INDIA: MODI REBUKED

As reported in the Trends Journal, the ongoing country-wide street protests against President Narendra Modi’s anti-Muslim Citizenship Amendment Act has been growing despite thousands risking injury, arrests, and, in some cases death from aggressive police tactics.
In addition to anger over the anti-Muslim amendment, the millions of citizens who have taken to the streets are also protesting growing poverty, lack of jobs, health care, and basic living necessities in what has been a dramatically slowing economy since Modi was reelected to a second term last May.
Beyond taking to the streets, citizens of India have extended their protests through the ballot box, dealing Modi’s ruling party a significant setback in last Tuesday’s election, winning far fewer seats than anticipated in the Legislative Assembly in New Delhi.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was counting on winning a larger majority from its campaign centered on the president’s Hindu nationalist agenda.
TRENDPOST: On Monday, Moody’s slashed its 2020 growth projection for India from 6.6 percent to 5.4 percent.
With the Indian economy in its seventh consecutive quarter of contraction and protests mounting against Modi, we maintain our forecast that his government will harshly crack down on all opposition movements. Demonstrations and strikes, however, will continue to escalate as economic and social conditions deteriorate.