At the beginning of the Lok Sabha election season a couple of months ago it seemed that the outcome of the 2024 outcome was a foregone conclusion. And, when the Election Commission announced the election schedule, the received wisdom was that the prolonged time-table was designed to enable the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s ace mascot and vote-catcher, Prime Minister Narendra Modi to do what he does best: set the agenda, fine-tune the narrative, and tweak the nation’s mood in his favour.
On the eve of the first round of voting, it seems that the BJP’s biggest investment is turning out to be a non-paying asset. On the hustings, the prime minister is already looking jaded and faded, over-exposed, over-hyped and over-worked. A bit like Jasprit Bumrah being asked to bowl all the overs in a T20 match.
The great sociologist, Max Weber, who conceptualized the concept of “charisma,” had also introduced the idea of “routinisation of charisma.” A charismatic personality – she or he could be a saint/ religious figure, a cine celebrity, a sports person or a political actor – eventually loses their novelty and runs out of tricks that in the first place helped create an aura of inexhaustible “charisma.” A charismatic personality rises in contrast to others actors on the stage; but then the “charisma” drives the rest of the cast away, and it becomes a solo show. And, then, the audience gets too familiar with the charismatic actor’s repertoire; the dramatic pause can be anticipated, the lines become predictable, the body language all too familiar. Only those who reinvent themselves constantly get to command the stage….
https://thewire.in/politics/six-week-show-begins-but-the-charisma-has-gone
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