Modi Takes Aim at Prosperous Southern States
CHENNAI, India — Over his 10 years as prime minister of India, Narendra Modi — India’s most powerful leader in decades — has made it his mission to turn a diverse country of 1.4 billion people into a monolith dominated by his sweeping Hindu nationalist vision.
The news media, the national legislature, civil society, the courts — all have largely been bent to his will. But one critical group of holdouts remains: some of India’s richest states, the engine of its rapid growth.
The future shape of the country may rest on the power struggle that has ensued.
Mr. Modi, who is well placed to win a third term in a national election that will begin on April 19, is wielding a heavy hand in what his opponents call an unfair effort to drive out the governments of the states his party does not control.
They accuse Mr. Modi’s administration of delaying federal money for major projects; of jailing or hounding opposition leaders while shielding anyone who joins the prime minister’s party; and of obstructing the delivery of basic services.
The tensions are tearing at India’s delicate federal formula of power sharing, the glue holding the country together across 28 states and eight territories.
In the south, the most developed part of India, officials have spoken of a “separate nation” for their region if the “patterns of injustice” continue.
Mr. Modi has in turn accused the state leaders of harboring a “separatist mind-set” and pursuing politics that could “break the nation.”
Mr. Modi offers a simple solution: for the states governed by parties other than his Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., to come on board.
Those states, he says, could benefit from what he calls a “double engine” government, with one party — his own — working in sync at both the national and state levels.
If they do not comply, the states run into interference, officials say, making it difficult for them to deliver on election promises. And the B.J.P. waits in the wings.
Officials in the five southern states say Mr. Modi is trying to hold them back for their refusal to buy in to his brand of politics, including his party’s stirring of Hindu-Muslim tensions and its push to make Hindi — which is not widely spoken in the south — a national language.
The resentment is amplified by complaints that the south gets proportionally less in return for the tax money it sends to New Delhi. Because the northern states have large populations and are far behind in basic development, they get a larger share of the revenues.
Mr. Modi is seeking to remake Indian federalism with his “double engine” push. In opposition-held states, he has offered infrastructure and welfare projects, branded with his name or that of his office, to pitch himself as India’s only driver of growth.
In engaging in joint projects, the state parties face a
political cost: They will get the money only if they agree to the Modi branding.
And if they resist?
In 2022, the federal finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, stopped at a shop in the southern state of Telangana that distributed rice rations as part of a joint program. Mr. Modi’s picture was not displayed there. Ms. Sitharaman lashed out at state officials. “This is the work that our prime minister is doing for his people,” she said. “Our people will come and install the prime minister’s photo, and you will, as district administrator, ensure that shall not be removed.”