Modi report card: There is only one issue in 2019 LS polls—NaMo himself

There is only one issue in the 2019 general election. Voters are being asked to either vote for that issue or against that issue. The issue is Narendra Modi.

Both the government and the opposition have contributed to this—of having made one man the sole issue in this election. If the BJP is seeking votes in his name and for what he has done, the opposition is seeking votes against him—for what he has done and what he hasn't done.

Everything else in this election that is being discussed, debated or doubted flows from this one issue.

Isn't jobs an issue, one may ask. Yes, it is. But the issue is not whether jobs have been created or lost. The issue is whether Modi gave more jobs or Modi threw more people out of their jobs.

Isn't corruption an issue? After all, it was an issue in the 2014 election, which was held in the wake of the coal scam, spectrum scam, Commonwealth Games scam and other scams. Yes, corruption is an issue in this election, too. But it is not whether there was more corruption or less corruption during the last five years. The issue is whether Modi rooted out or tackled corruption as he had promised, or did Modi aid corruption. In other words, did Modi hunt down the corrupt or did Modi aid the corrupt?

Isn't prices an issue? Yes, it is. But it is not whether prices have gone up or come down. The issue is whether Modi brought down prices, or whether he pushed up prices.

Isn't farmer distress an issue? Yes, it is. But it not whether farmers are better off now or worse off. The issue is whether Modi has doubled the farmers' income as he had promised, or whether he has pushed more of them into penury and driven them to suicide.

Isn't nationalism an issue? Yes it is. But it is not whether India has got strategically stronger or whether we have got weaker. The issue is whether it was Modi who got the war jets to score precise hits at Balakot or whether he failed to prevent Uri, Pathankot and Pulwama.

Isn't the Rafale deal an issue? Yes it is. But it is not whether someone made an illegal profit out of the deal. The issue is whether Modi got a better deal from the French than the UPA government would have, or whether he compromised on the deal to help crony capitalist Anil Ambani.

The whole issue in this election is one man. He is the trump card for the BJP to seek a second term to rule India—his leadership, his reforms, his diplomacy, his economic management, his reaching out to the people and his running of the government. He is also the sole target for the opposition—not Jaitley for demonetisation, not Sitharaman for Rafale, not the economic ministers for the dismal job scene.

The whole discourse is did Modi this? Didn't Modi this? Was Modi this? Wasn't Modi this? Will Modi this? Won't Modi this? Modi this, or Modi that? Modi here, or Modi there? Modi then, or Modi now?

No general election in India has been so singularly personalised, save perhaps the one in 1977 when the entire opposition rallied against one person, Indira Gandhi. That election is still remembered for Indira's defeat rather than the Janata Party's victory. It is remembered more as the election that felled Indira Gandhi than as the election that threw up the first non-Congress government.

Yet, even in that election, there were other personalities in the discourse, such as Sanjay Gandhi and Jayaprakash Narayan, and other issues such as the Emergency and dynastic rule. Several of the Emergency excesses that were debated over weren't blamed on Indira, at least directly.

Not so, this time around. Anything and everything that is being raised in elections 2019—credit or blame—is of one man, for one man or against one man. It is as if nothing has moved in India in the last five years without Modi knowing about it—for good or bad.

The blame for such extreme personalisation of the contest falls on both the ruling side and the opposition. Modi, his party and his fans have been crediting him with everything that has run well or worked fine in India in the last five years—from getting government clerks in their seats during office hours to running escalators at railway stations, from building giant statues of Indian statesmen to getting world statesmen to attend India's Republic Day, from the Mars mission being successful to the missile strike on a satellite hitting the bullseye.

Quite similarly, the opposition has been blaming everything that has gone wrong in India on Modi. For the Chinese building roads on the Bhutan border, for Adani appropriating airports and seaports, for farmers killing themselves, for Mallya malling in Pall Mall, for dalits being slain, for girls being abducted, for cows blocking traffic, for cities being polluted, for Pulwama, for Pathankot... The list is endless.

Whether he wins this election or not, one thing has to be conceded. No other political personality since Indira Gandhi has invoked such strong passions—either positive or negative—across such vast sections of the populace in India as Modi has.

If Modi wins it, elections 2019 will be remembered in history as the one in which Modi triumphed. Not as the elections in which Rahul failed, Mayawati flopped or Mamata Banerjee floundered.

If the opposition wins it, still it won't be remembered as Rahul Gandhi's or Mamata Banerjee's or Mayawati's election. It will be remembered as the one that defeated Modi.

Round 2019, thus, is Modi's election—whether he wins it or loses it.