MODI: The Challenge of 2024

The Opposition’s 26-party Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) aims to pose a serious challenge to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Despite the coalition leaders’ ideological differences and regional rivalries, their overwhelming intent is to prevent Narendra Modi from becoming the first Indian since Jawaharlal Nehru to win three successive five-year prime ministerial terms. The 2024 Lok Sabha election could prove historic. If Narendra Modi wins a third successive five-year prime ministerial term, he will be the first Indian leader to do so since Jawaharlal Nehru. In this sweeping account of events leading up to the 2024 General Election, Minhaz Merchant analyses how Modi has shaped Indian politics, economics and culture during his decade as prime minister. The book examines whether the Opposition’s strategy to present a united front can derail the BJP’s juggernaut. For example, can Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and regional satraps in Opposition-ruled states put aside their differences? Minhaz Merchant has met and interviewed Modi several times since 2012. The author analyses Modi’s policies across key domains: geopolitics, economics, technology and social reform. Broken up into ten broad sections and thirty-one chapters, the book decodes Modi’s evolution over the past decade from a regional leader to a global statesman.ABOUT THE AUTHOR Minhaz Merchant is the biographer of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the late industrialist Aditya Birla. He founded the pioneering media firm Sterling Newspapers Pvt Ltd, which was later acquired by the Indian Express Group. As a pioneer of specialized magazines in India, Minhaz Merchant has founded and launched over ten magazines. In his second media startup, he also edited and published Innovate, a technology magazine for CEOs in the United States. Uniquely, the magazine was written, edited, and printed in India to global standards, and copies were shipped for distribution by the company’s US partner to American business leaders. A widely published newspaper columnist and television commentator, Minhaz is a recipient of the Lady Jeejeebhoy Scholarship for physics. He lives in Mumbai and is married to the artist Kahini Arte-Merchant.