Campaigning as Public Relations:The Construction of Discourse Power for the Bharatiya Janata Party's Regime Legitimization
Political campaigning is a process in which a political party seeks the recognition and approval of the people,who in turn grant it empower and accept its rule,thereby legitimizing the regime.Discourse illusion analysis reveals how the political parties transform the subjective into objective and covert illusion into the reality of the social process.As for the leading power in South Asia,India's elections have always attracted significant attention.However,the 2024 Indian general election is considered to be the one with little suspense,which is largely due to the strong rise of Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP).The turning point for this perception was in 2019,when Modi and the BJP employed a highly successfully"discourse illusion strategy".It enabled the National Democratic Alliance(NDC)led by him to secure the second term in power.During the 2019 general election,both the BJP and the Indian National Congress(INC)presented two competing narratives of"support"or"opposition".The discourses from different positions had profound but varied impacts on different states,ethnic groups,political parties,communities and individuals in India.Studying the 2019 Indian general election is a valuable attempt to explore the general narrative rules of the BJP's regime legitimization in 2024 and beyond.Based on the theories of political campaigning and discourse illusion in political public relations,the three-dimensional analytical framework of discourse illusion is used to deconstruct the core of the discourse:history,language and symbolic behavior,and social influence.The research also analyses how campaign narratives are manipulated and influence voter decisions and further explains why the BJP was able to construct higher regime legitimacy than the INC during the election.The research finds that the BJP is more adept than the INC at using rhetorical tools to objectify highly subjective and opposing realities.It creates strong illusions for the public and affecting voters'judgment of facts,makes the majority of voters believe in the propaganda of the BJP and achieves the construction of regime legitimacy.However,this has also intensified domestic binary identity conflicts and social hatred in India.
Political Public RelationsPolitical CampaignBharatiya Janata PartyDiscourse IllusionRegime Legitimacy
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