When people are ready to believe anything.

"The Independence Day address from the ramparts of the Red Fort has acquired a special significance since the days of Jawaharlal Nehru. I call it the State of the Nation speech," wrote former Congress Minister P Chidambaram. "In the case of Mr Modi, however, his speeches on August 15 are unremarkable because they are not very different from his speeches at election rallies -- minus his trademark jibes at the Opposition (e.g. Didi-oh-Didi)." About 440.1 million people have received one dose of vaccine, and about 126.4 million have received both doses. "The goal of fully vaccinating the entire adult population by end-December 2021 (950 million-1 billion) has been abandoned." Only about 27% of "households reported receiving full benefits under the 5 kg scheme (Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana)". In 2018, 28.7% of rural households lacked access to toilets and 32% parctised open defecation. The promise to invest Rs 100 trillion  in infrastructure was made on 15 August 2019, on 15 August 2020 as well as this year. "The devastation cause by the second wave of the covid-19 pandemic has led to millions of deaths and resulted in wide-spread anguish and suffering," wrote Rahul Verma & Ankita Barthwal. Yet, a YouGov-Mint-CPR Millennial Survey of 10,285 respondents across 203 cities online showed that "48% said the prime minister's efforts can't be faulted at all" and "Support for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in government at the Centre and in several states, also remains largely intact." In a 'Mood of the Nation' survey by India Today of 14,559 people "in the midst of July across 115 parliamentary constituencies in 19 states", "only 24% of respondents chose Modi as 'best suited to be India's next prime minister', a drop from 66% last August and 38% this January," Mint editorial. "Asked to rate the Modi government's performance, 54% of those surveyed went for 'outstanding' or 'good'." "One reason why we are mystified by the support Modi enjoys is below-the-radar messaging," wrote Shivam Vij. "First, there is the closed universe of WhatsApp groups." Second, "some of the top political advertisers on Facebook in India are pro-BJP pages such as 'Bharat ke Mann Ki Baat', 'My First Vote for Modi, 'Nation with NaMo' etc" and, third, the BJP has an army of workers campaigning door-to-door. Before the last general election in 2019, there was "the release of the trailer of 'PM Narendra Modi' an eponymous movie made on the PM and stealth introduction of a television channel 'Namo TV'," and there was also "the television series 'Modi: A common Man's Journey', flash mobs, embedded publicity in television serials, tea cups in railways and bindi packets bearing Modi's mugshot", wrote Smruti Koppikar. The Scroll.in pointed out deliberate lies spread by the BJP on social media in, "Amit Malviya's fake news fountain: 16 pieces of misinformation spread by the BJP IT cell chief." In a most odious example of shameless propaganda, Modi's picture is on every coronavirus vaccine certificate and has been touted as a way to increase awareness, The Wire. While transiting through Frankfurt Airport, an official refused to accept Deepti Tamhane's vaccine certificate, vice.com. "She asked angrily how I could submit this vaccine certificate when the photo on the document was not mine," said Deepti. On being told that this was PM Modi's photo, "She told me that she deals with passengers day in and day out, but this was the first time she had seen any prime minister's photo on a personal document. She thought we were committing a fraud." India's reputation is mud on our tax money. "In hindsight, it was only fitting that a story about surveillance and spyware in India should have begun with more than a touch of cloak and dagger," The Wire wrote about its investigation into how the government was spying on people using the Pegasus spyware bought from the NSO group in Israel. "When politicians in power start losing ground and start getting away from ground realities, they begin falling for the policeman's 'intelligence' inputs," wrote Harish Khare. "The Modi crowd is now irreversibly sucked in the quagmire of official illegalities. The Pegasus syndrome is here to stay." Is Modi here to stay? if so, for how long?