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Indians are used to traffic jams. But when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cavalcade got stuck on a flyover in Punjab for around 20 minutes on Wednesday because of farmers protesting against his government’s agriculture policies, the country’s politics seemed to go into overdrive.

Purportedly as a result, Modi cancelled his engagements and returned to the airport. His government as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party heatedly described the incident as a breach of the prime minister’s security. A bout of political mudslinging followed as the BJP blamed Punjab’s Congress-led state government for engineering the security lapse.

Modi is reported to have told officials at Bathinda airport: “Thank your chief minister I was able to escape alive.”

As it turns out, this was just the beginning. The BJP proceeded to launch a full-scale political campaign around the Punjab incident, built around the claim that this was an intentional threat to Modi’s life. Union minister Smriti Irani made a scathing attack on the Congress alleging that it was “happy with the breach in security” since it “hates Modi”. Union Home Minister Amit Shah repeated the allegation that the Congress had deliberately tried to undermine the prime minister’s security.

BJP units across the country – including chief ministers – publicly held ceremonies to pray for Modi’s long life. (Punjab’s cheeky chief minister chanted prayers of his own for Modi.) Himachal’s BJP-controlled government went so far as to submit an official complaint to the President, alleging that the Punjab government had intentionally breached the prime minister’s security. Before this, Modi has also met the President, but has not made public what was discussed.

This official narrative was accompanied by vitriolic social media messaging, which introduced an explicit communal element to the discussion. The Times of India reported that “threats of genocide and ‘repeat of 1984’ [massacre of Sikhs] were openly given on social media”.

The president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, which is responsible for the management of gurdwaras, said that Sikhs “are being targeted on social media with regards to the PM’s Punjab visit, under a well-planned conspiracy”.

Making allegations that the country’s main opposition party is working to endanger the prime minister is very serious business. However, the Punjab controversy plays out against the background of two decades of politics around alleged threats to Modi’s security.

In 2004, for instance, the Gujarat Police killed three men and one woman, alleging that they were on their way to assassinate Modi, who was state chief minister then. During this period, Modi was under intense pressure from the BJP central leadership. Journalist Manoj Mitta noted that the killings were “brilliantly timed for Modi”, coming just two days after senior party leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s “scathing observations” about the Gujarat riots.

In 2015, the Gujarat Police killed Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife, alleging another plot to assassinate Modi. In 2017, just ahead of the Uttar Pradesh elections, the Uttar Pradesh Police reported yet another threat to Modi’s life, this time allegedly from Rasool Pati who had been accused in the murder of Haren Pandya, the home minister in Modi’s Gujarat cabinet.

The next year, the Maharashtra Police alleged a plot by lawyers, poets and activists to assassinate Modi. This charge was levelled along with allegations that they had planned the violence that broke out in Bhima Koregaon near Pune on January 1, 2018. Newslaundry reported that the alleged evidence recovered by the police – a letter calling for an assassination – was leaked to the media even before it could be produced in court as evidence. This seemed to fit the pattern of hectic politicking and media activity every time there are claims that Modi’s life is in danger.

It is widely acknowledged that the rise of the BJP after 2014 is based to a significant extent on Modi’s personal popularity. Survey data from Lokniti-Centre for the Study of Developing Societies has shown that the BJP’s victory in 2014 owed itself greatly to Modi’s charisma. The prime ministerial candidate was an important factor for voters as they chose local candidates. So powerful is this phenomenon that the BJP explicitly campaigns on the redundancy of local candidates, arguing that every election is a direct vote for Modi.

By itself, this is not unique. Personality-based politics has a long history in India. Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and scores of leaders at the state level have dominated the imagination of Indian voters. In fact, this might even be a feature of democracy itself, with strong leaders being a critical factor for voters around the globe, along with more mundane drivers like policy positions.

However, even by these standards, Modi stands somewhat apart, as demonstrated by the frequent political storms around threats to his life. When it comes to personality politics, Modi floors the gas pedal, raising the speed quite dramatically to get his supporters emotionally involved with issues such as security threats and assassination attempts.

It has worked well for the BJP till now. However, the fact that Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi has also been able to quite successfully, at least within Punjab, refute and even mock the allegations that Modi’s life was under threat shows that this high-pitched politics could possibly have diminishing returns.

In a smart bit of political theatre, the Punjab chief minister got down to meet protestors in a bid to allege that Modi had no need to fear protesters on Friday.

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