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Modi plots course after landslide Indian election win
NEW DELHI, May 24, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was
meeting party allies and members of his cabinet Friday to plot a course for
his second term after a landslide victory left the once-mighty Gandhi dynasty
licking its wounds.
A considerable to-do list includes addressing India’s lacklustre economic
growth and reducing unemployment, as well as fixing a stricken agriculture
sector on which 70 percent of households depend.
Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was projected to
sweep 303 seats in parliament, giving it an even bigger majority than five
years ago and defying predictions of a dip.
The main opposition Congress party, which has ruled the roost in India for
much of its post-independence history, improved on its historic low five
years ago of 44 seats but still only managed a paltry 52.
Congress chief Rahul Gandhi even lost his own seat in Amethi, long a
family bastion. He did win a seat in the southern state of Kerala, however, a
quirk allowed under Indian election rules.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, meanwhile, joined a chorus of international
well-wishers, with US President Donald Trump hailing Modi’s “BIG” win and
even Pakistan’s Imran Khan tweeting congratulations.
On Thursday there were delirious scenes at BJP party offices across the
nation of 1.3 billion people, including its headquarters where Modi was
showered with petals by chanting fans.
“The voting numbers in India’s election is the biggest event in the
history of (the) democratic world. The entire world has to recognise the
democratic strength of India,” Modi told cheering crowds.
“Modi will make India great again. Modi is the strongest prime minister
India has ever had and will get. We need to support his policies to prosper,”
said one supporter, Santosh Joshi.
Modi, 68, conferred with party allies on Friday ahead of a cabinet meeting
later in the day, after which the president was due formally to dissolve the
outgoing parliament.
-‘Can Modi deliver?’ –
With the election behind him, Modi must now tackle the economy and
unemployment — notably among women, who have one of the lowest labour market
participation rates in the world.
“The real question is can Modi deliver on his economic commitments — for
example creating the high number of jobs needed?,” said Champa Patel, of the
Chatham House think-tank.
“This is essential to address India’s growing wealth inequalities. Can he
address the challenges that millions of Indians face on a daily basis in a
highly stratified country?”
India’s agriculture industry is also in a dire state with drought, low
prices and debt driving thousands of farmers to suicide in recent years.
The country’s waterways are filthy and India is home to 22 of the world’s
30 most polluted cities, killing 1.24 million people early in 2017 according
to a Lancet Planetary Health study.
Modi and the Hindu nationalist BJP must also try to heal divisions which
have left religious minorities — including India’s 170 million Muslims —
feeling anxious for the future.
During the campaign he managed to deflect criticism on these issues by
focusing on national security, claiming he alone could defend India.
Congress meanwhile was picking up the pieces after the second election
debacle in a row, having failed to win a single seat in 13 states and five
union territories.
These included Rajasthan where it won state elections late last year. This
time the BJP swept all 25 seats, and in Uttar Pradesh Congress took just one
constituency.
An anti-Modi alliance in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state with
200 million people, also failed to prevent the BJP juggernaut sweeping 64 out
of 80 seats.
Even in West Bengal, run by formidable Modi critic Mamata Banerjee, the
BJP made major inroads, boosting its seat tally from two to 18.
Congress on Friday was forced to deny media reports that Gandhi — the
great-grandson, grandson and son of three former premiers — had offered to
throw in the towel.
“The Congress leadership has clearly failed. It is a discredited and
bankrupt leadership,” Kanchan Gupta from the Observer Research Foundation
think-tank told AFP.
“It is astonishing that Rahul Gandhi has not yet resigned”, Ramachandra
Guha, a renowned historian, said on Twitter. “The Congress should dump the
Dynasty.”
BSS/AFP/GMR/1358 hrs