After a torrid December, how will India’s Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and the BJP fare in 2020?

With at least two major regional elections in 2020, all eyes are on how the BJP will arrest the fallout from the citizenship act and local poll defeats

Analysts say the BJP will concentrate on centralising power and a hardened focus on Hindu nationalism

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Indian Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are facing multiple challenges as they lead the BJP into 2020, including ongoing protests and local election defeats. Photo: AP

Published: 9:30am, 30 Dec 2019Updated: 9:05pm, 30 Dec 2019

December was a difficult month for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, his top lieutenant in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The BJP is facing the biggest challenge of its five-and-a-half-year rule as it scrambles to defuse crises on multiple fronts. How Modi and Shah, the home minister, respond to these problems could determine whether the party maintains its comfortable political edge over rivals, observers say.

The current problems – mass protests over a controversial citizenship law and back-to-back state election defeats – are seen in some quarters as an early sign that the public is pushing back against their aggressive advocacy of the Hindu nationalist agenda over broader national interests.

Activists wear masks of Home Minister Amit Shah, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh during a protest against the citizenship bill. Photo: AFP

The two men are lifelong members of RSS, the hardline Hindu nationalist group that serves as the ideological fountainhead of the BJP.

Political researcher Neelanjan Sircar said the state election defeats also happened “due to the BJP’s desire to centralise power in Modi and Shah. It does not want strong regional leaders and units”.

At the moment, the biggest headache for the BJP going into 2020 is the mass protest action around the country over the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, which was passed on December 12. The law paves the way for immigrants from non-Muslim minorities from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh to obtain Indian citizenship.

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