“Modinomics” in speech – Narendra Modi’s portrayal of India in a politico-economic context

Abstract

This paper aims to shed light on which image of India, its economic policies and stakeholders Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi evokes in his speeches in the economic sphere. Narendra Modi, member of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), came into office with the promise to spread his ‘Gujarat model’ of development to all of India. With words painting a future of economic well-being, business-friendly policies and relief to the deprived, he promoted himself as confident vikās puruṣ, development man, leading the BJP to power. After his third electoral victory in 2024, Modi’s ability to rhetorically address the desires of voters remains a significant area of research. Using a corpus of thirty-two speeches of Modi’s second term of office (2019-2024) and the methodological approaches of the Interpretative Policy Analysis, I examine the employed narratives and rhetoric telling the story of the country’s alleged economic successes. The speeches in Hindi and English language are targeted at business interest representations, government officials and the broad public, hence, the different communication styles depending on the intended audience will be explored as well. The paper, thus, offers insights into the world-wide occurrence of how right-wing politicians generate broad based popularity by using nationalist rhetoric and abstract stories of economic prosperity to successfully assume political power.