Goa, June 22 -- SOTER D'SOUZA

In recent years, a famil iar pattern has come to dominate India's politics. Democracy is now about per sonalisation of power, con flation of leader and nation, narrative management, loy alty-centred politics, and the elevation of spectacle over institutional accountability. This is a style of politics centred less on institutions, policies, and collective prob lem-solving than on identi ty, attention, spectacle, and emotional gratification. Such politics thrives on the culti vation of leaders who pres ent themselves as singular saviours, victims, or embod iments of the people's will. The features of contempo rary Indian governance re semble patterns that political psychologists associate with 'narcissistic p...