Modi's India Doubles Down on Hindu Nationalism

Max Frost

Asia,

Unable to run on an economic platform, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party are turning to populism and Hindu nationalism ahead of the 2019 elections.

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. And in the same populist tradition as prime ministers before him, Modi promised free cooking gas, water, electricity, and toilets. Lastly, in 2018, the prime minister announced “Modicare,” providing free healthcare to five hundred million Indians without allocating the necessary funds.