Dr. Manmohan Singh transformed the Indian ailing socialist economy into a thriving market economy. From 2001, the US began to nurture India as a counterweight to China. Indian software export houses like Narayan Murthy’s Infosys thus drew in US tech giants such as Microsoft. Manmohan Singh’s India was the world’s fastest-growing economy, at 8-9% annual growth. Singh was also instrumental in forming BRICS, the new global economic bloc. The economic momentum continued in Modi’s first term and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in India reached USD 72 billion and foreign exchange reserves stood at USD 600 billion in 2019.
In May 2015, Time magazine featured Modi on its cover page and titled, “Why Modi Matters: The world needs India to step up as a global power. One year in, can Prime Minister Narendra Modi deliver?”
Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat at the time of the state-enabled deadly communal riots of 2002.
Nehru and Manmohan Singh were both educated at Cambridge University. Modi’s formal education is limited to the educational program of the RSS, starting at age eight. The RSS is a right-wing Hindu nationalist paramilitary volunteer organisation modelled along the lines of Germany’s Nazi party. The Hindutva trumping RSS-BJP’s Modi thus has a cult following, thanks to the propaganda of Modi-controlled media and the BJP’s social media wing. The corollary of this Hindu pride is fear-mongering and hatred for Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and Pakistan. This loops back to Modi being the saviour of India’s Hindus. This red herring has served Modi very well as his vote bank deifies Modi, building temples in his name. His voter base refers to itself as his bakht or devotees.
Hindutva glorifying Modi government has divided the Ganges river into two equal halves – one each for the privileged and the masses attending the Kumbh mela.
In 2019, the Time magazine featured Modi on its cover page and the caption read: “India’s Divider in Chief.” With Delhi being designated as “The rape capital of the world,” and the gang rape statistics in India skyrocketing, Modi was politically campaigning for a mass rapist Prejwal Revanna, whose pen drive contained 2,800 videos recording his sexual assaults. Modi later helped Revanna flee to Germany.
Modi’s 2019 pre-election populist move of an airstrike on Pakistan, had global ramifications highly favourable for Pakistan and China, and disastrous for India. The PAF’s JF-17 jet shot down the IAF’s “flying coffin,” the vintage Mig-21 and Sukoi 30 mi. Modi hence unwittingly trumpeted the Chinese and Pakistani militaries and broadcasted to the world the Indian military’s weakness, in one fell swoop. Thanks to Modi, Pakistan sold JF17 jets to Azerbaijan, Myanmar, Nigeria and Iraq. Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Iran and Argentina are potential buyers. Pakistan recently signed military hardware sales deals worth USD 32 billion.
India struck Pakistan with a Russian supersonic missile, in March 2022, to showcase its saving grace, terming it a mistake. However, in late 2024, Modi’s long-time strategic ally, Russia offered Pakistan to choose its pick of Russian military equipment. This was a direct result of Modi’s duplicitous game of courting both Russia and the US during the Ukraine proxy war between the two powers.
Seeing the weakness of the Indian military, the Chinese army had skirmishes with the Indian army. In 2021 and 2022 Modi’s India ceded territory to China.
Hindutva glorifying Narendra Modi violated the COVID-19 lockdown protocol by allowing the Kumbh Mela. The resulting deadlier Covid variant’s actual death toll is estimated to be seven to ten times higher than the official death toll of 4.5 million. Hindutva glorifying Modi government has divided the Ganges river into two equal halves – one each for the privileged and the masses attending the Kumbh mela. In food-insecure India, Modi’s controversial farm laws have led to perpetual farmer protests and suicides.
In Modi’s India, the rich are getting richer and the poor are even poorer. Under Modi’s rule, the corruption scandals ridden Gautam Adani became the richest man in Asia, by being granted commercial contracts of state land and state assets. Adani’s scandal caused a strain in India’s relations with Sri Lanka and now the US.
The Russian-Ukraine war put Modi’s India on the spot with talks of BRICS floating a new currency. Saudi Arabia’s tilt towards BRICS worried the US – whose federal debt stands at 36 trillion – as it would dislodge the USD as the world’s reserve currency.
The US wooed Modi to foil BRICS, during his state visit to the US in June 2023. India was offered semiconductor manufacturing and jet engine technology. In September 2023, the US also announced the creation of IMEC (India-Middle East-Economic Corridor) at the G-20’s summit in the Indian-occupied Kashmir. Modi failed to avail the opportunities the US offered to India. In February 2025, the IAF chief publicly condemned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Air Force’s lack of fighter jets. In February 2025, Modi revisited the White House. This time POTUS Trump pretty much dictated that the US would sell India F-35 jets, semiconductors and also US oil and gas to India – a far cry from the bounty offered earlier.
Trump wishes to reverse the US trade deficit of USD 45.6 billion with India. “Nobody can say ‘no’ to me, ” Trump further said about the trade deal. Modi and India’s key government figures spent time pampering Elon Musk’s toddlers in the White House. POTUS Trump humiliatingly deported illegal Indians in inhumane conditions before and after Modi’s US visit. Trump’s halting of USD 21 million USAID, to India, has unearthed corruption scandals.
(To Be Continued)
The writer is an independent researcher, author and columnist. She can be reached at [email protected]