Three subjects dominated the headlines in the calendar year, 2020. These were the threat posed by the pandemic, the perilous state of the economy, and the border conflict with China. The media in India, and Indians in general, are obsessed with politics, but in 2020, politics mostly took a back seat to health, economics, and defence.
Nonetheless, there was one major development in Indian politics last year, a development that might have profound – and disturbing – consequences for the future of our Republic. This was the emergence of the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh as the coming man in India’s most important political party.
At the end of 2019, it seemed that the Union home minister, Amit Shah, was the most likely person to succeed Narendra Modi as prime minister were the Bharatiya Janata Party to win a third general election in a row in 2024. Shah has been Modi’s fixer and enforcer for almost two decades. By piloting both the abrogation of Article 370 and the…