The Japan based world's largest financial newspaper, Nikkei Asian Review, says Modi's government in India, instead of using its mandate to tackle the mounting economic challenges, has doubled down its Hindu nationalist agenda of Hindutva.

In its latest cover story, the newspaper said backed by the Hindu ultranationalist group RSS, the Modi regime has revoked Jammu and Kashmir's autonomous status, changed India's citizenship laws to deny recognition to Muslim immigrants, and tried to enforce Hinduism as central to India's values and identity.

It said almost all of the government's political capital has been thrown into this massive project of Hindutva while economic reform has fallen by the wayside.

The paper quoted an executive at a Mumbai venture capital fund, who said Prime Minister Modi won the election but he lost the economy.

Referring to Modi's earlier rule in Gujrat as Chief Minister of the state, the newspaper said what Modi did during this period was intercommunity violence. It said in 2002, while Modi ran the state, at least one thousand people were killed in the clashes between Hindus and Muslims.