Polarizing and charismatic, Modi appeals to national pride amid economic challenges.
By Joanna Slater Joanna Slater Foreign correspondent covering South Asia Email Bio Follow April 10 at 12:35 PM KHUDANA, India — The three helicopters appear like a mirage out of the white-hot sky and descend toward a tiny village in northern India. For hours, thousands of people have waited in 95-degree heat for the man they hope to reelect as the country’s prime minister.
At the rally, a local BJP candidate urges the crowd to shout so loudly that it will be heard in Pakistan, India’s neighbor and rival. Sumit Kumar, 24, readily obliges. Modi remains favored to win reelection, albeit with a smaller number of seats in India’s Parliament, which would oblige him to lead a coalition. His popularity outstrips that of his main rival, Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition Indian National Congress.
It is not clear whether India hit anything in the airstrikes or if its missiles caused any casualties. But Modi repeatedly refers to the strikes on the campaign trail as evidence of his resolve. Billboards in Saharanpur, a city in Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state, feature his face with the words “Penetrated enemy territory and attacked terrorists.”
But Modi did not deliver on that kind of sweeping legislation. “They have tinkered a bit here and a bit there, but they haven’t really moved forward strongly on the reforms front,” said Yashwant Sinha, a former finance minister who quit Modi’s party last year. “He’s no economic reformer.” “The real problem is there are a number of people in this country who only want to perceive and spread gloom,” said G.V.L. Narasimha Rao, a BJP spokesman. They aim to “create some kind of negative perception about the government, but the reality on the ground is different.”
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