{"id":7341,"date":"2024-03-23T05:02:37","date_gmt":"2024-03-23T05:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/23\/modis-party-doesnt-control-all-of-india-but-hes-working-on-it\/"},"modified":"2024-03-23T05:02:37","modified_gmt":"2024-03-23T05:02:37","slug":"modis-party-doesnt-control-all-of-india-but-hes-working-on-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/23\/modis-party-doesnt-control-all-of-india-but-hes-working-on-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Modi\u2019s Party Doesn\u2019t Control All of India. But He\u2019s Working on It."},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/03\/16\/multimedia\/00india-democracy-01-qvwl\/00india-democracy-01-qvwl-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Modi\u2019s Party Doesn\u2019t Control All of India. But He\u2019s Working on It.\" title=\"Modi\u2019s Party Doesn\u2019t Control All of India. But He\u2019s Working on It.\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It is the final frontier for India\u2019s most powerful leader in decades.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Narendra Modi, over his 10 years as prime minister, has made it his mission to turn a complex and diverse country of 1.4 billion people into something approaching a monolith dominated by his sweeping Hindu nationalist vision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The news media, the national legislature, civil society, sometimes even the courts \u2014 all have largely been bent to his will. But one critical group of holdouts remains: some of India\u2019s richest states, the engine of its rapid growth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The future shape of the world\u2019s largest democracy \u2014 and its economic trajectory \u2014 may rest on the power struggle that has ensued.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Modi, who is well placed to win a third term in a national election that will begin on April 19, is wielding an increasingly heavy hand in what his opponents call an unfair effort to drive out the governments of the states his party does not control.<\/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\">They accuse Mr. Modi\u2019s administration of delaying federal money for major projects; of jailing or hounding opposition leaders while shielding anyone who joins the prime minister\u2019s party; of obstructing the delivery of basic services; and of throwing state politics into chaos.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The tensions are tearing at India\u2019s delicate federal formula of power sharing and political competition, the glue holding the country together across 28 states and eight territories.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Regional leaders have described the behavior of the central government, which holds more power than in federal systems like the United States\u2019, as that of a colonial overlord. In the south, the most developed and innovative part of India, officials have spoken of a \u201cseparate nation\u201d for their region if the \u201cpatterns of injustice\u201d continue.<\/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 and his lieutenants have in turn accused the state leaders of harboring a \u201cseparatist mind-set\u201d and pursuing politics that could \u201cbreak the nation.\u201d<\/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\">India\u2019s move toward more centralized governance could hurt its overall growth, analysts say, as such efforts have done in the past. Big national spending programs focus on basic development problems that the south mostly solved decades ago. If that region\u2019s freedom to make investments based on its own needs is restricted, the effects could be far-reaching.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt is ultimately self-destructive,\u201d said P.T. Rajan, a cabinet minister in the government of the southern state of Tamil Nadu.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Modi offers a simple solution: for the states governed by parties other than his Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., to come on board.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He often draws on automotive terminology to make his pitch. Those states, he says, could benefit from what he calls a \u201cdouble engine\u201d government, with one party \u2014 his own \u2014 working in sync at both the national and state levels.<\/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\">If they do not comply, the states get wrench after wrench thrown into the works of their governments, officials say, making it difficult for them to deliver on election promises. The B.J.P., relentlessly expanding its base, waits in the wings.<\/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\">Last month, the chief ministers of about a half-dozen states staged a dramatic demonstration near the seat of federal power in New Delhi.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">With posters reading, \u201cOur Blood, Our Sweat, Our Tax,\u201d hanging behind them, they complained that Mr. Modi was using his outsize control over the distribution of revenues collected across India to entrench his party and hobble their own state governments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At the same time, Mr. Modi was on a final lap of the country before the announcement of the election dates. In opposition states, he combined promises of billions of dollars in infrastructure and welfare projects with scathing criticism of the local parties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">They are scathing of him, too. They have repeatedly sued state governors appointed by New Delhi, who hold largely ceremonial roles, over complaints that they are stalling the work of elected governments.<\/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\">\u201cYou\u2019re playing with fire,\u201d India\u2019s chief justice, Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LawTodayLive\/status\/1722892973355188497\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">told the central government<\/a> after the governor in the opposition-controlled state of Punjab repeatedly prevented legislative work. \u201cWill we continue to be a parliamentary democracy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In Tamil Nadu, officials said they were struggling to expand a subway line in the capital city, Chennai, because Mr. Modi\u2019s administration was dragging its feet on New Delhi\u2019s share of the funding.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In Kerala, on India\u2019s southwestern coast, the state government is suing the Modi administration over what it says are arbitrary borrowing limits that have thrown the state\u2019s budget into disarray and delayed payments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the western state of Maharashtra, home to Mumbai, India\u2019s financial and entertainment capital, Mr. Modi\u2019s officials have splintered the state\u2019s two largest parties through a mix of pressure from investigative agencies and offers of incentives. Such \u201csmash and grab\u201d politics, as critics have branded it, has paved the way for the B.J.P. to emerge as a kingmaker in a coalition government.<\/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\">In the Delhi capital region, the B.J.P. appears hellbent on destroying a smaller party that swept to power promising to improve basic services. The territory\u2019s elected government has been stripped of important powers, and federal agencies have bogged down the top leaders of the party, Aam Aadmi, in corruption cases.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The party\u2019s deputy leader and a key cabinet minister have been in jail for over a year. On Thursday, in a dramatic nighttime raid, government agents <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/03\/21\/world\/asia\/india-national-congress-bank-accounts-bjp.html\" title=\"\">arrested Arvind Kejriwal<\/a>, the party\u2019s leader and Delhi\u2019s chief minister, whom they have accused of financial crimes. He is the first serving chief minister to be arrested..<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The bitter political dispute in Delhi is evident in overflowing sewage in parts of the city and long lines outside government hospitals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Aam Aadmi sought to improve hospitals in part by relying on outside contractors to enter patient data. But the plan has been caught in the crossfire between Mr. Modi\u2019s officials and the territory\u2019s elected government, and the contractors pulled their staff from many hospitals after salaries were delayed for months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIn their political fighting, it is the public that suffers,\u201d said Adit Kumar, a cloth-seller who has diabetes, who, along with his wife, was waiting outside a crowded hospital in New Delhi one recent day.<\/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\">Saurabh Bhardwaj, an Aam Aadmi official in Delhi, said Mr. Modi\u2019s intention was clear: to push the country toward one-party rule.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cYou reduced the state government\u2019s work so much that people start saying that it\u2019s better to bring the B.J.P. and only they can deliver,\u201d Mr. Bhardwaj said. \u201cThat means the federal structure will collapse.\u201d<\/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\">The biggest federal-state fault line pits the more prosperous south against Mr. Modi\u2019s support base in the north.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Except for a brief period in the state of Karnataka when the B.J.P. took control by orchestrating defections, the party has been unable to win power in the five southern states.<\/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\">Officials there say that Mr. Modi is trying to hold them back for their refusal to buy in to his brand of politics, including his party\u2019s stirring of Hindu-Muslim tensions and its push to make Hindi \u2014 which is not widely spoken in the south \u2014 a national language.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The resentment is amplified by complaints that the south gets proportionally less in return for the tax money it sends to New Delhi. Because the northern states have large populations and are far behind in basic development, they get a larger share of the revenues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">There are also serious concerns in the south that the redistribution of parliamentary seats once a long-delayed national census is finally held will punish the south for its success in reducing birthrates, a key to its relative affluence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">With its earlier investments in infrastructure, education and public health \u2014 the result of a unique mix of political, cultural and historical differences in the south \u2014 the region is better placed to propel India\u2019s ambition for <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/02\/02\/business\/india-iphone-tech-manufacturing.html\" title=\"\">high-end manufacturing<\/a>. Mr. Modi\u2019s politics-driven approach, his opponents say, could undercut his ambitions for building India into a major economic power.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The federal finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, rejected claims that revenues were being unfairly distributed, saying the central government was \u201creleasing, and releasing on time,\u201d the states\u2019 share.<\/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\">\u201cWe want every part of the country to prosper,\u201d Mr. Modi said in Parliament after the state leaders\u2019 protest in New Delhi, casting himself as a strong proponent of \u201ccompetitive, cooperative federalism.\u201d<\/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\">In pressuring state governments, analysts say, Mr. Modi is simply exploiting structural flaws in India\u2019s Constitution, which created a republic \u2014 a quasi-federal union of states \u2014 after the British left in 1947.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Indian National Congress party, which ruled over India uncontested in the first decades after independence, abused the outsize constitutional powers given to the central government over fiscal matters to quash the rise of competitors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Starting in the late 1980s, however, the decline of Congress ushered in an era of coalition politics, with regional parties finding representation in New Delhi.<\/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\">This was also the period when India opened its heavily centralized economy to the free market. As growth followed, the distribution of resources was subject to more push and pull between the central and state governments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe emergence of regional powers made the center commit to certain principles,\u201d said Kalaiyarasan A., an assistant professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies. \u201cThe 1990s was a golden period of federalism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Today, Mr. Modi is seeking to remake Indian federalism with his \u201cdouble engine\u201d push.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In opposition-held states, Mr. Modi has offered infrastructure and welfare projects, branded with his name or that of his office, to pitch himself as India\u2019s only driver of development and growth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In engaging in joint projects, the state parties face a political cost: They will get the money only if they agree to the Modi branding.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And if they resist?<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In 2022, Ms. Sitharaman, the finance minister, stopped at a shop in the southern state of Telangana that distributed rice rations as part of a joint program in which the central government provided the larger share of the funding. Mr. Modi\u2019s picture was not displayed there. Ms. Sitharaman lashed out at state officials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis is the work that our prime minister is doing for his people,\u201d Ms. Sitharaman <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PjPnthL9o-8\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a>. \u201cOur people will come and install the prime minister\u2019s photo, and you will, as district administrator, ensure that shall not be removed, that shall not be torn, that shall not be affected.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is the final frontier for India\u2019s most powerful leader in decades. Narendra Modi, over his 10 years as prime minister, has made it his mission to turn a complex and diverse country of 1.4 billion people into something approaching a monolith dominated by his sweeping Hindu nationalist vision. The news media, the national legislature, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7342,"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\/03\/16\/multimedia\/00india-democracy-01-qvwl\/00india-democracy-01-qvwl-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4794,6062,4107,273,3135,1697,5864],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7341"}],"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=7341"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7343,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7341\/revisions\/7343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}