Why PM Modi seems to have given up on hopes of transforming India

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in a spot of trouble. He has to face reelection in a few months amid growing dissatisfaction with his government’s performance; he’s likely to use every lever available to eke out a win. One such lever, unfortunately, was the interim federal budget that his lame-duck government presented last week, to keep official machinery running till the next government can come in with a mandate and make decisions about taxation and spending. As many of us feared, Modi broke with bipartisan convention: He used the occasion essentially to launch his election appeal to India’s voters.