Modi had previously derided the UPA’s populist railway ministers for distorted policies that punished businesses, declaring during his election campaign that India’s railways should be run more like China’s, with increased government investment, including for bullet trains. Yet, no sooner had he been sworn in than he acquiesced in precisely the kind of political compromise to which he and the BJP – which won a parliamentary majority, and thus does not depend on coalition partners for its government’s survival – was supposed to be immune.