Attacks on opposition parties, not development dominated PM Modi's 2019 campaign speeches
India Today's Data Intelligence Unit revealed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent more than half the time (53 per cent) in attacking the opposition and 18 per cent on issues related to national security and terrorism.
What did Narendra Modi talk about the most during his 2019 election campaign speeches?
Critics say that national security was the central focus of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's campaign. They argue that PM Modi repeatedly refers to military strikes in Pakistan to divert attention from issues such as unemployment and agrarian distress.
PM Modi claims that's not true. In April, during an interview to India Today TV, PM Modi had said, "If my speech lasts 40 minutes, then I would have spent 3-4 minutes on national security. Other than that, the speeches are all about housing, farmers, electricity and roads. These are the topics."
"Analyse my speeches," PM Modi had said. And India Today's Data Intelligence Unit (DIU) did just that.
DIU randomly selected five speeches of PM Modi in key states, broke them down into four broad themes - greetings, attacks on opposition, schemes/development works and national security - and analysed the time he spent on each topic.
The five speeches we studied were given in Assam, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Karnataka, and were spread across April and May.
Contrary to what PM Modi claims, our analysis revealed that on an average, he spent only 29 per cent of the time in his speeches on schemes and development work done by the government.
PM Modi spent more than half the time (53 per cent) in attacking the opposition and 18 per cent on issues related to national security and terrorism. Time spent on generic greetings is excluded from these figures.
In Jhargram, West Bengal, and Ramlila Maidan, Delhi - where the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) main fight is against strong regional players Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal - PM Modi spent over 60 per cent of the time (excluding greetings) attacking the opposition. In the 44-minute long speech at Ramlila Maidan, PM Modi took potshots at the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress for around 23 minutes.
Terrorism and national security feature prominently in every speech of PM Modi we studied. On average, irrespective of the duration of the speech, he spoke about security issues for around five minutes.
When PM Modi spoke at Mangaldoi in Assam, national security accounted for around one-third (excluding greetings) of the 19-minute long speech.
In Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, PM Modi spoke about security for 28 per cent of the time. In the same speech, he spoke more about development work for around 46 per cent of the time (around seven minutes) - the highest in the five speeches we analysed.