Three years on, the mood in India is less euphoria, more hysteria

Consider the news from India this month. On the first of the month,  government data revealed that Narendra Modi’s demonetisation decree has had a devastating impact on the economy. India’s growth rate dropped between January and March 2017 from seven to six per cent.

On June 9, a mob of “educated” Hindus nearly lynch a young reporter when they discover that he is a Muslim from Kashmir. He is so badly bruised that he can’t move for days.

Ten days later, more than a dozen Muslims in central and southern India are arrested and charged with sedition – one of the gravest offences on India’s statute books – after their Hindu neighbours
allege that they were celebrating Pakistan’s win against India in the cricket world cup the previous night.

On June 22, Hindu passengers on a train pick on a group of Muslims, call them “anti-national”, pull their beards, and then stab-and-kill a 16-year-old boy returning home after shopping for Eid in Delhi.

Mr Modi promised “good days”. In office, he has presided over the breakdown of law and order. He promised prosperity. In office, he inflicted on Indians the misery of demonetisation. Mr Modi promised to build a clean government. In office, he has enabled and rewarded grubby men with a history of inciting and profiting from violence against minorities.

The pledge to create 10 million new jobs every year has similarly fallen by the wayside. From 2015-2016, the Modi government added 135,000 new jobs – almost 300,000 fewer than the last government managed to create the year before.

In the absence of genuine accomplishment, Mr Modi has resorted to assaulting the voters with breathless publicity. There are times when this government looks unreal, like a tantalising commercial for a product that doesn’t exist. Mr Modi was an early beneficiary of what is now called “fake news”.

Mr Modi’s supporters push claims of his successes on Twitter and Facebook. Critics of Mr Modi are mercilessly bullied. A disturbing book of investigative reportage by the distinguished journalist Swati Chaturvedi, published earlier this year, revealed some of the faces behind the online avatars. Mr Modi’s keyboard warriors, it turns out, are not freelancers but members of an organised digital army.

A recent report published by the Ministry of Home Affairs carried an arresting photo with the caption “floodlighting along the border.” Illuminating India’s borders is not an easy job. On closer inspection, the photo turned out to be from the Spanish-Moroccan border. But the lie cannot be recalled; it has already made its way into millions of WhatsApp accounts. The damage has been done

Mr Modi’s most stentorian critics have already been visited by India’s chief domestic investigative agency. At the start of this month, officers from the Central Bureau of Investigation raided the home of Prannoy Roy, the founder of NDTV, one of India’s last remaining bastions of independent broadcast journalism. The message to uncooperative journalists was, yet again, unmistakable.

Mr Modi promised to make India respected abroad, and India’s engagement with the world has no doubt been energised under his premiership. But in the most important arena – national security – Mr Modi’s itinerant diplomacy has failed to make India any safer.

Three years on from his win, China’s incursions into Indian territory have not ceased and relations with Pakistan are the lowest point in recent memory.

Vakavaka Pakapaka wrote:Yeah, people should give power back to Jagan, Maran, Laloo, Raja, Mulayam, Soonya, et al and let the great leaders do more Sikular things......