111 PM speeches: Congress, vikas key themes; ‘4 castes’ find mention, Hindu-Muslim post-April 21

Attacking the Congress and its first family as the ancien régime, vikas and vishwaguru, and holding out the promise of Viksit Bharat by 2047: These themes have been a refrain in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speeches since the elections were notified on March 16. After the release of the Congress manifesto on April 5, the rhetoric swerved towards Hindu-Muslim issues and the idea of wealth redistribution and religion-based reservation at the expense of SC/STs and OBCs.

An analysis of the 111 speeches delivered by Modi from March 17 to May 15 by The Indian Express – drawing from the text available on narendramodi.in – shows how the key themes and changes in emphasis powered the narrative of his party and government as they bid for a third term.

He spoke of employment in 45 of his speeches and it was usually in the context of jobs generated through government projects and schemes. Inflation was mentioned in five speeches – framed as being cushioned by Central schemes and kept under control.

After the MCC came into force on March 16 and until the Congress released its manifesto on April 5, welfare schemes and the BJP’s development pitch were the major themes of Modi’s speeches, figuring in all 10 of his speeches in this period. The “vishwaguru” theme of India’s rising global stature also featured prominently finding mention in as many as eight of the 10 speeches.

In this period, his attacks against Congress and the Opposition revolved around allegations of nepotism, corruption and misgovernance, invoked in all 10 speeches.

Modi also began the campaign with repeated calls for “400 paar” — the BJP’s target to win more than 400 Lok Sabha seats with its allies. In these first 10 speeches, there were eight mentions of this goal. In