By KATHY WESTLEYNew Scientist print edition, February 17, 2020The first death notice from the BJP government of Narendra Modislam.
In March 2019, after a brief period of euphoria, Modi had to resign after a wave of violence claimed the lives of nearly 50 people, mostly policemen.
It was a crushing blow for a government that had been built on a sense of calm, unity and collective action.
Modi’s victory in 2019 was also seen as a victory for his nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had been on the rise under Modi’s predecessor, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a Hindu nationalist.
However, after his victory in the 2019 elections, Modi’s Hindu nationalist party lost the support of the lower and middle classes.
Modi’s election as the BJP prime minister had not helped either, and many Indians blame the BJP for the country’s economic and political woes.
The Modi government had promised to revive the economy and improve the lives and livelihoods of the country.
But the BJP was not given a mandate to carry out the promised economic and social reforms.
Instead, the government was accused of taking credit for the deaths of innocent people.
After the election, Modi promised to implement reforms and revive the fortunes of the Indian economy, but the government has failed to deliver on his promises.
Since Modi’s party won a landslide victory in October 2019, he has overseen a dramatic change in India.
His government has pushed through policies that have left the country in disarray.
A huge majority of Indians live in poverty, while almost 40% of the population are dependent on the government for their daily survival.
On top of the economic turmoil and rising unemployment, India has seen several terrorist attacks, which have killed over 1,000 people and injured over 1 million.
There are reports that some of the bombs used by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) were manufactured in India and were smuggled to Syria by militants.
India is also struggling to contain a rising tide of terrorism, with the country being plagued by an influx of foreign fighters.
In September 2019, at least six Indian soldiers were killed and a dozen more injured in a roadside bomb attack in Punjab state.
Many Indians also blame the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a spate of deadly incidents, including the death of student Anupam Kher in January 2020.
Kher was killed when he tried to protect a Hindu student from attackers.
Other deadly incidents have also been linked to the Modi government.
In April 2019, a man stabbed and killed two young children at an event in the city of Agra.
Also in April, the body of an 18-year-old man was found hanging from a ceiling fan in a park in the western Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
During the Modi era, the BJP has also been accused of supporting terrorism, particularly the Muslim separatist group the Indian Mujahideen.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has defended the BJP, saying he has the “best interests of the nation at heart”.
But some Indian commentators have accused the government and Modi of failing to address the grievances of the middle classes, which are increasingly under pressure.
Despite these concerns, Modi remains popular with Indians.
More than half of the Indians surveyed by the Pew Research Center in 2020 were in favour of him, while another 53% were against him, according to a new Pew Research Centre poll.
When asked whether they agreed with Modi’s statement that India is a nation of ‘one nation, indivisible, with one motherland’, a majority of Indian people (54%) agreed with it.
In fact, the largest group of respondents agreed with the statement was the middle class, with 73% agreeing with the sentiment.
Nearly six in 10 Indians (59%) believed the BJP should give up its nationalist agenda, while more than two-thirds (67%) disagreed with this.
One in five Indians (19%) said they would vote for a third party, while 14% of Indians said they didn’t know how they would choose to vote, according in the survey.
Overall, about one in 10 people (9%) said that Modi was the only one who can bring change to India, and nearly one-third (34%) said the government is the only person who can help bring about change.