MODI SEEKS THIRD TERM AS PM AMID ECONOMIC BOOM AND SOCIAL TENSION
▶ BJP has modernised India but marginalised minority groups, writes
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks a third term in India’s coming elections, analysts predict a victory for his party driven by economic growth and populist policies.
Foreign investors have been flocking to take advantage of a rapid expansion in GDP, which India expects will reach more than 7 per cent next year, making it the fastest-growing major economy in the world.
But critics say a right-wing shift and the Hindu nationalist policies of Mr Modi’s ruling Bhartiya Janata Party could divide the country.
Muslims and rights groups have accused some BJP members and affiliates of promoting anti-Islam hate speech and vigilantism.
The country of 1.4 billion people goes to polls in phases, starting from April 1, with a new government expected in office by June.
More than 970 million people are eligible to vote in the nearly seven-week process.
Mr Modi, 73, who first came to power in 2014 and continued with a larger mandate in 2019, has said his party will win by a record margin this year.
Since his first term, the Prime Minister has focused on building infrastructure, spending billions of dollars in upgrading main roads, waterways and airports, while revamping British colonial-era railways.
His government has built 120 million toilets in rural areas, to improve sanitation.
The authorities said they have built more than 55,000km of motorways in the country in the past decade and laid 25,000km of railway tracks.
Mr Modi has also given a boost to India’s digital economy.
“There has been quite a radical transformation of the face of India in terms of moving towards more modern living amenities – whether it is communication, digitalisation or roofs over their heads,” Arati Jerath, a political analyst in Delhi, tells The National.
“The process had already started but under him. It has accelerated.
“There has been a huge spurt in building roads in rural India, pucca housing for the poor and building toilets in rural India, virtual payments – these are things that have been a huge boon for people.”
Experts say India’s foreign policy has become more assertive under Mr Modi as he aims to increase manufacturing at home and attract investment.
India has always aimed to maintain strategic and military ties with world powers, and alliances have been strengthened during Mr Modi’s time in office, including with the US and Russia.
He has made 74 foreign trips so far, more than double those of previous prime minister Manmohan Singh, who served for two terms.
Mr Modi has invited world leaders to India including President Sheikh Mohamed and US President Joe Biden, as well as his predecessors Donald Trump and Barack Obama.
Mr Modi has been sure to nurture relations with Middle East countries including the UAE, with which India has signed a $100 billion non-oil trade pact.
India aims to attract $100 billion in annual foreign direct investment “in the next few years”, Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in January.
The country received $33 billion in FDI in the first six months of the current financial year. It recorded FDI of $71 billion between 2022 and last year, Reuters reported.
But historic rivalries have remained. India has launched strikes on Pakistan, after attacks by militant groups that India claims are backed by Islamabad. “One of the major changes in the past 10 years
is the recalibration of foreign policy towards promoting trade, attracting FDI and geoeconomics being the fulcrum of foreign policy,” Kabir Taneja, a geopolitics and West Asia expert in Delhi, told The National.
Mr Modi showed remarkable diplomacy at the G20 summit last year, bringing most of the leaders of its member countries to the table in New Delhi.
“India has been able to tangibly show economic growth, a robust market to attract people from the outside for the five to six years. Even in the post-Covid recovery, India has done safely well. That attracts attention,” Mr Taneja said.
But the country has experienced increased sectarian tensions amid a rise in Hindu nationalist sentiment. About 80 per cent of the population are Hindu and 14 per cent are Muslim, the country’s largest minority group.
India is also home to Christians, Sikhs, Zoroastrians and a Jewish community.
Critics have accused Mr Modi’s government of promoting a Hindu hegemony agenda that has hit minorities, including a citizenship law for immigrants that excludes Muslims. Deadly attacks against Muslims in the country have increased, along with a crackdown on interfaith marriages.
But the most contentious move was the government’s active participation in the inauguration of a Hindu temple in northern Uttar Pradesh state.
The Ram Temple is being built on the site of the 16th century Babri Mosque, which was razed by Hindu hardliners during violence in 1992.
Mr Modi presided over a consecration ceremony performed by Hindu priests that lasted up to five hours.
Smaller groups such as Christians and Sikhs have also been the target of acrimony, with Christians regularly accused of religious conversions.
“It is almost as if tormenting a minority is a therapeutic occupation for certain people,” said Kapil Komireddi, author of Malevolent Republic, which chronicles the rise of Hindu nationalism in India.
Ms Jerath said that if the process of turning the secular nation into a Hindu nation could be expanded if the BJP was voted into power for another term.
“The hate language, the division between communities, this attempt to make Muslims invisible by bulldozing them and calling for an economic boycott, this kind of sharp polarisation between communities has damaged the country’s social fabric,” Ms Jerath said.
“This is something hugely damaging and the march towards making India a Hindu nation would accelerate and push the minorities to the margins if he returns to power.”
Rivals have accused Mr Modi of weakening institutions, including law enforcement and the judiciary.
He has also faced allegations of persecuting rivals in a widespread crackdown.
In recent weeks, federal agencies have frozen the account of the main opposition Congress party and arrested Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over alleged corruption.
The hate language, this kind of sharp polarisation between communities has damaged the country’s social fabric ARATI JERATH
Political analyst