India’s protests have irreparably damaged Narendra Modi’s infallible image

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Amrit Dhillon is a New Delhi-based journalist.

If Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spends his time musing on the fickleness of fortune, who can blame him? In May, the general election handed him a historic landslide victory, which further magnified the aura of invincibility that had surrounded him during his first term. Despite some disappointment about Mr. Modi’s performance, India’s voters nonetheless felt that he deserved another term to make good on his promise of “achche din” – better days.

Just eight months later, the mighty, decisive strongman who could do no wrong looks to be on the defensive. His legendary sureness of touch has seemingly dulled. The perception that he has the pulse of the nation has vanished. The man who some saw as destined to lead India to the sunlit uplands suddenly seems like he might not be up to the task.

All it took was the eruption of deadly protests, prompted by Mr. Modi’s new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in December, which have expanded from city to city. Students, middle-aged housewives and the elderly – people who had never before been on the frontlines of civil unrest – have taken to the streets to register their anger over both the CAA and the equally controversial National Register of Citizens. Both are seen by critics as devious measures to strip India’s 200 million Muslims of their citizenship.

The reason: If Hindus fail to qualify as citizens under the register because of a lack of documentary proof, they will be protected by the CAA, which will give them citizenship. But Muslims who do not make it to the register will not enjoy the same protection because they are excluded from the CAA. This means that Muslims without the right papers could end up with the status of illegal immigrants, even if generations of their families have lived, died and been buried in India.

Until these two measures slowed down the Modi juggernaut, he had been able to push through one controversial measure after another, most notably stripping Kashmir, the only Muslim-majority state, of its autonomy. The internet shutdown there has lasted a staggering five months, the longest ever imposed in any democracy.

But it was the CAA and the proposed register that have proven to be the populace’s limit. They violate the secular principles of the constitution under which religion cannot be a criterion of citizenship.

Unluckily for Mr. Modi, the marches, protests and sit-ins have come as the economy flounders. He and his ministers seem to have no idea how to pull the country from the brink of a possible recession. Unemployment is at a crisis point, GDP growth has dipped to 5 per cent, and consumer demand has plunged.

But Mr. Modi is not making things easier on himself by choosing to ram through one controversial aspect of his Hindu nationalist ideology after the other, rather than focusing on the economy, which would give Indians a better life. He has misread the election verdict; the vote was for jobs, higher incomes, housing, access to toilets and less daily hardship – not for policies aimed at pitting Hindus against Muslims or triggering social upheaval.

Handling the current anti-CAA crisis has been hard for the government, especially because of what it is has exposed about the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party – that it is entirely dependent on Mr. Modi’s charisma. Now that he’s losing his mojo, there is no one else who can step up to limit the damage. Home Minister Amit Shah is the only other well-known face in the government, but he has no electoral base and is a party apparatchik rather than a politician who knows how to connect with the masses.

The protests have transmuted the perceived virtues of his strongman approach into weaknesses. Why can’t he engage with students and protesters and listen to their concerns? Why not listen to the anxieties expressed by Muslims? Why not talk to the opposition to understand the resistance to the CAA? And now that he has projected an image of himself as a bold, decisive leader who refuses to look back, Mr. Modi is unable to back down now without diminishing his political stature.

The weeks-long protests against the CAA may fizzle out yet; it’s been five long weeks, after all, and people have lives to live. Momentum can be lost. But things will never be the same again under Mr. Modi. If there is only one thing the protests have achieved, it is smashing the image of Mr. Modi’s invincibility. Indians have realized he can be resisted.

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