Narendra Modi and the BJP’s desire to advance Hindu interests won’t help India realise its ambitions

Many thought he had made enough mistakes to lose office. However with a campaign that honed in on poorer communities and unsettled India’s social climate, Modi overturned those expectations

But India cannot realise its ambitions if its ruling party is an active participant in communal conflict within its borders

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Indian PM Narendra Modi’s party secured 37 per cent of the vote. Photo: Reuters

Published: 5:45pm, 28 May 2019Updated: 6:09pm, 28 May 2019

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi stormed into a second term in office by powering his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to victory last week.

The scale of the triumph, securing 37 per cent of the vote and 303 of 542 seats in the lower house of parliament, was bigger than his first in 2014.

Sections of India, particularly its liberal intelligentsia, were shocked about his return to power, given that he seemed to have done everything to be voted out.

Modi’s decision to demonetise high-value currency notes in 2016 ravaged the informal economy; a new sales tax compounded difficulties for business; agrarian distress became widespread and unemployment hit new highs. The social climate in the country was damaged by his party and supporters, through regular hate speech and violence directed at Muslims and other minorities.

Liberals hoped for a change of leadership and a measure of domestic peace. But Modi, who will be sworn in on Thursday, overturned these expectations with a combination of strategies.

Firstly, he was aided by the natural advantage of being in government. His party is by far the best-funded in the political sphere, enriched by anonymous electoral bonds introduced in recent legislation.

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