PM Modi Is The World’s Most Popular Leader: New York Times Explains Why

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is one of the most popular leaders in the world, but, do you know the reason behind his popularity?

According to Mujib Mashal, writing in The New York Times (NYT), his popularity is linked to Mann Ki Baat, a popular monthly radio programme that feeds a vast social media apparatus.

"Each broadcast of 'Mann Ki Baat', which loosely translates as Conversations From the Heart, is scripted for a nation on the ascent, connecting the local with the national and the global. The programme which is aired every month associates PM Modi with every positive happening, big or small, and every solution, tangible or spiritual," reported the NYT.

"His popularity is not based on the fact that he is the Prime Minister of the world's largest democracy, nor because of the various countries he visits, it's because of the impact he has on those people and obviously, on us, Indians and the policies he drives speaks volume of his legacy," it added.

Once a month, PM Modi walks into a studio set up at his government bungalow and takes his seat behind a microphone and begins his radio show, for which he has recorded over 100 episodes, with a usual greeting in Hindi: "My dear countrymen, hello!", the report read.

"The radio shows, sliced into short clips and blasted through his party's immense social media apparatus, accompanied by text and video, shape a persona wholly disconnected from the stoking of religious divides and the silence on sectarian violence that have marked his years in power. It is a softer Modi, served up for mass consumption, that counters his more partisan rhetoric in rallies and speeches," the report added.

"Off the radio airwaves, Mr. Modi has many avatars: yoga teacher, poet, tech champion, wildlife photographer, even holy man clad in colorful robes and headwear - what his party's president recently called "the king of deities," NYT reported.

This image, nurtured persistently, has made Modi immensely popular at home and helped rehabilitate him abroad after he temporarily became an international pariah two decades ago, accused of human rights violations over deadly communal riots and barred from entering the United States.