MODI HOLDS FIRM

...BUT WORRIES ABOUT UNEMPLOYMENT AND EROSION OF DEMOCRATIC NORMS PERSIST

- RAJ CHENGAPPA

Narendra Modi is no stranger to adversity and has invariably come out the better for it in the 11 years he has been at India's helm. Now in the second year of his third term, the prime minister faces his toughest challenge, a trilemma, if you will. There is US president Donald Trump, who, in the first six months of his second term, has become wrecker-in-chief of the world order. India, surprisingly, is at the receiving end as Trump imposed a debilitating 50 per cent tariff on its exports, a move likely to hurt our economic growth.

Earlier this May, India went to war with Pakistan over the terror attack in Pahalgam in which 26 civilians were brutally killed. Operation Sindoor, as the Indian strike was called, drew thick red lines to deter Pakistan from fostering terror in future. But Trump played spoilsport again with his expansive claims of winning the peace and thereby diluting India's victory narrative. All these developments have compelled Modi to rebalance India's foreign policy, hitherto characterised by a pronounced US tilt, and press the accelerator on what he calls NextGen reforms to boost the Indian economy.