I DO not think my career as a columnist which started in 1988 and takes in all the major newspapers in Guyana should ever end without a few thoughts on India’s current Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. This is not my first analysis of his politics. It will not be the last.
In talking about Modi, we must always be careful of falling into Israel/anti-Semitic trap. What Israeli leaders have done the past 60 years is to equate criticism of Israel’s government with anti-Semitism and it has worked in most Western countries to the point where people are afraid up to this day of criticising Israel for fear of being accused of anti-Semitism.

The rejection of Modi’s politics must not be confused with criticism of India. This great land is perhaps civilization’s exceptional country, and it can be argued that India is perhaps the greatest country in the 21st century though I will concede that China has been more successful in the elimination of poverty.
I never liked Modi from day one when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat. I believe and the world at the time believed that he allowed anti-Muslim violence to fester before he sent in security forces to quell a rising tide of anti-Muslim deaths. For those who don’t know, his American visa was revoked over his complicity.
I began to fear for the world’s leading democratic nation after disturbing anti-Muslim pronouncements of Modi. These were accompanied by equally disturbing authoritarian trends. One Chief Minister, opposed to Modi was incarcerated days before the election. The federal opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi was jailed and expelled from Parliament over criticism of Modi. His conviction was overturned by the courts.
As I write now, the world’s media are awash with analyses of India’s 2024 election results. The general consensus among academics the world over is that Modi lost. He will still be the Prime Minister through a coalition with two parties, but if you deconstruct words, then in actuality, Modi lost the 2024 election.

Here are a few facts that Modi may not recover from. His party, BJP promised the electorate a two/third majority with 400 seats. They promised with their two/thirds majority to change the constitution to remove affirmative action for the lower castes.
The BJP lost more than 50 seats. And is nowhere near 300 much less 400. In Uttar Pradesh, where my mother’s parents came from, Modi suffered a humiliating defeat. Now, in a part of Uttar Pradesh, named Ayoda, Modi unveiled his plan to make Hinduism the centre-piece of his rule.
In Ayoda, Hindu zealots demolished a historic mosque years ago with incitement from BJP politicians. When he became PM, Modi promised that he will build a Hindu temple right on the site in homage to Lord Rama. And he kept his promise. The temple is one of the largest in India. And Modi inaugurated it in January.

In the election, the Hindus of Ayoda voted against the BJP. Modi lost the federal seats in Uttar Pradesh, a Hindi-speaking state. This state played an important part in Modi’s victory in 2014 and 2019. This time, the Opposition, Congress Party took the state. A careful reading of the election results showed that in many Hindu districts the BJP was rejected.
Modi and the BJP entered the 2024 election with a huge illusion, and that has cost Modi and he may never recover from it. In fact, the 2024 election results show that Modi was not as astute as he thought. There was an orchestrated anti-Muslim blueprint for India with the Ayoda temple being the foundation for this agenda.

The mistake made was that Ayoda is a tiny part of India, and the frenzy among Hindus countrywide that Modi hoped that the temple issue would generate did not happen. Even in Ayoda, Hindus rejected the BJP. So what happened? Enter Thomas Piketty.
I regard Piketty as the most profound economist in the world, a man whose research is simply brilliant. Piketty revealed in his research on India, that in the history of colonial India and post-Independence history, wealth inequality has never been so wide under all previous colonial and post-colonial government under Modi than any other Indian administration in India’s history as it currently is under Modi.
Modi thought people would vote for an anti-Muslim diet; instead the Indian people voted for the need to have bread and money, and those two Modi failed to deliver. Every analysis I have read in all the global media, the economy played the crucial role in the way people voted. We may be seeing the last of Modi because his two coalition partners are going to be insanely demanding. If they pull out, then Modi falls. Coalitions are more unsteady than the Cassandra Crossing. Ask Imran Khan in Pakistan.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.