Why do Narendra Modi's supporters still become hysterical with every victory?

I remember the time when I stood outside the closed gate of Ruparel College in Mumbai. It was the historical Lok Sabha election of 1977 and votes were being counted inside. There were no EVMs and no internet. I was one in a crowd of a few hundred people and we were all impatient to hear the first announcement of the counting. The pall of Emergency was very much present and everybody shied away from looking into a stranger's eyes.

The loudspeaker on the wall came to life. " ... Ahilya Rangnekar: seventy-two thousand xxxx ," After a few names it said, "RD Bhandare: fifty-seven thousand -" An involuntary shout of pure joy escaped my lips. And I was startled. Almost the entire crowd had shouted with me! I had not imagined that they were all with me in my joy for the victory of democracy.
The rest, as they say, is history. Both Indira and Sanjay were defeated, Congress was ousted from power at the Centre and Janata Party formed the Government. It was celebration time.

And yet there was no hysteria. There were many who felt euphoric at the election results, but none went hysteric. Not even those who had languished in prison during the Emergency had an urge to seek retribution, to go after Congressmen and make their life miserable. Hysteria did not become the dominant mood.

Curiously, the Congressmen stand apart in this context. Winning or losing makes no difference to them. They behave the same way with their political foes. There has hardly been a Congressman who has persistently insulted or ridiculed a defeated opponent. It is quite possible that they intrinsically believe themselves to be the rulers! Turncoats are everywhere; but even Shiv Sainiks who notoriously make a big noise when they win, have not betrayed a permanent hysteric streak even though they have been controlling the Mumbai Municipal Corporation for so long.

So, why is it so different now? The fit of hysteria that gripped some people after the BJP (or is it just Narendra Modi? Can't tell) swept the Lok Sabha polls, does not seem to ebb even after so many months. They continue in their delirium and have no use for rational discussion, do not listen to any counter-argument; they just cannot stand a single word of disagreement. Their hysteria keeps brimming over shrilly all the time. They cannot be dismissed as the occasional crackpots who one always finds in society, because of their sizeable number. Nor are they the kind of folks who equate loud noise with joy; who dance in abandon during public festivities. So, what is it that is bringing out the beast in them? This surely is a matter of concern.

Twitter, Facebook, etc are known as 'social media'. I think 'virtual media' is a better name to describe them. Here, you exist through your word and it is possible to hide your identity, if you so wish. As a result, people tend to be a little more relaxed; expression is much more extroverted. One would expect this to lead to a catharsis of one's inhibitions and obsessions and consequently to a cleaner social interaction in the physical world. But no; social media has been used as a machination to entice the innocent and the gullible. It has also become a convenient forum for abusive expression of hatred. And that is not all. Being abusive on, say Facebook, does not result in the catharsis of the vicious emotive forces in the mind. On the contrary, it becomes an indulgence. There was a time when caste, religion, language, class used to determine the divisions in society. For the present day 'netizens', the criteria are ideas and itches. These mental activities bring some together and separate them from others. Among Modi devotees, there is a greater prevalence of hate-mongers who betray a tendency to attack as a mob, to constantly needle their opponents and they seem to enjoy the time spent in character assassination of their political rivals. They have vitiated the virtual media forum as never before. The BJP did suffer a setback in the recent by-elections; but the opponents of BJP did not go overboard with hysteria. There were celebrations and processions and then it stopped.

There is no denying the fact that Indian voters have overwhelmingly moved towards the BJP led by Narendra Modi. And it cannot be explained away merely as a vote for anti-incumbency. They made a choice and the choice was Modi. But again, Modi's does not appear to have driven the general voter to hysteria. The by-polls after three months bear witness to this. Again, BJP is a political party where there are leaders and workers and ordinary members. It is easy to see that they have not become hysteric en masse. So who are these people who now feel, 'Now I hold the reins of power, I decide what is lawful and what is not, I have the privilege to go and abuse anybody; 10 like me can very well ask any one to shut up and if he or she does not listen, we can very well go ahead and give him or her a beating.' It would be foolish to say that they are all 'Hindus' or 'Gujaratis'. 

Ours is a country where I can stand up and fearlessly declare that "I do not believe in God, I will not treat Gita as a holy book, I shall not hesitate to eat beef if I am required to; I am a Hindu through and through." Here a caste (and the quasi judiciary system of the caste) has an iron grip over the life of its members; but an individual also has the right to break away from those shackles. As a matter of fact, flexibility, diversity are the very reasons why this culture has managed to survive for centuries. If the Hindu in general falls prey to the hysteria, that will be the end of the ancient culture of this land. Things are not that bad, will never be that bad.

It is as though these people (who have become hysteric at the present moment) were suffocating right from the day the citizens of this country began to elect their representatives through universal adult franchise and they had no means to express their anguish. They never felt represented whoever was in power; be it Congress or Janata Party or some hotchpotch of a coalition. They have always been utterly convinced that they are the Chosen Ones; that it is their right and responsibility to lead the country; that they are born for this express purpose. Naturally they abhor the democratic system which equates the educated and the uneducated, the wage earners and the destitute, the white-collar and the blue-collar, the urban and the rural. They look up to BJP as their own party. And when the latest Lok Sabha polls threw up an absolute majority for the BJP alone, when the BJP supreme leadership consists of a strong-willed administrator like Narendra Modi and a powerful Party President like Amit Shah, who can do and undo things at will; they, for the first time have a feeling that the cookie is now going to crumble their way. Things are going to shape up the way they want. And this feeling has driven them to hysteria.

Yet the question remains: what exactly is meant by 'things are going to shape up the way they want'? It can't mean that the country is going to develop; simply because one cannot chart the future development disregarding the development that has taken place since independence. Both India and Pakistan got their freedom at the same time. We have constructed dams, built steel mills, manufactured aeroplanes and tanks, created autonomous prestigious educational institutions like the IITs, have had a focused and fruitful atomic energy program. Our planners adopted the principle that the poor in the country will have the first right over the scarce natural resources. All this happened without having to play second fiddle to any superpower of the day. The tsunami of the last decade had struck the south east coast of India too. But by then, India was no more a poor country at the mercy of the rich and the powerful. The Manmohan Singh government politely declined to accept help offered by the West. It was in its second-term when the Manmohan Singh Government was accused of a policy paralysis. What about the earlier period? Was it not Rajeev Gandhi who took the telephone network to every corner of the country and who introduced us to computers? Was it not Indira Gandhi who nationalised major private banks and took banking to the Indian hinterland? Did she not help carve out Bangladesh, and thereby deal a body blow to Pakistan? Was it not solely on account of the astute adherence to the universally revered principles of non-violence and peaceful non-cooperation championed by Gandhi that Nehru managed to accord a respected place to our poor country, in the international arena? So, how can you go and say, 'during the dark 60 years of Congress misrule'? It is ridiculous to say that the Gandhi-Nehru family did nothing but rob the country.

The anticipation of development makes a man energetic, full of initiative. It is easy to see that Prime Minister Modi is trying to channelise this energy. But that and the hysteria of his 'more loyal than the King' followers are not the same thing at all.

All said and done, hysteria is not a product of rational thinking; born of weighing the pros against the cons. No one ever has helped themselves through hysteria. Why does this hysteria-affected tribe not understand that their hysteric elation is based on unsound premises? That they are bound to be greatly disappointed in future? Though their hysteric shenanigans are aimed to hurt the 'self-important leftist intellectuals'; they are also going to alienate a large section of society. In a democracy, nobody is blessed with eternal power. Even five years is a long period if the unbridled hysteria is not contained. Those enjoying their own hysteria must recover for their own good.