Modi’s elections or Dictator Aladeen’s Olympics?

Many in India are making comparisons between the upcoming elections and the rigged Olympic Games depicted in the 2012 comedy Dictator. They are not wrong.

There is a famous scene in Sasha Baron Cohen’s 2012 comedy “Dictator”. Dictator Aladeen participates in a 100-metre race that is part of the Olympic Games that he himself organised. He has the pistol that announces the start of the race. He fires it after he starts running. As he runs ahead of his competitors, he shoots anyone who comes close to him. One by one, all the runners fall down – either with a bullet wound or out of fear. When Dictator Aladeen becomes visibly out of breath, the people holding the ribbon that makes up the finish line start running towards him. He crosses that ribbon and wins the race. We are then told that he has won a total of 14 medals in the Olympic Games.

This scene has become quite popular on Indian social media since it was announced that elections for the 18th Lok Sabha will be held between April 19 and June 1 across the country. People are commenting that what was parodied in that scene in the movie Dictator is actually happening in India today. And they have ample reason to reach that conclusion.

Sure, India cannot formally be classified as a dictatorship, but it currently cannot be classified as a functioning, healthy democracy either. There are, in fact, some undeniable similarities between the actions of fictional Dictator Aladeen in the 2012 movie and those of India’s current rulers on the eve of the 2024 election.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, for example, launched its large-scale, state-funded election campaign long before the date for the election was announced and campaigning budgets for all