Kearrin Sims

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened the 2023 G20 Summit in New Delhi by stating that “India’s G20 presidency has become a symbol of inclusion … it has become a People’s G20.” This rhetoric gels well with the repeated adage that India is the world’s largest democracy and a bulwark of political freedom against expanding Chinese authoritarianism. In reality, Modi’s leadership has advanced a politics of occlusion, implementing wide-ranging policies that erode political freedoms and silence advocates of inclusivity. To see this politics of occlusion at work, one need look no further than the eviction of beggars and hiding of slums that…