Modi’s Tax Plan Is Squeezing the Middle Class
Tweaks announced in the budget aren't going down well with the Indian prime minister's loyal voter base.
The faith in Modinomics is eroding.
Photographer: SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought a third five-year term by promising to march his country toward “Amrit Kaal,” an epoch of plentitude in Hindu astrology when the gates of pleasure will open to all.
Last week, however, the slogan, enthusiastically employed by Modi’s party in its election manifesto, received a quiet burial. In her first budget address of Modi 3.0, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stayed away from the phrase, even though variations of it had cropped up 30 times in her speeches about government finances in the previous two years.