“Forty-seven years ago on June 26, democracy was made a hostage, an attempt was made to crush democracy which is our pride and in the DNA of every Indian…The courts, every constitutional institution, and the press were put under control…Thousands were arrested and lakhs suffered…,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 26 last year, speaking eloquently about the assault on democratic rights during the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi.

Also read: Interview: ‘Many Differences but Also Similarities Between Now and Emergency in 1975’

While his admirers hail all of this as ‘Modi magic’, his critics attribute them to the teflon around him which allows him to retain dictatorial control over the system. But a new book Spin Dictators — The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century offers us a different explanation. It turns out that that the much-hailed Modi halo is not an isolated phenomenon, but that he has only followed the 21st century dictators’ standard playbook.

Daniel Treisman and Sergei Guriev
Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century
Princeton University Press (April 2022)

Written by Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman, Spin Dictators is in the genre of the 2018 book How Democracies Die by political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. Guriev and Treisman divide dictators into two categories: fear and spin. While conventional dictators retained power by resorting to violent and oppressive means, the 21st century has produced a new smart set whom the authors aptly call ‘spin dictators’.

Unlike dictators who ruled by fear, the new crop of dictators avoid violent methods like repressing and punishing opposition, suspension of rights, resorting to mass arrests, outright media censorship, blocking cross-border communication, and holding fake elections in which the boss wins with 99% votes. The spin dictators won’t physically terrorise their political opposition but will doggedly prosecute them for tax violations and libel. Outright political murders are rare.

As in India, the spin dictators co-opt media owners, bosses, and journalists as allies and use them for favourable publicity for themselves, the book says. They do it by wearing them down with lawsuits for tax violation and by arbitrary ‘pseudo-technical’ means. (In India, the preferred method is financial harassment of owners via tax raids or blocking government advertisements). The spin dictators thus build a ‘devoted’ pro-regime media even while allowing a section of the media to do critical stories. This tends to further enhance the dictator’s liberal image.

According to the authors, spin dictators hold fairly free elections and allow the opposition to field candidates to create an impression of full democracy. But the opposition hardly gets a level playing field. Fund crunch, adverse media treatment, and outright harassment make their chances of victory ‘zero’.

Though Spin Dictators is so Western-centric that countries like India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Cambodia and monarchies like Saudi Arabia and the UAE are out of its radar, a closer look at the book will show that Modi has not only borrowed from their playbook but excelled in every respect by resorting to both fear and spin. He has already emerged as a Vishwaguru to the spin dictators.

The book says spin dictators are adept in post-modern propaganda to show off their competence and leadership skills. They repeatedly appear on TV and other media. But Modi has outpaced them. Every public event Modi must inaugurate. Every Vande Bharat train he must flag off. Never mind how much a Modi function costs to the exchequer. An RTI reply said Rs. 1.48 crore was spent on Thiruvananthapuram Vande Bharat function. Together with a Tamil Nadu function, they cost Rs 2.60 crore to Southern Railways.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flags off the Gandhinagar-Mumbai Vande Bharat Express train, in Gandhinagar, September 30, 2022. Photo: PIB via PTI

Every cheetah Modi must release in Kuno. Never mind one-third of them have already died. He must figure prominently in every state government display advertisement by Bharatiya Janata Party chief ministers. Now even the Eknath Shinde government of Maharashtra has joined the hail Modi club (see the ads in the newspapers on July 16). Every Ayush outlet should display a Modi hoarding at the entry.

Also read: Three More Cheetahs Have Neck Infections; Expert Says Last Cheetah Death ‘Potentially Avoidable’

About 15 central schemes have been named after ‘PM’. Sample a few: PM Swanidhi, PM Sadak Yojana, PM Pranam, PM Shri. The latest to enter the ‘PM’ club is PMSSM, a renamed scheme launched during Manmohan Singh’s rule. Now, perhaps for the first time, Narendra Modi’s name directly figures in a central scheme: ‘Modi School’

Modi’s homilies to the members at a special function after the BJP national executive meeting is the highlight, not its deliberations as such. Earlier, the national executive was a vibrant body where half a dozen senior leaders debated party policies. This is how the brand Modi is built.

He skilfully takes advantage of India’s market clout and its role as a deterrent to China. This enabled him to blunt the repeated criticism of human rights violations and India’s decline in the press freedom index. Similarly, Modi sticks to the government-to-government mode for India’s high-value defence deals — again, an effective lever to silence the critics of his authoritarian style.

Look how the Modi regime maintains its vice-like grip on every arm of the administration:

• Spin dictators, authors say, use religion to enhance their clout. But Modi made Hindutva and religious hatred the foundation of his vote base and cadre power. It is this Hindutvaisation of the community that helps the BJP retain power in its core states like Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.

• The way Modi tamed, made dormant, or weaponised watchdog bodies like Comptroller and Auditor General, Central Vigilance Commission, Central Information Commission, National Statistical Office, and Lokpal. A look at the CAG reports shows how restrained and cautious it has been when it comes to the Centre while going the whole hog against the irregularities by the opposition state governments.

• Every law like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act has been tweaked to provide more punitive powers to the executive, enabling the ruling party to imprison political rivals. Of late, the Supreme Court has become more liberal in granting bail.

• Luckily for democracy, the Supreme Court frustrated the executive’s moves to induct political favourites at crucial positions in the judiciary by striking down the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act. But the Supreme Court collegium’s recommendations for judges are often delayed or killed by the government if the persons chosen are not to its liking.

• Modi’s regime took advantage of financial levers like tax-exempt status for non-profits to silence criticism by reputed think tanks like Central for Policy Research and the Independent Public Spirited Media Foundation (a major donor to The Wire from 2016 to 2019). The law on foreign contributions (FCRA) has also been similarly weaponosed.

• It established an effective system of informal liaison between the Enforcement Directorate/Central Bureau of Investigation and local BJP leaders. The former pass on cases of ‘irregularities’ by opposition leaders which the BJP leaders could make use of against them. The local leaders, in turn, provide political support to ED’s actions by launching public protests.

• Systematic tweaking of the textbooks and extensive publicity of PM’s Man Ki Baat has been paving the way for the emergence of a generation of Hindutvised, hate-filled future voters.

Modi’s biggest achievement has been building a permanent ready-to-support system which has begun working on its own momentum. Earlier, the PMO or J.P. Nadda’s office had to prod the drum thumpers and supporters on how they should react to opposition attacks. Now, they respond on their own without directions.

This multi-level network for instant response encompasses social media, films, and intelligentsia. Apart from TV debates, a set of pro-regime poor calibre writers occupy the edit and oped pages of newspapers. As a counter to liberal academics and professionals, a few labharthi right-wingers have emerged with prompt media boost.

P. Raman is a veteran journalist.