India’s politicians have figured out how to turn welfare into votes
Plastering the leader’s name and face on every handout helps
It is the middle of 2021. An Indian woman on her way to London approaches the customer-service desk at Frankfurt airport and presents her vaccination certificate. The airline agent looks at the document, at the woman, at the document again, and frowns. Something is fishy. An accusation of fraud is hurled at the passenger: the certificate is an obvious fake, the photo on it is clearly of someone else—a bearded man! Ah, the passenger explains: that is Narendra Modi, our prime minister. He is on every one of the billion-odd vaccine certificates issued by the Indian government. Hilarity ensues.
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Attributary state”
Asia May 21st 2022
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- Myanmar’s resistance is at risk of believing its own propaganda
- Turkmenistan’s new president is clamping down on women’s freedoms
- Asia’s advanced economies now have lower birth rates than Japan
- India’s politicians have figured out how to turn welfare into votes
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