By Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker
NEW YORK - With the media and judiciary already under attack, the Prime Minister’s main opponent was just banned from Parliament.
Over the course of Modi’s premiership, which began in 2014, he has turned India into an increasingly illiberal democracy.
Vigilante attacks on religious minorities have increased markedly, the ruling party has taken steps to strip citizenship from Indian Muslims, and the historically repressed Muslim-majority state of Kashmir has faced even harsher crackdowns.
Still, Modi remains remarkably popular, with approval ratings above seventy per cent. The moves against Gandhi—the scion of India’s Congress Party, which ruled the country for most of the post-independence era—were surprising in part because Gandhi doesn’t seem to pose a real threat to Modi politically.
To talk about Gandhi’s conviction and disqualification, I recently spoke by phone with Christophe Jaffrelot, a senior research fellow at Sciences Po, a professor of Indian politics and sociology at King’s College, London, and the author of “Modi’s India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy.”
During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed how Modi’s government has evolved in a more authoritarian direction, the central role that anti-Muslim politics has played in his success, and where opposition to the B.J.P. is likely to emerge.
For the full article, visit: https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/has-modi-pushed-indian-democracy-past-its-breaking-point?mc_cid=a946117acb&mc_eid=40d90e4282
