{"id":63313,"date":"2024-04-14T00:00:26","date_gmt":"2024-04-13T15:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2024\/apr\/13\/narendra-modi-india-elections"},"modified":"2024-04-14T00:00:26","modified_gmt":"2024-04-13T15:00:26","slug":"a-nagging-doubt-plagues-world-leaders-wooing-india-whose-side-is-narendra-modi-really-on-simon-tisdall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=63313","title":{"rendered":"A nagging doubt plagues world leaders wooing India: whose side is Narendra Modi really on? | Simon Tisdall"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>His cult-like status is likely to hand him victory in the coming elections, but to democracy\u2019s cost<\/p>\n<p>Suddenly, everyone loves India. But it\u2019s an affair, not a marriage. Whether it lasts depends on the consequences of this week\u2019s watershed election. At stake are the credibility of Indian democracy and, potentially, the country\u2019s future as a cohesive unitary state.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/india\/us-house-passes-quad-bill-to-boost-us-india-australia-japan-quad-alliance\/articleshow\/107742107.cms\">Courting India<\/a> as a counterweight to China, the US is ardently pursuing a deeper security relationship. The EU hankers after a free trade pact. Countries ranging from Australia to Norway to the UAE have already forged <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-asia-68531241\">bespoke deals<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at <a href=\"mailto:observer.letters@observer.co.uk\">observer.letters@observer.co.uk<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2024\/apr\/13\/narendra-modi-india-elections\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>His cult-like status is likely to hand him victory in the coming elections, but to democracy\u2019s costSuddenly, everyone loves India. But it\u2019s an affair, not a marriage. Whether it lasts depends on the consequences of this week\u2019s watershed election. At st&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,433,61,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-india","category-narendra-modi","category-south-and-central-asia","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63314,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63313\/revisions\/63314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}