New Delhi: India’s mandate to restrict Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to less than a majority “wasn’t a total rebuke of Modi and his policies” but “a clear and salutary check on his authoritarian project”, New York Times columnist Lydia Polgreen writes in her opinion piece, ‘India keeps its glorious, messy tradition alive’.
Polgreen highlights a shift among voters, who, she says, are fatigued with the BJP’s focus on Hindu nationalism rather than addressing joblessness, inflation and inequality. The Opposition, she adds, was also successful in showing the Modri-led “government’s ties to big business and high-flying billionaires”. There’s “a clear ceiling to the appeals to Hindu identity”, says Polgreen, pointing out that Ayodhya’s parliamentary seat was one among the 60 lost by the BJP, despite Modi inaugurating the Ayodhya Ram Temple, one of his party’s long-standing promises, in January this year.
‘Indian election revives Rahul Gandhi’s fortunes’, a report in the Financial Times discusses how the elections have reinvigorated Rahul Gandhi and the Congress’s allies while stripping the BJP of its outright majority. Long mocked as “Pappu” or “Shehzada” by the BJP, Gandhi achieved his biggest breakthrough this week as the Opposition INDIA alliance proved strong electoral strategists, says writers Benjamin Parkin and Jyotsna Singh. The Opposition’s framing of its campaign as “an attempt to curb BJP over-reach and tackle economic issues” worked in its favour, they say, adding that its success will likely force Modi into “uncharacteristic dialogue and compromises” in the new term.
In Dawn’s recent analysis piece, ‘Will internal politics sway Modi’s Pakistan policy?’, foreign policy commentator Baqir Sajjad Syed says not much will change in India’s foreign policy with its focus remaining on China, but “BJP may struggle to maintain its hardline stance on Pakistan, as it will need to accommodate the diverse views of its allies”. Initially, Pakistan was a muted issue in the BJP’s election campaign, but as momentum built, Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah invoked Pakistan to discredit the Opposition and bolster their national security agenda. However, coalition dynamics might limit this aggressive stance, while internally, there will likely be “more inclusive engagement” and “political space” for Muslims and other minorities, says Syed.
In ‘India is starting to see through Modi’s nationalist myth’, an opinion piece in the Atlantic, journalist Vidya Krishnan discusses how Modi has recast Ram, modelled on “love, righteousness, and tolerance”, as “a wrathful avenger, ready to punish Muslims for their supposed offences”. This reimagining undermines Hinduism’s core values such as nonviolence and culminated in Modi inaugurating a temple on the site of a demolished mosque to rally Hindu nationalists behind his party, but the BJP only ended up losing seats in the elections, writes Vidya Krishnan.
Even before his swearing-in, Modi is “facing his first opposition onslaught”, writes Menaka Doshi, a senior editor at Bloomberg, in ‘What Modi’s fractured win means for India and the world’. It will be the new normal for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in its third term, says Doshi, noting how Rahul Gandhi has demanded an investigation into the “connection” between Modi’s comments on the stock market, the exit polls, and investors looking to gain from a volatile stock market. BJP’s Piyush Goyal has rebuffed the claims as misleading, writes Doshi, adding that the pressure is on Modi to alter his governance style and economic policies, suggesting “grassroot changes” in healthcare and education access to “improve the productivity of households”.
Biden & Macron stand with Ukraine, Putin warns of nuclear attack
US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron marked the 80th anniversary of D-day with a rallying cry of support for Ukraine at an Omaha Beach event with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in attendance. To know more, read the latest report by The Guardian.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warns that his country would not rule out using nuclear weapons if anyone threatens its sovereignty or territory. Read Aljazeera’s report to know more.
Also read: Chinese armed vessels patrol waters around disputed islands, angering Japan