The biggest issue is that there is no opposition to the BJP - which won the election with a massive majority. This is never good in a democracy.
But Modi's policies have been abysmal failures - demonetization killed the rural economy and actually ended up being a boon for the black money hoarders ( people ended up converting their black money to white).
99% of money was returned back to the reserve bank, shows the dismal failure of the experiment.<p><a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/finance/after-almost-two-years-of-counting-rbi-says-99-3-of-demonetised-notes-returned/articleshow/65589904.cms" rel="nofollow">https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/finance/af...</a><p>The economy is dragging<p><a href="https://www.ndtv.com/opinion/opinion-how-to-fix-the-economy-the-message-is-clear-2112840" rel="nofollow">https://www.ndtv.com/opinion/opinion-how-to-fix-the-economy-...</a><p>The sad part is Modi goes around touting the India growth story,spinning fabrications,people are seeing through this but unfortunately there are no options.
This article is much FUD.<p>In India, people with opposing political views routinely peacefully coexist - in fact, it is a necessity for a nation the size and diversity. Unlike what this article paints, the country is not a two party system. Every shade of opinion has a party that carries it, and it's typical in India to form coalitions vs single party rule, inherently requiring compromises from all involved.<p>In the US today, walking down the street with a MAGA cap on can lead to an attack. Or the very least draw scorn from opposing viewpoints. In India, a Modi fan can argue with a Rahul Gandhi fan, and then peacefully enjoy their beers without fear of violence or discrimination.<p>Among my close friends in India, it was routine for differing political opinions, religions backgrounds to debate, but it never got in the way of our comraderie or fun. And I saw that play out at local, state and national levels.
As an Indian, it bothers me how much blind faith people have in the Modi government. The crap they pull never gets talked about, and if you bring it up, Modi supporters will ridicule you and not even consider that maybe the Modi government could actually be doing something bad.<p>It's reached the point where many media outlets/persons are afraid to criticize the government because that leads to them getting trolled and harassed by BJP/Modi supporters.<p>It's a big f-ing mess. Like another commenter points out, there's no real opposition to the BJP. The only other major national party, the Congress, has a very long history of corrupt practices, and the current leader is a goddamned joke. I wasn't old enough to vote this year, but if I had been, I know I'd have a hard time choosing the lesser evil.
They are now starting a NRC in the rest of India where government will "throw out" infiltrators.<p>The ruling party launched said NRC in the state of Assam with much pomp but after it realised that more Hindus were left out of NRC, even the Assam unit of ruling party refused to accept it.<p>What's ironic is that the SC had ruled for an NRC and not the government and even the govt had accepted that NRC doesn't mean people who don't get on it will be expelled.
I'm from the North of Ireland. We had sectarianism and "troubles" with fear of the "others". We should find a common factor <points elbow at British Imperialism>.
Southern Europe & South America is clearly Catholic.
Northern Europe & Northern America is clearly Protestant.
Starting from state support for church funding through the tax system to political correctness of politics, christian state holidays, laws, values and culture - Christianity forms the base of "western society" or where christianity has come to "bless" the native cultures.<p>Less said about the Islamic countries the better, where kaffirs have no rights and religion commandments are above everything.<p>The poster children of liberals, France & Denmark have both banned the hijab.<p>Some facts about the history of religion in India.<p>India has been under Islamic invasions, raids and plunder for 700 years. The vast majority of the ancient temples, universities & libraries in the north of the country had been destroyed under this reign of terror.<p>When the European traders landed in India, India was producing 70% of the industrial goods traded globally. The civilising mission and superiority complex of christian evangelism is what allowed the colonial takeover by hook or crook. The church is today the largest non governmental land owner in India, so much for the myth of colonialism not favouring christianity.<p>In 1947, India gives up 24% of its territory to create Islamic Pakistan to accommodate 10% of the Indian population. Pakistan immediately starts ethnic cleansing, increasing the muslim population from 76% to 99% today. This repeats in Kashmir in the 1990's where 76% muslim population is today 99.9%<p>India with a majority 80% Hindus today has remained secular, where minorities enjoy special privileges. Hindus literally have millions of deities, like music or food, it encourages creation of new gods. There are even 6 major schools of atheism within hinduism. Other major religions like Sikhism, Buddhism or Jainism which took root in the same culture have no significant conflicts in contemporary India. Parsies, Syrian christians, native muslims and others who have accepted India as their home and cultural centre have no conflicts with the "majority" population.<p>The conflicts today only exists where a foreign church or the Islamic brotherhood is involved. The church & the brotherhood which have no experience living in peace in a pluralistic society need to reform themselves. They need to accept the right for free, pluralistic societies and sane civil laws like homosexuality and right to abortion. They can not continue using their enormous economic & political capital to bully others into their narrow tunnel vision.
Okay, so I read the article, and it is standard left-wing playbook often copied by the likes of NYT, WaPo, Huffy Puffy, and Guardian. Get one Muslim to speak against, get one Kashmiri to speak against, and make a giant cast. Nothing new here from Guardian, and nothing unexpected.<p>A better understanding comes from polling a greater number of people, not cherry-picking the ones to suit your agenda. But none of the western media is interested in that, are they?