India is the fastest growing economy and to retain the momentum, the country needed a stable govt and decisive stewardship. Country men were sick of instability and the "politics of pull and pressures", the hallmarks of a "hotch-potch" alliance of power-hungry politicians.
But then as the old saying goes "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely". The observation was made by Lord Acton, a British historian of the late nineteenth century underlining that a person's sense of morality lessens as his or her power increases. It was amply proved by many rulers the world over including Indira Gandhi. It was her fear of losing power that led to promulgation of emergency in seventies and subsequently her downfall.
Though Indian parliamentary system of democracy has many inherent strengths to checkmate the pitfalls of autocrat or one man power (Call it authoritarianism, despotism, monocracy, shogunate, totalitarianism or absolutism), yet rise of an autocrat or monocrat can't be ruled out. Our democratic experience of seven decades shows that despite participatory system of democracy, power, by and large, rests on one man (including Arvind Kejeriwal) and others become subservient to his wishes. The dynastic politics has added to this phenomenon.
We have seen the rise af fall of Indira Gandhi era. She was seen as paranoia as well as pride of India. Rising from a label of " dumb doll-goongi gudiya", she gained the reputation of being a stern skillful and ruthless politician, venerated by supporters but vilified by her opponents. She reigned vigorously and became a polarizing figure. But it was sheer arrogance of being invincible that led to her fall.
Another contemporary rising political phenomenon is China's president Xi Jingping. Xi came to power in 2012. At that time there was a ray of hope that he might transform the Communist Party into a modern government intent on economic reforms and rule of law. Instead, Xi’s actions led to astonishing centralization of power since the rule of Mao Zedong, the founder of communist China. Xi has taken new titles, enforced internet censorship, and presided over a crackdown on human rights activists, minorities (Read Uyghur Muslims)and punished more than 200 lawyers ad purged thousands of his own party men under anti-corruption drive. He made himself so indispensable that, ultimately, a law was enacted to make Xi to remain in power for life time.
The 2019 mandate see a rise of personality cult in BJP, a disturbing phenomenon in democracy. BJP at one time was deadly against it and used to slam Congress for this. Undoubtedly, Modi’s personality cult has been the BJP biggest asset since 2014 elections. It was crafted diligently over a period of time and this narrative worked well cutting across caste and class barriers. Modi has emerged as a strong and charismatic leader, not shy of eulogizing his humble background. He is loved and admired by middle class, poorer and downtrodden much to the chagrin of so called secular and socialist fores. In Modi Era, socialists have been almost decimated.
It is said Narendra Modi, never allows grass to grow under his feet. He has carefully crafted his protege, Amit Shah as organisational head over and above many senior leaders like Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh, Shivraj Singh Chauhan to hold his sway. Now he is in total command and every big or small will have to dance to his tunes including NDA allies. This is the real danger as one man say is not good for a system sustained by participatory democratic values and practices.Our bitter past warns us to be vigilant.