Narendra Modi’s Populist Facade Is Cracking https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/02/modi-nationalism-demagoguery-limitations/681094/ Robert F. Worth India is now a testing ground for whether demagoguery or deteriorating living conditions exert a greater sway on voters.  India’s growth has been heavily weighted toward the wealthy, who have become exponentially richer on Modi’s watch. Those who have benefited most are a small cadre of billionaire friends to whom Modi has granted special access for years. That practice was cast in a new light in November, when American prosecutors indicted the industrialist Gautam Adani—India’s second-richest man and a close Modi ally—for his role in a multibillion-dollar bribery-and-fraud scheme. (His company has denied the charges, calling them baseless.) The accusation revived fears about opacity and cronyism—the specter of “India Inc.”—that Modi had promised to address a decade ago.

At the same time, eight in 10 Indians live in poverty. Extraordinary numbers are out of work; one estimate puts unemployment among those ages 15 to 24 at more than 45 percent (though other estimates run lower). Instead of moving from farms to seek employment in cities, as people in other developing countries have done, many Indians—unable to find factory or service jobs—are making the trek in reverse, even as farm income stagnates and drought turns fields into deserts. .. What, in the long run, exerts greater sway on the electorate—the lure of demagoguery, or the reality of deteriorating living conditions?

  https://www.navjivanindia.com/opinion/ram-puniyanis-article-the-extent-of-hatred-in-the-country-where-did-the-advices-of-top-leaders-go

Urban Naxals and Red Book: The BJP's efforts to Undermine Rahul Gandhi's  championing of the Marginalised  https://thewire.in/politics/urban-naxals-and-red-book-the-bjps-efforts-to-undermine-rahul-gandhis-championing-of-the-marginalised Anand Teltumbde 10/Nov/2024 Gandhi’s transformation, especially evident through his Bharat Jodo and Nyaya Yatras, has shifted him from being seen as a “me too Hindu” simpleton to a champion of marginalised groups. This rebranding has positioned him as a significant challenge to the BJP with his unorthodox approach to leadership.

the references to leftist influences in urban areas and their link to Naxalism can be found in security and policy analyses from as early as the 1990s and 2000s.

The police projected to the gullible people that they had uncovered the Maoists’ plot to build urban network and busted it by arresting these activists.