For over a decade, the Modi government built its politics on spectacle, slogans, and a carefully curated image of strength. Achche Din, New India, Viksit Bharat catchphrases rolled out in endless succession, amplified by a compliant media ecosystem and relentless social media machinery.
However, as we are saying good bye to 2025, the illusion seemed to have shattered falling flat on the ground. The slogans seem to have proved hollow thanks to several governance failures, which stand exposed, and public anger has replaced passive awe. What once appeared as a muscular, decisive regime now looks overstretched, defensive, and floundering? Let us check how:
The Politics of Slogans and Spectacle
The last 11 years have marked the sloganisation of politics. Governance was replaced with optics: high-profile inaugurations, grand statues, flashy summits, choreographed photo-ops, and relentless self-promotion.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was omnipresent – flagging off trains, walking bridges, saluting monuments, embracing world leaders – while the deeper work of institution-building and policy execution steadily eroded.
A powerful media blitz sold an image of rapid development and national resurgence. In reality, governance increasingly became centralised in the Prime Minister’s Office, hollowing out institutions and accountability.
Religious Mobilisation as Political Strategy
Alongside spectacle came an aggressive push of religious majoritarianism. From cow vigilantism to polarising legislations, from temple inaugurations to televised outrage, religious fervour was systematically stoked.
Dissenters were branded “anti-national,” “Khan Market gang,” or “pseudo-seculars.” Hate narratives flooded television studios and social media feeds, numbing public consciousness and diverting attention from governance failures.
For years, the strategy worked. Citizens complied – during demonetisation, during pandemic theatrics, even as bizarre claims replaced rational discourse.
2025: The Spell Breaks
By 2025, the misting fans of illusion began spewing toxic air instead. Daily failures like pollution crises, aviation chaos, administrative collapse in BJP-ruled states, corruption scandals, economic hardship became impossible to ignore. The slogan “Modi hai to mumkinhai” lost credibility. Let us check the core failures brought the dream crashing down.
Governance Paralysis and Institutional Failure
From civil aviation chaos to pollution mismanagement, the government appears incapable of handling routine governance.
Let us start with the recent airlines crisis. The IndiGo crisis exposed regulatory collapse. The DGCA issued Flight Duty Time Limitation rules, withdrew them hastily, and failed to monitor compliance, resulting in over 4,500 flight cancellations and mass passenger distress.
Centralised decision-making has left regulators confused and unprepared. Even ministers defending the government cannot hide the reality that the Modi regime itself enabled monopolies and duopolies in critical sectors.
On pollution, parliamentary disclosures reveal the absence of any serious national or inter-state action plan.
Corruption and Crony Capitalism
The promise of “Na khaunga, nakhaanedunga” has rung hollow. From the Supreme Court’s observations on contracts linked to relatives of BJP leaders to the Sandesara brothers’ lenient settlement, the perception of VIP impunity is entrenched. High-profile economic offenders from Nirav Modi to Mehul Choksi have slipped away while the government failed to pursue accountability with seriousness, which is nothing but a tip of the iceberg and with time the people who voted will realise how corruption and crony capitalism have been the core of this government.
Economic Slowdown and Flight of Citizen
India’s economy remains sluggish. The INR has been falling down performing badly to worse. And yet, the PM has some stupid argument for people stating that consider two rupees as one which will automatically bring down dollar cost to 45, how ridiculous. Private investment has stalled, foreign direct investment has declined, and even the IMF has raised concerns over the credibility of growth data. Nearly 10 lakh Indians have renounced citizenship in the past five years, an alarming indicator of eroding confidence. The well-marketed vision of a turbo-charged economy is increasingly exposed as statistical spin rather than lived reality.
The ‘Muscular’ Image Shattered
The government’s so-called tough-on-security narrative has cracked. Terror attacks in Pahalgam and near Delhi’s Red Fort punctured claims that terrorism had been neutralised. International reports questioning India’s military assertions, coupled with US President Donald Trump publicly claiming credit for India-Pakistan ceasefires, have further eroded the image of decisive leadership. Security lapses especially in the national capital have made the “strong state” narrative look dangerously hollow.
Foreign Policy in Disarray
Despite years of chest-thumping diplomacy, the empty slogan of calling Mr Modi as Vishwaguru seems to have fallen flat on the ground. India’s foreign policy stands weakened. Punitive tariffs from the Trump administration, diplomatic snubs, and the US openly equating India with Pakistan mark a sharp fall from the self-proclaimed Vishwaguru status. Neighbours from Nepal to Bangladesh show growing resentment, reflecting sustained regional missteps, while forget about the developed nations where our foreign minister spoke cringe language when it has come to pacify things and negotiate making a super hostile environment and ruining of the international relations.
Engineered Mandates and Democratic Erosion
The BJP’s electoral victories no longer inspire awe. Allegations of voter roll manipulation, open distribution of cash in Bihar, and misuse of budget announcements during election cycles point towards engineered mandates rather than organic public support. The implementation of so-called corrective measures like SIR simply proves out to be an exercise favouring the ruling party. Institutions meant to act as checks like the media, the Election Commission, even Parliament appear compromised. Bills are rushed through without debate, parliamentary scrutiny is side-lined, and dissent is bulldozed under the guise of majority.
The Mask Falls
What remains of the Modi juggernaut is a tired, command-and-control regime clinging to symbolism. Renaming schemes like MGNREGA or erasing historical figures reflects desperation rather than vision. Religious polarisation no longer distracts a population grappling with inflation, unemployment, pollution, and insecurity. Attempts to reignite old controversies fizzle out quickly in the face of widespread hardship.
The Illusion Ends
In 2025, the mask of development finally slipped. The Modi magic faded, and the spectacle lost its shine. Achche Din, once sold as destiny now stands fully exposed as a carefully engineered illusion, unravelled by persistent governance failures, deepening economic distress, institutional erosion, and growing public fatigue. What was projected as a transformational era revealed itself as a cycle of missed opportunities, inflated claims, and unaddressed realities. The promises remained loud; the delivery grew silent. For millions, hope gave way to anxiety, and faith in slogans was replaced by lived experience.
This was not a momentary setback or a passing crisis. It was a reckoning – one shaped by the gap between narrative and nation, between optics and outcomes. The dream did not merely falter. It ran out of credibility. It did not stumble. It collapsed.
[MohdZiyauallah Khan is a freelance content writer & editor based in Nagpur. He is also an activist and social entrepreneur, co-founder of the group TruthScape, a team of digital activists fighting disinformation on social media.]