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,