Development and aastha: The new temples of modern India

It is a myth that high-profile religious and political projects have little to do with development

Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended several high-profile events, most of which were widely seen to be political in nature. One was the launch of the Rojgar Mela, where 75,000 people were handed over appointment letters for government jobs as part of the prime minister’s promise to create one million such opportunities in the run-up to the 2024 general elections. In the run-up to the Gujarat elections, three huge development projects — the Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor factory, the Airbus-Tata military transport manufacturing facility, and the ArcelorMittal-Nippon Steel expansion project — were snared by the state. Third, there was his widely