New Delhi: PM Narendra Modi’s smaller mandate occupied prime slots in foreign media which extensively reported and analysed the key takeaways from the results of India’s general elections.
Some of the articles — published after the election results were announced Tuesday — also highlighted the comeback of coalition politics, with many suggesting that Modi would be caught in alliance compulsions after the BJP’s reduced numbers in Parliament.
In a piece in The New York Times, Mujib Mashal, Alex Travelli, Hari Kumar, Suhasini Raj, Sameer Yasir and Pragati K.B., describes the Modi-led BJP’s performance as “unexpectedly sobering”.
The report, ‘Needing Help to Stay in Power, Modi Loses His Aura of Invincibility’, says that Modi’s “carefully cultivated brand has now peaked, and that he can no longer outrun the anti-incumbency sentiment that eventually catches up with almost any politician.”
Stating that he is now at “the mercy of its coalition partners — including one politician notorious for how often he has switched sides — to stay in power, a sharp reversal a decade into Mr. Modi’s transformational tenure,” the NYT calls the TDP and the JD(U) “kingmakers”.
“Mr. Modi would need at least 33 seats from allies to cross the 272 minimum for forming a government,” it says. TDP has 16, and JD(U) has 12 seats in the new Lok Sabha.
In its report, India election strips Narendra Modi of his ‘aura of invincibility’, Financial Times mentions how the poll results are “a stunning blow to the authority of India’s strongest leader in decades and one that would leave him dependent on junior partners in his National Democratic Alliance to govern.”
“…Modi appeared to have miscalculated the depth of anti-incumbency feeling and economic dissatisfaction. The BJP seemed to struggle on the campaign trail as the opposition seized on India’s widening inequality,” the report by Benjamin Parkin, John Reed, Jyotsna Singh, and Chris Kay reads
It quotes Ronojoy Sen, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore, as saying that Modi had lost his “aura of invincibility”.
Both the BJP and the INDIA alliance may now seek to shift the balance of power by inducing rival members of parliament to defect, the report says.
Seshadri Chari, who FT identifies as a “pro-BJP commentator”, says: “It will be back to pre-2014 . . . There will be the compulsions of coalition politics.” But, he adds, Modi knows the “art of management”.
In its editorial titled ‘India’s Modi emerges weakened’, FT mentions how “a strong and democratic India matters, for its people — and the world.”
“While winning a historic third term shows Modi remains popular,” the piece notes, “the vote is also a wake-up call that it cannot block dissent and govern effectively.”
The election result, it says, “is also an opportunity to fix underlying strains, which can put India’s rise on firmer foundations.”
“For that, the BJP will need to work with other parties to ensure India’s growth is more inclusive. If it wants to be more responsive to all voters’ needs, the BJP must also reverse its democratic backsliding. That means encouraging, not hindering, independent media, stopping discrimination against Muslims and investing in credible national statistics. A more transparent and peaceful India only raises its investment appeal.”
The Economist, in its report ‘A shock election result in India humbles Narendra Modi’, says that while BJP has been able to make inroads in the South and its “overall vote share across India stayed more or less the same as in 2019, at around 37%,” the “biggest upset may turn out to be the giant northern state of Uttar Pradesh in the BJP’s Hindi-speaking heartland,” leading his “power in parliament is set to plummet.”
With losses in Maharashtra and Rajasthan and questions around a “stable government”, “the fear that India might inexorably evolve towards a more autocratic form of government has receded,” it reads.
The report also noted that “the opposition parties have been given a new lease of life; and debate and dissent will be reinvigorated,” calling it the most “lasting” consequence of this election season.
In a Foreign Policy analysis titled ‘Modi’s power has peaked’, Devesh Kapur, the Starr Foundation professor of South Asian studies at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, writes, that the BJP’s return to power, however, with a “reduced mandate” has “surprised pollsters”, and that “the natural order of coalition rule is back.”
Modi’s unique leadership, characterised by his charisma, effective communication, and strategic political maneuvers, played a crucial role in the BJP’s dominance, he writes. “Religious appeals, welfare programs (especially those aimed at women and the poor), and organisational capabilities that gave the party a superior ground game all helped.”
However, the BJP’s reliance on Modi’s personality and increasingly centralised and authoritarian approach has led to internal issues, such as declining intraparty democracy and the marginalisation of regional leaders, he remarks. “For the BJP, increasing centralization, declining intraparty democracy, and the cutting-to-size of regional leaders who were not subserviently loyal to national the leader all took their toll.”
In Bloomberg’s Big Take podcast titled ‘Stunning Blow for Modi as BJP Falls Short’, host K. Oanh Ha discusses the 2024 general election results with reporter Sudhi Ranjan Sen and Milan Vaishnav, senior fellow and director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, delves into what the results mean for both India and the world.
The BJP is nowhere near the goalpost the PM had come up with for the NDA to reach 400, the results are surprising, Sen says. This is a “big win” for the opposition alliance.
Vaishnav chimes in with two possibilities moving forward — the BJP might come with a change in leadership, and the second they go with the current leadership and alliance Modi will be a “weakened PM”. “They were expecting a handsome and overwhelming win,” however the assertiveness will be missing, he notes.
Meanwhile in the world
Claiming that the US ‘must secure its borders’, President Joe Biden has imposed new restrictions on the southern border to prevent those who illegally try to enter and claim asylum. Read Al Jazeera’s report to know more.
While conversations around a peace deal agreement between Israel and Hamas to be discussed in Cairo are underway, the war continues to claim lives. A report by Turkish news agency Anadolu Ajansi has claimed that the amount of Israeli bombs dropped on Gaza surpasses that of World War II. Read the report to know more.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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