NaMo for all seasons

The Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) has set new standards of official adulation with its 2017 calendar. Each month bears a photograph of Narendra Modi in a variety of settings with an accompanying quote from the prime minister. April, for instance, has him on a hard-hat tour on a project site with a worthy observation on infrastructure; May shows him spinning the charkha and a quote about the MSME sector as India’s “economic backbone”. In October, inevitably, he is sweeping some garbage with a maxim about Swachh Bharat. Photos of Modi before the poor, with farmers, aspiring professionals, tribals, the armed forces and so on cover the ambit of his key political messages. Interestingly, we learn, the impulse for this initiative was entirely internal — there was no pressure from the Prime Minister’s Office.