Modi enjoys huge support among diaspora
From the standpoint of the Trump administration, Modi’s victory holds a great promise to hedge its bets as Trump stomps all over Washington’s trade relations with Beijing. Modi’s robust return to power has been a source of particular triumph for a majority of the Indian estimated 30 million diasporic population worldwide, particularly in America where he enjoys overwhelming support among the four million Indian Americans
In contrast to the old adage that “Success has a thousand fathers while failure is an orphan”, in India’s just concluded parliamentary elections success, it seems, has only one father. It is Narendra Modi.
Prime Minister Modi’s assertive win has shown that a populist wave that he created and rode to his first success in 2014 may generate even greater energy with a dose of divisive nationalism and carry its riders even farther. As he becomes India’s first nonCongress party Prime Minister to win a second consecutive term, Modi has been gifted an invaluable opportunity to refashion himself as a statesman rather than continue as an abrasive, brass-knuckle partisan exploiting India’s historic fractiousness.
As he enters the second phase of his prime ministership, the choice before him is clearer than what he faced in 2014—put India on a footing closer to China’s in terms of the latter’s domestic economic success as well as its undeniable global clout. With the United States under President Donald Trump shrinking into grimy and paranoid introversion and China expanding its influence across continents, particularly Africa, India under Modi 2.0 has the opportunity to make its presence truly felt as the world’s largest democracy.
It is often not fully grasped in the West that even the size of India’s electorate is so big as to be the third most populous country after India and China. The fact that 67% of the 900 million eligible voters, which is a staggering 609 million people, cast their votes, slides by the Western democracies with only a few recognizing the sheer remarkableness of it. Within that for Modi to have scored a resounding victory for the second time in the face of grave rural agrarian distress and rampant unemployment is an extraordinary feat.
From the standpoint of the Trump administration, Modi’s victory holds a great promise to hedge its bets as Trump stomps all over Washington’s trade relations with Beijing. Modi’s robust return to power has been a source of particular triumph for a majority of the Indian estimated 30 million diasporic population worldwide, particularly in America where he enjoys overwhelming support among the four million Indian Americans. Those of them of an older generation, who have been here for decades, do not find it even remotely incongruous to celebrate Modi, his Bharatiya Janata Party as well as Hindutva politics with Indian nationalist gusto even though they have been US citizens for a long time. Several watch parties were hosted by the Indian American community in many cities on the night of May 22 as the results started coming in. There were Hindu religious chants of “Har Har Mahadev” and “Modi Modi Modi” at these gatherings.
While Congress Party president Rahul Gandhi’s many visits abroad before the election did create some enthusiasm among the diaspora, Modi remains largely unassailable in his personal popularity. Much of that profile has been built up by the large Gujarati diaspora as well as those from Hindi speaking states. His appeal among the Bengali and South Indian diaspora, especially of Telugu and Tamil origins, appears limited and muted. Post-election, Modi seems to have no peers.
It is often overlooked that Modi, who does not tire of describing himself as a fakir, has been in a position of power, first as threeterm Gujarat’s chief minister since 2001, and then as prime minister since 2014. It is that ability to brand himself in defiance of his political consequence that has worked in his favor. From the vantage point of the influential Indian diaspora, it is his relentless self-belief and ability to project selfassurance as an unapologetic Hindu that have kept them enraptured often to the exclusion of any serious critical analysis. As far as this segment of the diaspora is concerned, Modi has no recognizable flaws and, even if they exist, they are of no consequence. It is a strangely discommoding relationship of absolute faith that brooks no substantive opposition.
In terms of America’s policy, Modi’s firm grip on India’s political pulse will have a an impact. This was reflected in Trump wasting no time in deciding to despatch Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to New Delhi next month after he declared that he saw “great things” happening in India-US relations following Modi’s triumphant return to power. The State Department promptly called India “a great ally and partner of the United States” in the frame of the country’s “Indo-Pacific Strategy”.