (…) in politics, Bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and to eventual dictatorship”.  https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/narendra-modi-popularity-2019-elections-india-covid-19-7372799/lite/