Akanksha Singh

Opinion | Why Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘watchman’ campaign could easily slip into vigilantism

With the country witnessing a rise in mob lynchings, fuelled by Hindu nationalism since Modi took office, his pre-election campaign risks encouraging Indians to take the law into their own hands

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has dubbed himself the “chowkidar” or “watchman” of the nation. Photo: Hindustan Times

Akanksha Singh

Published: 11:30am, 23 Mar 2019Updated: 11:37am, 23 Mar 2019

Last week, India’s incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its pre-election campaign. Dubbed the “chowkidar” (watchman) campaign, it aims to encourage Indians to be the country’s watchmen, with the tagline “Main bhi chowkidar” (“I’m also a watchman”). The party released a four-minute music video, featuring faces and places from across India, followed by 30-second versions, focusing on people from different professions, each ending with the “I’m also a watchman” song.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi added “chowkidar” to his Twitter handle, with BJP officials and supporters following suit. The hashtag #MainBhiChowkidar is trending on Twitter and now there are even mobile ring tones to show your support and let others know you are a watchman.

The Modi government has long marketed itself as an anti-corruption regime and seeker of justice. It is hard to deny that the opposition Indian National Congress’s history is riddled with scandal and corruption. However, the “chowkidar” campaign is problematic because of the “citizens on patrol” mentality it evokes.

The Indian general elections, to be held from April 11 to May 19, are the biggest democratic elections in the world, so the campaign’s grandiose bent shouldn’t surprise anyone. Indeed, having worked in the advertising industry, I can’t criticise the campaign itself – it knows its Bollywood-loving audience well and powerfully projects a nationalist message.

The campaign seems highly inclusive and, perhaps, judging from the “likes” the video has received on social media and how frequently it has been shared – 1.5 million times on Twitter alone – the public certainly seems to think so. However, in an environment in which being Indian has come to be synonymous with being Hindu, the new BJP publicity push raises concerns.

The idea of every Indian citizen being a watchman is the seemingly benign face of a much more worrisome trend of right-wing Hindu nationalism expressed as vigilantism in the country since the BJP came to power in 2014. Hate Crime Watch, a data-driven multi-organisation project, found that the number of hate crimes motivated by religious bias last year was the highest in a decade. In July 2018, the country’s Supreme Court asked the government to enact a new law to deal with the surge in mob violence and lynching.