The Economist says PM Modi’s “latest initiatives threaten to do damage to India’s democracy & are likely to lead to bloodshed”

The Economist, in its January 23 edition titled “Narendra Modi stokes divisions in the world’s biggest democracy”, has said that “India’s 200 million Muslims fear the prime minister is building a Hindu state”.

The article, described as “Intolerant India”, criticises the Central government led by Narendra Modi on the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens saying that it “imperils the inspiring idea of India as the world’s largest democracy”. “Alas, what has been electoral nectar for the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] is political poison for India,” the article observes, adding that by undermining the secular principles of the Constitution, the PM’s initiatives “threaten to do damage to India’s democracy that could last for decades. They are also likely to lead to bloodshed”.

It says that all this would “distract attention from awkward topics such as the economy, which has struggled since the BJP’s thumping election victory last year”.

Interestingly, the article also mentions that “Because of India’s first-past-the-post electoral system and a divided opposition, the BJP won its outright majority in parliament with just 37% of the vote”.

There is mention of the fact that the NRC – the system of compilation of citizens to hunt for “foreign interlopers” – affects all 1.3 billion people in the country and could drag on for years, “inflaming passion over and over again”.

The Economist also questions the “human cost” of all this. “From time to time the stoking of anti-Muslim sentiment leads to massacres like the one in Gujarat, in which more than 1,000 people were killed. By perpetually firing up Hindus and infuriating Muslims, the BJP makes fresh bloodshed more likely,” the article mentions.

It also mentions some aspects of criticism that the Prime Minister has faced from Opposition party leaders in the country, especially his mention of Pakistan. According to The Economist article, “With his warlike rhetoric about Pakistan, his head-cracking in Kashmir and his flagrantly biased approach to citizenship, the prime minister has raised the zealots’ expectations. He may not want to take things too far — he has a country to govern — but they will have no such compunction,” the article observes. “Mr Modi should look for other paths to voters’ hearts,” says the article.

The ruling party’s reaction has been caustic, as expected. The party hit back, with BJP leader Vijay Chauthaiwale – the party’s foreign policy-in-charge – called The Economist, “arrogant”.

“We thought the Brits had left in 1947! But the editors of @TheEconomist are still living in colonial era. They are furious when 600m Indians do not follow their explicit instructions of not voting Modi,” Chauthaiwale tweeted.