{"id":30138,"date":"2024-04-19T05:20:23","date_gmt":"2024-04-19T05:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/19\/modis-power-keeps-growing-and-india-looks-sure-to-give-him-more\/"},"modified":"2024-04-19T05:20:23","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T05:20:23","slug":"modis-power-keeps-growing-and-india-looks-sure-to-give-him-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/19\/modis-power-keeps-growing-and-india-looks-sure-to-give-him-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Modi\u2019s Power Keeps Growing, and India Looks Sure to Give Him More"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/19\/multimedia\/19india-democracy-01-tjbv\/19india-democracy-01-tjbv-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Modi\u2019s Power Keeps Growing, and India Looks Sure to Give Him More\" title=\"Modi\u2019s Power Keeps Growing, and India Looks Sure to Give Him More\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As he campaigns across India for an <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/03\/16\/world\/asia\/india-2024-election.html\" title=\"\">election<\/a> that begins on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks of his insatiable ambitions in terms of dinner-table appetite.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Roofs over heads, water connections, cooking gas cylinders \u2014 Mr. Modi reads down the menu of what he calls the abundant \u201cdevelopment\u201d he has provided to India\u2019s poor. But he\u2019s not stopping there. \u201cWhat Modi has done so far is just the appetizer,\u201d he said at one stop, referring to himself in the third person, as he often does. \u201cThe main course is yet to come.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">To Mr. Modi\u2019s legions of supporters, a third term would bring more of what they find so appealing in him. He is that rare breed of strongman who keeps an ear to the ground. He is a magnetic figure and a powerful orator. He has built an image as a tireless, incorruptible worker for a country on the rise.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But to his critics, Mr. Modi\u2019s talk of a \u201cmain course\u201d is an alarm bell for the future of the world\u2019s largest democracy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Modi, 73, enters the election a heavy favorite, his party\u2019s grip over India\u2019s more populous northern and central heartlands firmer than ever, the opposition in the same decisive geography even more diminished. Yet even with his place as India\u2019s unrivaled leader seemingly secured, he has carried out a crackdown on dissent that has only intensified.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the lead-up to the voting, which will <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/17\/world\/asia\/india-elections-long-explainer.html\" title=\"\">run for six weeks<\/a> before results are announced on June 4, agencies under Mr. Modi\u2019s control have <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/03\/21\/world\/asia\/india-national-congress-bank-accounts-bjp.html\" title=\"\">frozen the bank accounts<\/a> of the largest opposition party. The leaders of two opposition-run states have been thrown in jail, in cases they call politically motivated. (The capital region, New Delhi, is currently governed by a chief minister who sends his directives from behind bars.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">All of this, Mr. Modi\u2019s critics say, shows the penchant for <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/03\/23\/world\/asia\/india-election-federalism.html\" title=\"\">full control<\/a> that has become evident over his decade as prime minister. Mr. Modi, they contend, will not stop until he has turned India\u2019s democracy into one-party rule. Power is being aggressively consolidated \u201caround the cult of the leader\u2019s personality,\u201d said Yamini Aiyar, a policy analyst in New Delhi.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe deep centralization of power has significantly undermined institutional checks and balances baked into India\u2019s democratic structure,\u201d Ms. Aiyar said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Many Indians seem willing to accept this. Mr. Modi has remained deeply popular even as he has become more autocratic. He has paid little price \u2014 and even found support \u2014 for his effort to remake India into what analysts have called an illiberal democracy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He exploits contradictions. The right to vote is held as sacred in a country whose democracy has offered protection in a turbulent region. But polling also indicates that large numbers of Indians are <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/data\/85-per-cent-indians-support-rule-by-a-strong-leader-or-military-says-pew-survey-data\/article67919693.ece\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">willing to cede civil liberties<\/a> to support a powerful ruler they see as getting things done.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Another seeming incongruity: People who speak of their own economic strife also often express faith in Mr. Modi\u2019s running of the country\u2019s affairs, a testament to the forceful narratives he weaves.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Indians have more tangible reasons to back him, too. Mr. Modi relentlessly tends his broad support base through generous offerings across society: favorable deals for the business elite in a growing economy, robust welfare programs for India\u2019s impoverished majority, and a strong dose of Hindu nationalism for those in between.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A campaign stop this month in his party\u2019s stronghold of Uttar Pradesh illustrated this winning formula.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Modi stood in the back of a saffron-colored truck as it moved slowly down a shopping street lined with global brands and jewelry shops, a scene that spoke to the new wealth that has lifted millions of Indians into the middle class.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Overhead, billboards with pictures of Mr. Modi \u2014 his face is everywhere in India \u2014 told of achievements like the installation of more than 100 million toilets for the poor and India\u2019s rising stature.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At the end of the \u201croadshow,\u201d at the junction where Mr. Modi\u2019s vehicle turned right and headed back to Delhi, was a stage set up with loudspeakers. As Hindu nationalist songs blared, actors dressed up as the deities Ram and Sita posed for selfies with the crowd.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Modi\u2019s <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/01\/22\/world\/asia\/modi-india-ram-temple.html\" title=\"\">inauguration in January<\/a> of a huge temple dedicated to Ram, on the disputed site of a mosque razed three decades ago by a Hindu mob, has been a major election-year offering to his Hindu base.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe are Hindu, we are Hindu, we will only speak of Ram,\u201d went one song\u2019s chant. \u201cThose who brought Ram, we will bring them to power.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Modi\u2019s Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., started in 1980 as an urban middle-class organization centered around a Hindu majoritarian core. Under Mr. Modi, it has recast itself as the party of the poor and of the village in northern India, analysts say.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some in India believe that poorer people have merely fallen under Mr. Modi\u2019s spell. Nalin Mehta, the author of the book \u201cThe New B.J.P.,\u201d called that fundamentally wrong.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe fact that the B.J.P. continues to win these victories reflects how successful it has been in getting newer constituents of voters who never voted B.J.P. before, and who may not even be followers of Hindu nationalism,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Mehta attributes much of that success to the party\u2019s expansion and branding of welfare programs and its efforts to promote itself as pan-Hindu, actively reaching out to India\u2019s marginalized castes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">By prioritizing direct digital welfare payments, the B.J.P. has cut out the middleman and made sure the handouts are seen as coming straight from Mr. Modi.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Technology also allows the party to follow up, with B.J.P. workers \u2014 armed with data \u2014 knocking on the door of anyone who received a water tap, a gas cylinder or a government grant to build a home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Data creates layers of feedback that help the party pick its candidates, jettisoning large numbers of incumbents before each election. \u201cThis B.J.P. is very ruthless on winnability,\u201d Mr. Mehta said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Bringing it all together are Mr. Modi\u2019s outsize appeal and his political and technological acumen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He has put his personal story at the center of his narrative of an ascendant India, the main pillar of his campaign. If a lower-caste son of a chai seller can become one of the most powerful men in the world, he says, other ordinary Indians can dream, too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While inequality has grown and 800 million Indians are at the mercy of monthly rations, many focus instead on their faith that Mr. Modi is not a thief. He casts himself as a bachelor with no descendants who works only for the Indian people, unlike what he calls the corrupt political dynasts in the opposition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cModi wasn\u2019t born in some royal family to become prime minister,\u201d he told a crowd of tens of thousands in the state of Maharashtra. \u201cIt\u2019s you who have brought him this far.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The political opposition has been severely weakened by infighting, leadership crises and its struggle to offer an ideological alternative to the B.J.P.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But it also faces a playing field that Mr. Modi has tilted in his own favor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He has cowed the broadcast media. Independent journalists who do question his policies have been jailed or subjected to legal harassment. India leads the world in internet shutdowns, obscuring unrest that looks bad for the government. And officials under Mr. Modi have forced social media platforms to scrape critical content.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Investigating agencies have been set loose on Mr. Modi\u2019s political opponents \u2014 <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/express-exclusive\/since-2014-4-fold-jump-in-ed-cases-against-politicians-95-per-cent-are-from-opposition-8163060\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">more than 90 percent<\/a> of cases involving politicians over the past decade have involved the opposition. Many languish in jail or the court system. Those who switch allegiance to the B.J.P. find that their cases vanish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On the campaign trail in the state of West Bengal, an opposition candidate, Mahua Moitra, spoke of saving democracy from the authoritarianism she said had led to her own expulsion from Parliament \u2014 in a messy case involving a former romantic partner, a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2023\/dec\/22\/mahua-moitra-indian-parliament-expulsion\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Rottweiler named Henry<\/a> and accusations of graft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Autocracy and Mr. Modi\u2019s perceived coziness with billionaires have been the opposition\u2019s two main attack lines. While campaigning, Ms. Moitra told a group of women that they were still waiting for government money to build homes because Mr. Modi \u201cis busy building palaces for his friends.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Analysts doubt that either issue will resonate widely. Many Indians, particularly in his stronghold in the north, which has a decisive say in who rules from New Delhi, like exactly what they are getting from Mr. Modi.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cHe is the prime minister, and if he is not strong enough, then what good would it be?\u201d Anjali Vishwakarma, 37, an interior designer, said as she walked along the Ganges one recent day with her family in Mr. Modi\u2019s constituency of Varanasi.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Suhasini Raj<!-- --> contributed reporting from Varanasi, <!-- -->Sameer Yasir<!-- --> from Krishnanagar and <!-- -->Hari Kumar<!-- --> from Ghaziabad in India.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/19\/world\/asia\/modi-india-election.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As he campaigns across India for an election that begins on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks of his insatiable ambitions in terms of dinner-table appetite. Roofs over heads, water connections, cooking gas cylinders \u2014 Mr. Modi reads down the menu of what he calls the abundant \u201cdevelopment\u201d he has provided to India\u2019s poor. But [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/19\/multimedia\/19india-democracy-01-tjbv\/19india-democracy-01-tjbv-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2739,7265,273,3135,2974],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30138"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30138"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30140,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30138\/revisions\/30140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}