High On Josh!

Two decades ago, the NDA rode to power after the Indian army won the Kargil war. This election, the BJP hopes to win again on the back of the national security

- Sandeep Unnithan

Until February 14, the government was on the back foot as it had to answer for lack of jobs and agricultural distress. The suicide bomb attack on a CRPF convoy, which killed 40 troopers that day, changed all that. On February 26, air strikes on a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror training camp in Balakot in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa changed the political narrative—from economy to national security. This was reflected in the BJP’s election manifesto released on April 8. National security moved up as the prime agenda point, ahead of agriculture, as the party emphasised a “security doctrine guided by national security interest only”. The party’s manifesto emphasised how “the Prime Minister’s decisive leadership fundamentally altered India’s national security paradigm in the last five years”.

The presidential tilt to the election means this line could be politically lucrative as well. It is an equally strong reminder of the party fulfilling its 2014 manifesto promise to “deal with cross-border terrorism with