LETTER FROM NEW DELHI
Indian trains are often late. To wait, travelers will soon be able to take a photo with Narendra Modi. The Indian Prime Minister is not blessed with the gift of ubiquity, but around a hundred stations across the country will be installing selfie booths, temporary or permanent, with a life-size 3D reproduction of him.
The information would have gone under the radar if a retired railway official, Ajay Bose, had not exercised his right to information with the administration of the same name, which recognized the operation and detailed its cost . Each permanent installation represents an expense of 625,000 rupees (6,800 euros) compared to 125,000 rupees for temporary ones (1,360 euros). “Selfie points” are already in place in several museums in the capital and even in parks, while circulars have been sent to universities and the armed forces to do the same.
The initiative seems almost banal as the cult of personality has crushed India since the Hindu nationalist came to power almost ten years ago. Narendra Modi was already omnipresent in the media – mainly in the hands of businessmen close to power –, in the streets and in airports, where giant panels bearing his image are displayed. Even the food ration bags distributed to 800 million poor people feature his photo, as do vaccination certificates. Every day, the government spends a lot of money buying advertising space to glorify the Prime Minister.
“Wimps and Fantasies”
The strong man of India even had the cricket stadium in the city of Ahmedabad named after him during his lifetime, the largest in the world, which hosts sporting competitions but also political meetings. Modi likes to parade there when he receives guests in Gujarat, his former stronghold.
The leaders of Congress, the main opposition party, were moved by this campaign at the expense of the taxpayer which comes a few weeks before the general elections scheduled for the spring. “The shameless self-promotion of the Prime Minister and the ruling party at the expense of the honest taxpayer is a blatant misuse of government resources that in any other democracy would be condemned and lead to revolt”Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said indignantly. “In India, we are unfortunately accustomed to giving in to the whims and fancies of our leaders,” he also recalled. During the time of Indira Gandhi, prime minister from 1966 to 1977, then from 1980 until her assassination in 1984, the country had already fallen into the cult of personality, but never to this extent.
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