India’s 2019 General Election: National Security and the Rise of the Watchmen

Abstract

In 2014, Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a landslide victory on a platform that promised rapid economic development, jobs, and prosperity. ‘Good days’ (acche din) were coming, they pledged, and they would deliver them. After five years of lacklustre growth, however, Modi and the BJP approached the 2019 general election in very different terms. Following a terrorist attack in Kashmir and retaliatory air strikes on camps in Pakistani-controlled territory, Modi and his allies restyled themselves as a chowkidars (‘watchmen’), insisting that they were best placed to keep India safe and secure. This article analyses that shift, arguing that far from simply opportunistic, it represented the culmination of a broader push, dating back to 2014, to use foreign and security policy to bolster Modi’s image and consolidate the BJP’s electoral dominance.