Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called on Indians to tighten their belts, particularly on fuel and gold consumption. It is a belated public admission that the fallout from Donald Trump’s morally appalling, “the world be damned”, war in Iran is likely to add to the cumulative uncertainties already besetting the global economy. The sinking value of the rupee has made it inevitable that India will have to confront the shortages. Managing demand is not an unreasonable tool to deploy under such circumstances. India is vulnerable as an economy, with imports surging, foreign investment and remittances slowing down, and energy self-reliance a chimera. How effective the exhortation will be remains to be seen.

Modi loves nothing better than appealing to the language of sacrifice, patriotism, and civilisational virtue as an asset to be deployed in solving problems. This is of a piece with his approach to demonetisation or the clanging of pots and pans during the early days of Covid as a show of national solidarity. But there is a larger danger that India will once more fail to attend to the three risks inherent in these forms of appeal. The first risk is to assume that what we are witnessing is a temporary shock. For starters, the duration of the war is still uncertain. It is exerting immense pressure on the US economy as well. But in most scenarios, there is no quick resolution to the war. There is no question that the United States and Trump have lost face in this war. Most of........

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