THE trouble with the post truth world is that it has an expiry date. The truth can be glossed over for some finite length of time, not perpetually. Truth eventually triumphs. It seems that we have reached that hour of reckoning. Indications were pronounced, coming from the Prime Minister himself, when he in no uncertain terms asserted the need for Indian citizens to ‘tighten their belts’ – an ‘austerity package of sorts’!

But the most devastating demonstration was staged in far-away Scandinavia. The Prime Minister of Netherlands had in the earlier phase of the Prime Minister’s foreign visit flagged the deeply disturbing features of Indian democracy, its ever deteriorating press freedom and conditions of human rights of its religious minority population. But the final blow was damning when reporters in Norway bluntly questioned the Indian Prime Minister for not taking questions in a press conference after having invited the media corps.

Not only did it deal a telling blow on the credibility of the Prime Minister, and his governance, but the question will haunt the cozy post-truth world that has been built through a complete institutionalisation of a corporate-led media bluff to ward off critical questions which make a society and democracy vibrant. No amount of waxing eloquent by the Indian MEA will stave off certain questions. That this was in faraway Oslo makes it all the more difficult to brand them under the familiar description of ‘traitors’ or ‘anti-nationals’.

With the US-Israel military aggression and its legitimate response by Iran, the energy supply line has got visibly choked in the Strait of Hormuz. There should not be any surprise despite Modi’s frequent beat hugs with his so-called friend Donald Trump, the complete befriending of Bibi Netanyahu in the run up to the military aggression and the constant company with US-Israel nexus, India has no diplomatic heft to change the course of the military confrontation. If at all, India’s earlier goodwill as the leader of the non-aligned world has gone through the window, with India now siding with Tel Aviv and Washington. So much so that, Pakistan has managed to find its way as one of the negotiators for ending the deadlock diplomatically.

What makes the situation dangerous for us, the billions in India, is that the Prime Minister’s attempt to attribute the impact of the irrefutable crisis is not washing. Modi had attributed the impending crisis to Covid and the war. Serious analysts, let alone the opposition, are shredding these justifications to pieces. In fact, India’s current economic crisis is showing the mirror to the policies of the Modi-led government itself. The aggressive neo-liberal attacks lowered the income and savings of a large section of the working people. Unabashed subservience to corporate interests led to unprecedented levels of cronyism. Along with the dismantling of public sector assets and handling over these and the natural resources to those very corporates, this has completely destroyed the domestic demand and purchasing power.

The results are glaring; unprecedented levels of inequality and astronomical levels of unemployment. The latest 2026 World Inequality Report puts hard numbers to how sharply income and wealth are split in India. In India, the top 10 per cent earn 58 per cent of all income, while the bottom 50 per cent receive only 15 per cent. Wealth is even more skewed; the richest 10 per cent hold about 65 per cent of total wealth and the top 1 per cent about 40 per cent. This is how the World Inequality Lab’s findings, led by Thomas Piketty and others, stack up. The post-truth chant that India is the fourth fastest growing economy of the world, and more comically, claiming that India is the second most ‘equal economy’ is now coming to haunt Modi and his corporate-media backers and their spin.

Some home-truths of economics should be understood. No amount of disinformation can make investments happen if profits cannot be earned. Profits can only be earned if commodities can be sold. Without demand, neither commodities can be sold nor profits earned. This is coming back with a vengeance. Some of the latest symptoms of the impending crisis are in the form of rapid exit of the foreign institutional investors, who are scampering away from the Indian capital market. This is unmistakably manifested in the runaway hurry towards Indian Rupee approaching the US Dollar. Not just FIIs, which are by definition fickle and look at immediate gains, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) which is a more substantial input for long term growth are also leaving, so much so that, right now the inward FDI in India has turned negative. No amount of tax waiver for favoured corporates is securing investments in India, as they are looking for offshore greener pastures.

Even Adani, the closest of Modi’s cronies, has bought peace with the US Security Exchange Commission (SEC) by paying a hefty penalty. Further, they have bought peace with Trump and his Republicans by offering to invest $10 billion and creating 15,000 jobs. One doesn’t know whether this peace was facilitated by Modi’s own offer of succumbing to Trump’s demand that India stop buying cheaper crude and gas from Russia and Iran and instead buy the more expensive US oil. Whether the surrender to the ‘Tariff Terror’ is also part of the deal, is anybody’s guess.

Overall, the impact of the war is appearing to be so severe because of the Modi government’s failure to build a strategic reserve for crude. Whereas China has 1.4 billion barrels acquired in April 2020, when crude was ruling $20 per barrel. India has a meager 40 million barrels. This means that India’s strategic reserve of crude is just 2.85 per cent of China’s reserves. Between 2014 and 2026, Modi government collected Rs. 40 lakh crores as extra tax from the people, while domestic crude production has decreased. As a result, India’s import dependence of 78 per cent (2010-2014) has risen to almost 90 per cent now. Failure to diversify imports, together with the smallness of reserves have exposed Indian economy far too much. Failure to invest in physical and social infrastructure for the last 12 years has left the population in an unprecedented trauma.

The divisive Hindutva campaign will not help. Post truth bravado will be even more useless. The time has come to reckon with the truth. The government should immediately come out with a whitepaper, with reasonable degree of introspection, with a call for course correction and forging some degree of national consensus.

(May 20, 2026)