Modi’s India Doubles Down on Hindu Nationalism – By Max Frost
During his 2014 campaign, Narendra Modi promised jobs, development, and growth. Hopeful Indians handed the BJP India’s first single-party parliamentary majority in three decades and a mandate for reform. Yet four years later, with another election approaching, these promises remain largely unfulfilled. The BJP can no longer run as the party of economic opportunity and is becoming increasingly populist and nativist as a result.
Since Modi’s 2014 election, favorable conditions should have helped him make good on promises of “good days.” The BJP has held a single-party parliamentary majority for the four years following the election. The price of oil has been around 60 percent of what it was four years ago, and Modi’s successful investment pitch brought foreign direct investment (FDI) in record levels, with net inflows in 2015 and 2016 surpassing $40 billion a year.
Yet despite these positive economic conditions, the government failed to legislate reforms and returned to the poor policymaking and populism of its predecessors. In 2016, it scrapped various currency denominations, causing an economic crisis. In 2017, it sloppily implemented one of the world’s highest and most complex goods and services taxes which cost jobs and slowed the economy.…
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/modis-india-doubles-down-hindu-nationalism-42957
SEE ALSO:
- The Inclusive Nationalist – By Vanya Vaidehi Bhargav (Jan 28, 2019, Indian Express)
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/lala-lajpat-rai-hindutva-politics-nationalism-hindu-mahasabha-muslim-league-5557305/ - Hindutva Icon Syama Prasad Mookerjee Had Nothing But Contempt For Tricolour – By Saib Bilaval (Jan 28, 2019, News Click)
https://www.newsclick.in/hindutva-icon-syama-prasad-mookerjee-had-nothing-contempt-tricolour - India’s Rohingya shame – By Ashley Starr Kinseth (Jan 29, 2019, Al Jazeera)
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/india-rohingya-shame-190125104433377.html - An Indian science conference featured pseudoscience. Why does this keep happening? – By Sandhya Ramesh (Jan 28, 2019, Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/01/28/an-indian-science-conference-featured-pseudoscience-why-does-this-keep-happening/
