As liberal democracies experience a crisis of leadership everywhere, the gulf between India’s political leaders and a disaffected populace grows wider too. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has failed to use his entrusted power for the larger social purpose of uplifting all sections and accelerating India’s ascent up the ladder of development. Towering self-regard notwithstanding, Modi will find it difficult to achieve another comfortable BJP majority. His biggest asset this year is the absence of competitors as national leaders; Rahul Gandhi is even less credible. Yet, in a telling symptom of how far the halo of transformational leader has slipped from Modi, Rahul is winning the Twitter war.

As the Americans say, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Modi swept into power on promises of ‘minimum government, maximum governance’, ‘sabka saath sabka vikaas’, ‘parivartan’ and ‘acche din’. Instead of a government responsive to the needs of the poor, resources have been squandered on pet projects of religious virtue signalling. Far from draining the swamp of India’s politics, Modi finds himself sinking deeper in it, unable to escape the taunt of suit boot ki sarkar. Institutional points of resistance to arbitrary, capricious and damaging economic and social policies have been systematically dismantled while urgent economic and educational reforms to sustain inclusive long-term growth and prosperity are neglected.

Leadership is the art of making others connect emotionally and intellectually to a larger cause that transcends their immediate self-interest. Politicians divide and rule for personal and party aggrandisement. Leaders govern to uplift the whole community. They excel at setting goals and standards, explaining why these matter, inspiring by example, cajoling people into realising lofty aspirations for the nation alongside material benefits for themselves. Modi did demonstrate some early signs of genuine leadership in raising the uncomfortable issues of inadequate toilets and public cleanliness. But, surprisingly in the context of the ridicule heaped upon ‘Maunmohan’ Singh for his many silences, Modi retreats into reticence when confronted by difficult events. If Singh operated in silent mode, Modi operates in flight mode – with frequent trips abroad and campaigning in state elections – that blocks political messages from ordinary citizens getting through.

When Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched by a frenzied Hindu mob in Dadri in 2015, as his mother, son and family watched in horror, the wounded nation looked to the PM for words to soothe and heal. Instead, two weeks elapsed before Modi delivered a banal homily that Hindus and Muslims should jointly fight poverty and not each other. A neta hugs powerful and famous foreigners; a leader would have embraced the traumatised family, connected with their loss and committed the full apparatus of the state to delivering speedy justice.

The Dadri lost opportunity was followed by equally taciturn non-responses to vigilante terrorists who decry love jihad, encourage ghar wapsi, lynch suspected beef eaters and in myriad other ways demean the rich religion in whose name they commit these horrors. The coarsened Hindutva politics of character assassination, mob rule, intimidation by Internet trolls and voodoo policies is an electoral bust that, without winning Modi anything, is losing BJP the bigger prize. The loudly screamed crude insults, coordinated attacks by an army of trolls, insistent rudeness and accusatory tones betray the workings of an ordered democracy that has been the envy of the world.

In a leader personal ambition is fused seamlessly into larger ambition for the nation. Modi is proving to be proof against national ambition of the larger kind. Leaders hold firm convictions and fight to bend the arc of history towards their desired destination. They know the difference between perseverance – willingness to pay the price for belief – and stubbornness – refusal to admit mistakes and retreat for fear of seeming weak. Does Modi?