The Narendra Modi government has done its five years, a period, even his most serious critics would admit, is already etched in history. Five more years and 300-plus seats are what he and his party are seeking now, a rare ambition by a party and a government that reels out numbers to make big claims about small achievements, whether regarding economic performance or those killed by air strike in Balakot. Columnists and experts can keep quibbling about the strategic advantage that India gained from its attack on Pakistan, but it has impressed those who believe leadership is about flaunting muscles. Balakot has arrested the BJP's slide, which was evident with the losses in the assembly elections of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

An assessment that begins from the last page of Modi's first term can't but conclude that his government is totally in control. Yet, ironically, his government remains angry, as it has been through much of its five years, surprising for one enjoying a brute majority. It has been angry with 60-plus years of Congress rule, with institutions, individuals, liberals, NGOs, economists, bankers, students, Dalits, Muslims, women, and all those who have tried telling the government that it was functioning in a democracy where dignity and rights of an individual matters. Instead of listening to them, the citizen was told only about her obligations to the nation. She was reminded that she should not ask questions but acquiesce in what was on offer.