There is a sampling bias at play right here in HN with the Modi-bashing comments. Indians, and India, is doing great overall. Modi's leadership has played a big role in this.
Indians are (generally) emotionally people, and by no means is it an authoritarian state. In fact, we need wise leaders with vision to manage this population.
The linked article would indicate otherwise? I think one's standards of democracy have to be fairly low, to not see that Indian state is at least proto-authoritarian.
From what I can see, India is doing pretty badly in most indicators, be it democracy indices, HDI, employment (The usual response to this from Right wing is that these are "western indicators", and the government doesn't have any data).
I don't think your nationality matters to witness the sequence of events and come to an objective conclusion.
I saw the video the day it came out. Its an OK video, but I question the timing in wake of the upcoming elections and Modi leading the G20.
Typically I don't call out "ejection e manipulation" or "external interference", but I'm increasingly starting to suspect the intentions of the BBC (and other media)
The metrics you mention are not poor, but our data is poor. Furthermore, numerous research shows HDI and GDP are flawed (but legacy) metrics - this is exasperated by the poor quality data available in a chaotic country like India
"I question the timing in wake of the upcoming elections and Modi leading the G20"
So, at which phase of various intersecting elections and global obligations does the sweet criticism window open? (Note that the elections are upcoming in 15 months.)
IMHO a PM of the largest nation on Earth should be able to weather criticism night and day. People responsible for 1,5 billion souls cannot claim sanctuary against the press. And if Modi's domestic results are as impressive as other HNers claim, there will be no risk of him losing an election from a BBC documentary that the vast majority of the voting population won't ever see.
