In a devastating critique of the 10 years of Narendra Modi’s prime ministership, the author and economist Parakala Prabhakar, has said: “Of course, Modi is a dictator” adding “our democracy is in crisis, our social fabric is torn, our economy is in peril and we are being dragged back to the dark ages”.
Parakala says “a return to power of the present government would spell disaster for India”.
However, Parakala believes this is unlikely to happen and also adds that Narendra Modi and the BJP will struggle to get more than 220-230 seats in the forthcoming elections. Explaining his electoral analysis more fully, Parakala says Modi and the BJP could lose 50-60 seats in north India and perhaps 10-12 in the south (that is after taking into account any seats they win in Andhra).
Parakala also says that if Modi is restricted to 230 seats he neither has the talent nor the people to help win allies to cobble together a majority and, therefore, he is destined to sit in the Opposition.
In an interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Parakala says that if, however, Modi wins a third term “what is happening in Manipur is likely to happen in every state in the country”. He says “if it doesn’t fall in line the entire opposition leadership could be sent to jail”.