Liberal political commentators publicly gave up on Modi a few years ago. Liberal economists had been more charitable towards him, at least in private. Not any more though. A prominent Hong Kong-based commentator wrote a column in Bloomberg titled 'Why I am losing hope in India'. He was praised by many for his honesty, while a few castigated him for overlooking mass murder. The most honest line in the piece was at the end--'We wanted to trade some of our democratic chaos for a little bit more growth. We ended up with less of both'. Support for dictatorship among the Indian middle classes runs strong. Growing up, I often heard how the solution to India's problems was dictatorship. Of course, the people supporting dictators are the ones whose freedoms and rights would not be threatened under a dictatorship, Or so they think. At least not in the beginning. But it is just a matter of time before the right-wing lunacy in India starts to affect the quality of life of middle-class Indians in urban India. Like when they start banning movies and T shows for "insulting Indian culture". When they realise this regime won't be content on just beating up Muslims and Dalits or strike-happy trade unions. Middle-class contempt for all the groups runs deep. Not just indifference but outright hostility. I don't want to sound like a broken record, but I wonder if the caste system is the reason why "othering" comes so easily to Indians.
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