Job-Seekers Voted Modi to Power, But Trust is Fading: W Andersen

“The aspirant class of India is large and growing,” says author of ‘RSS: A view to the Inside’ Walter K Andersen.

Walter K Andersen, author of ‘RSS: A View to the Inside’ in conversation with Editorial Director of The Quint.

(Photo: The Quint)

Video Editor: Abhishek Sharma

Walter K Andersen, Professor of South Asia Studies, Johns Hopkins University, who recently launched his book RSS: A View to the Inside, in an exclusive interview with The Quint’s Sanjay Pugalia talks about the role of poor aspirant youngsters who voted Narendra Modi to power in 2014 and their current mood.

When asked about the disconnect between urban and rural narrative, Andersen said, “The aspirant class of India is large and growing. Modi won, in many ways, because he appealed to that aspirant class. The narrative was that Gujarat was one of India's fastest growing states and that created jobs.”

That is still the narrative, but it is one that many people don’t believe in anymore because jobs have been created but not at the rate that is required.

Walter K Andersen

The political analyst adds that a sense of desperation runs across the country and that played a key role in Narendra Modi’s historic mandate in 2014, but it would be hard to replicate.

He added that Modi managed to make 2014 polls a ‘presidential-type election.’

He made it a presidential election with him at the core of it. And from all accounts that I see, he maybe more popular than his party.

Watch the full interview here.