State of the Nation: BJP and India have Not Lived up to Peoples’ Expectations
Asia News Agency
There is no doubt about the charisma and popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He remains the tallest leader with no competition. His electoral success bears testimony to his appeal. But, it is debatable if he has taken India to the heights promised when he took over the affairs of the country almost a decade ago.
Middle class disenchantment: Vir Sanghvi (print and television journalist, and talk show host), not very kind to the PM writes about “how middle class disenchantment with the government is growing. The middle class does not have the numbers to be electorally significant, let alone crucial, but it is the original Narendra Modi constituency. Even when the government did not deliver on the promises it made to the middle class, this constituency held firm through two terms.”
That, “may now be changing.” Beyond the anger over inflation and high taxation, Sanghvi smells a “real concern that the government is not delivering on the global promise of India itself.
When the BJP came to power a decade ago, the general view among educated Indians was that India was a country whose time had come. This was going to be the Indian century. We were ready to take our place among the great powers of the world…..The world would rush to invest in India. Foreigners would do anything for access to the growing Indian market…..There were expectations that the Indian passport would be more respected. Western countries would welcome Indian visitors with smiles. They would be greeted with warmth by immigration officers. The US would regard India as its full and equal partner in the new world order. And so on.”
Almost every single one of these hopes “has been dashed. It isn’t just the rupee that has plummeted…As for the US treating us as equal partners, the faith that so many Modi supporters had reposed in US President Donald Trump now seems misplaced….It’s the same with investors. Foreign investment in India is still positive but not at the levels we had expected. The clearest indication of this is the flight of foreign money from the Indian stock market, which has led to a bloodbath in share prices….”
Diminishing global position of India: But the “sharper shock has been the diminishing global position of India, compared to China….After talking tough for years, the government has finally accepted China’s strengthened position and is now hurriedly trying to ‘normalise’ relations. Even if that works, it will take time for India to recover its old position as a rival to China.”
There are some signs “that the government will act to reassure the middle class. But there are always those who say that it doesn’t care. Hindutva is enough to keep the BJP in office……When the BJP does win elections, it is not because of any promise of imminent Indian greatness. Instead, it wins because it has created caste coalitions and diverted billions of rupees of public money to poor voters as part of its welfare agenda.”
