One way of teasing out the principal impulse behind Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s politics of steamrolling the Opposition, through means fair and foul, is to imagine him out of power, an exercise difficult to undertake as he has never lost an election in which his own fate was at stake. So, even as you read these lines, assume today is June 4 and the election results show the National Democratic Alliance is, say, 30-40 seats short of the majority mark, with the Bharatiya Janata Party still, individually, far ahead of its competitors.

This scenario will immediately prompt a change in the behaviour of TV anchors, who will, in contrast to their last 10-year record, adopt a voice of neutrality as they analyse the results. They will ask questions like: Is Modi to blame for the BJP’s slide? Is the verdict the nation’s vote against authoritarianism or misgovernance? What explains the fading away of Modi’s magic touch?