, Columnist
Modi’s India Is Looking Like a One-Party State
Change has happened.
Photo: Sonu Mehta/Hindustan Times/Getty Images
It took him 12 years, but Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has finally brought the world’s most-populous nation to the precipice of an all-powerful, one-party state.
He isn’t the first to try. In 1971, Indira Gandhi led her party to a landslide victory, only to have her own election challenged for malpractices. When the judiciary stripped her of her parliamentary seat in 1975, she didn’t step down. Instead, she declared a national emergency, suspended civil liberties, and forced constitutional changes through a hollowed-out parliament while opposition leaders languished in jail.