New Delhi: With India’s six-week general election coming to an end Saturday, exit polls project that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to secure a third consecutive term, but “things are different” from 2014 and 2019 when the Bharatiya Janata Party swept the polls on single big-ticket campaign issues, says a report by the Washington Post.
The report, ‘Voting ends in the last round of India’s election, a referendum on Modi’s decade in power’, discusses how the BJP and its allies are predicted to win over 350 of 543 seats even though this election provided an opportunity for Modi’s challengers who hope to benefit from “growing economic discontent” around unemployment and inflation. While the BJP hoped to consolidate Hindu votes around the Ram Temple and make inroads in eastern and southern states, the pre-poll surveys showed a closer contest than earlier expected, and Modi’s campaign, initially focused on economic progress, shifted to incendiary speeches targeting the country’s Muslim minority, says the report.
Another report — ‘Exit polls point to a crushing victory for Narendra Modi’ — in the Economic Times discusses how the exit polls show that the BJP will “extend its reach across India”. They project the BJP could win between 281 and 401 seats in the 543-seat Parliament, says the report, calling it “a relief for the BJP”, “unnerved” by voters’ concerns about the economy and lower voter turnout amid the heat.
The Opposition will hope the pollsters are wrong, says the report, adding that most exit polls are commissioned by media organisations “desperate” to deliver the results. After the exit polls, Modi is quoted saying — “The people of India have voted in record numbers to reelect the… government.” Pollsters predict the BJP will retain its bank in traditional strongholds and expand its footprint in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala, says the report.
‘Wall Street lands on India, looking for profits it can’t find in China’, a report in the New York Times, highlights how there has been a surge in interest in India’s financial hub of Mumbai in the global financial market over the past year as a “post-pandemic boom” has driven India’s stock market up to around $5 trillion, nearly at par with Hong Kong’s market.
This growth, says the report, has attracted North American pension managers, Gulf sovereign wealth funds, Japanese banks, and private equity firms. But, foreign investors stay cautious due to high stock prices and electoral uncertainties, while direct investment remains risky due to consumer spending disparities and regulatory challenges, it adds.
As part of its Overlooked series on “remarkable people, whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported”, NYT 31 May reported on ‘Hansa Mehta, who fought for women’s equality in India and beyond‘. Author Radha Vatsal describes Mehta as a woman for whom “women’s rights were human rights, and in all her endeavours, she took women’s participation in public and political realms to new heights”.
Delving into the contributions of Mehta, Vatsal writes that she championed women’s rights during India’s independence struggle and was pivotal in framing its Constitution. She says Mehta’s key contribution came in 1947 at the UN Commission on Human Rights, where she successfully lobbied to change the wording of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, from “all men” to “human beings”. She had remarked, “All men are born free and equal… could be interpreted to exclude women”, says the report.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal returned to prison after campaigning for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Opposition alliance against Modi this election season, reports Bloomberg. The report says Kejriwal’s surrender came right after India’s six-week elections, with exit polls predicting a Modi win.
Arrested in March in connection with alleged irregularities in the 2021-22 liquor policy, Kejriwal, before his return to custody, dismissed the exit polls and said Modi’s government is jailing him “with no proof”, it adds. Kejriwal remains in office despite BJP’s calls for his resignation, and several senior AAP leaders are facing similar charges, but the party denies them and calls the arrests a political witch-hunt, says the report.
Mexico’s first woman president, protests against Netanyahu
Mexico has elected Claudia Sheinbaum as its first female president, winning at least 58.3 percent of the votes, a quick count by the electoral commission showed. The results exceed the 2018 performance of outgoing president Andrés Manuel López Obrador who had won 54.71 percent of the votes. Read The Guardian’s report to know more.
Thousands of protesters hit the streets of Tel Aviv and demanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s resignation and an immediate release of the hostages, reports Sky News. The protesters also called on Israel’s far-right governing coalition to accept a ceasefire deal outlined by Joe Biden Friday.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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