What did PM Narendra Modi really say in his victory speech?

To the victor, the spoils. That is the hard reality of any contest. Magnanimity becomes the victor, however. Donning the mantle of magnanimity is part of the spoils. Narendra Modi wore it with the same finesse he demonstrates in other matters of attire, when he delivered his victory speech to an adoring crowd of party workers and a competitively unctuous horde of television anchors. It was the eve of Holi, a festival that lends itself to easy homilies on the victory of good over evil. Apart from such oblique demonisation,he did not deign to notice the vanquished opposition.

Modi’s political messaging and deployment of rhetoric are striking. The voters of five states that went to the polls have blessed the BJP, said the PM and, before him, party president Amit Shah, repeatedly. This is a rhetorical device that serves to obfuscate the reality that the BJP won actually only two states, although of the two, one is the biggest prize among states in the country. Punjab favoured the Congress. The Congress emerged the largest party in both Goa and Manipur but is unlikely to be able to form a government in either state.