Why Indian billionaires may not be good news for Modi

Growing income inequality could be a problem as battle lines are formed ahead of the next election

- Ravi Velloor

Ravi Velloor Associate Editor Mr Narendra Modi could not have crossed into 2023 with a stronger wind in his sails. His political dominance over India is unquestioned, his global image strong. The India Today mood of the nation poll published in late January had his government's approval ratings soaring from 56 per cent to 67 per cent over the past two years.

Approaching nine years in power, there is little trace of anti-incumbency against either India's prime minister or his government.

Poised to host the summit of the G-20 nations later in 2023 India swopped places with Indonesia so it could host the prestige-boosting event closer to the national polls in 2024 - Mr Modi looked set to sweep elections a third consecutive time.

All the expectations around Mr Modi could still come to pass. The National Democratic Alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) looks unassailable despite a much-followed trudge across India by his putative challenger, Mr Rahul Gandhi of the Indian National Congress party. Called Bharat Jodo India Unite - Mr Gandhi's mass movement kicked off in September and ended on Jan 30, drawing significant crowds.

Nevertheless, three seemingly disparate developments in January add up to a sense that not everything could be going Mr Modi's way.

First, on Jan 15, as delegates gathered in Davos for the World Economic Forum, Oxfam published a report, "Survival of the Richest". The India supplement had some startling numbers: the top 1 per cent of Indians now own 40.5 per cent of the country's total wealth, and the bottom half just around 3 per cent.

Since the pandemic began, and until November 2022, it reported, Indian billionaires had increased their wealth by 121 per cent while the number of hungry Indians nearly doubled to 350 million. At the same time, Indian billionaire numbers soared from 102 in 2020 to 166 in two years.

Oxfam called all this "obscene inequality".