Nepal, Oct. 30 -- It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that this is perhaps the most challenging and perception-wise uncomfortable phase that India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government has faced in its 12 years in power at the Centre since its meteoric rise in 2014. Successive youth and Opposition protests in the national capital and the government's defensive responses have dimmed the aura of this once-infallible machinery, making it appear more unsure than confident and poised amid its third consecutive term.

The national capital has been rocked by protests-first over gaps in the education sector that eventually led to the resignation of the education minister and now over the Election Commission's questionable conduct an...