This year started with a bang for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It’s ending with a whimper.
Few world leaders saw a bigger reversal of fortunes — and it leaves Modi’s grip on India less convincing going into 2025.
Coming off the high of hosting the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi, he kicked off the year by inaugurating a massive Hindu temple at Ayodhya, fulfilling a longstanding promise to his Hindu-nationalist base. The economy was booming, and an upcoming election looked set to deliver sweeping gains for his party.
Then the setbacks rolled in.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party lost seats, forcing the prime minister to reach out to regional allies and govern by coalition for the first time since coming to power a decade earlier.
India’s neighborhood got more perilous, with factions skeptical of New Delhi ascendant in Bangladesh and the Maldives. India’s global infrastructure buildout was thrown into question after US prosecutors accused Gautam Adani, a Modi ally, of involvement in a bribery plot.
The economy has begun to slow, while India’s central bank has flagged a worrying spike in inflation.
One possible bright spot was the election of Donald Trump. It’s no secret that many in New Delhi favor the US president-elect and his transactional approach.
Equally, Trump has pledged across-the-board trade tariffs that are unlikely to spare India.
Where does all that leave Modi?
The Indian leader will have to work hard to maintain his coalition as he looks ahead to a slate of regional elections. With the temple triumph at Ayodhya now barely an afterthought, he’ll also need to find new causes to energize voters.
As for Trump, Modi’s administration has signaled it’s open to compromises. The relationship, said External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, will require “give and take.”
Never write Modi off. But the coming year looks harder than ever. — Dan Strumpf