Modi’s Personality Cult Is Under Siege on Four Fronts
The pretense of business as usual masks crucial challenges to the strongman leader.
The Indian PM’s authority is diminishing.
Photo: BJP Manifesto
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi would very much like to pretend that his party’s diminished majority in parliament doesn’t mean a diminution of his authority. Nothing can be farther from the truth. He is under siege from not one, but four different quarters. His personality cult is unlikely to survive the attack.
On the surface, his Bharatiya Janata Party’s dependence on coalition partners hasn’t led to much power-sharing. Modi’s ministers of finance, defense, foreign and internal affairs are all unchanged. The same speaker of parliament who suspended an unprecedented 100 opposition lawmakers last December, allowing the government to change the criminal code without debate, has returned to the job. And the speaker is still being his old, partisan self when it comes to allowing discussion on things that matter to people — like botched medical entrance exams.