Honestly, it is depressing how much writing on Indian politics has become dull and powerless since Modi took office. Around 70% of it repeats the same point: India is no longer democratic. Guha’s essay is a polished example. It treats Modi’s centralization as the disease, then attaches unemployment, regional inequality and pollution as its symptoms. The causal argument is remarkably thin. India’s deeper problem is its long-standing inability to turn political authority into social integration and developmental capacity. Centralized power can be necessary for major reform; its value depends on what it builds. Modi has created a formidable electoral machine and shown that the state can mobilize national resources. Yet he has failed to turn that power into mass industrial employment, better education or a state capable of disciplining capital and local elites. His Hindu coalition also limits how far he can impose costs on his own supporters. His power is politically immense but socially shallow, strong enough to disrupt old arrangements, yet too constrained to build a new developmental order.