We didn't see it coming. The tsunami of support that propelled Prime Minist...
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI - We didn’t see it coming. The tsunami of support that propelled Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party into a second five-year term was a surprise to many of us reporting on the mammoth Indian general election.
As the two reporters leading the coverage in rural areas we knew our subject matter well. When there isn’t an election we are commodities reporters, talking to farmers and traders about sugar prices, or the quantity and quality of their potato and wheat crops. Despite the rural anger, at no time did we get a feeling that Modi was going to lose the general election. The assessment by Reuters’ correspondents was that he was going to win with reduced support from voters and might need partners to stay in power.
But the situation still wasn’t clear cut, and did not point toward the huge mandate that Modi eventually clinched. This was reinforced by a well-funded BJP organization that got the message out with brutal efficiency, whether through social media, mainstream media or at rallies and other events.“Things changed rapidly after our military aircraft attacked terrorist camps in Pakistan,” farmer Uday Vir Singh told Reuters this week by telephone from Kairana in Uttar Pradesh state.
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