By Sarwar Kashani
New Delhi, June 5 (EFE).- Narendra Modi has secured a historic mandate to be India’s prime minister for a third consecutive term, but with reduced power after losing the overwhelming parliamentary majority the Hindu nationalist leader had enjoyed during the past decade.
By securing the third consecutive term, Modi has equaled the record of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister who governed for 17 consecutive years after the country’s independence from Britain in 1947.
He is set to take the oath to retain the top post, but will need the help of alliance partners to stay in power as he steps into the uncharted territory of coalition dharma after the just concluded parliamentary elections resulted in a fractured mandate with no party getting enough numbers to form government.
The rise of Modi, 73, who claims to be a divine figure sent by god to fulfill a mission, has been as meteoric as it has been enveloped in controversies.
Hailing from Gujarat, Modi became the chief minister of the western state in 2001, staying in power until 2014.
His tenure was marked by rapid economic development but also by significant controversy, particularly relating to the 2002 riots – a series of communal clashes, resulting in the killings of over 1,000 people, mostly Muslims.
Modi’s administration was criticized for its handling of the alleged pogrom by Hindu fundamentalists, with allegations of complicity and inadequate response from the state government.
The allegations have been a persistent point of contention and cast a shadow over his political career despite numerous investigations and a clean chit from the Supreme Court of India.
Riding high a hostile brand of Hindu nationalism in a country where about 80 percent of the population are Hindus, Modi’s popularity surged, bolstered by his image as a strong, decisive leader and his promotion of economic reforms and development initiatives.
The 14th Prime Minister of India
In 2014, he led the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to a historic victory in the national elections, becoming the prime minister after a decade of rule by the historic Indian National Congress (INC) of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.
His tenure as prime minister of an emerging economic powerhouse of 1.4 billion people has been a mix of significant economic policies, such as the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the controversial demonetization move in 2016, as well as a strong emphasis on Hindu nationalism that has polarized the country.
Modi, once an international pariah, who faced isolation with the United States denying him visas and the United Kingdom severing ties with his Gujarat government over the 2002 riots, now asserts a more prominent role on the global stage as India’s leader.
He has even projected himself as the “voice of the Global South” – a loose grouping of some 130 developing and underdeveloped economies, representing nearly two-thirds of the world’s population.
During his tenure, India has laid its focus on national security, economic growth, and digital transformation even as its progress in achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been below par – ranking 112 out of 166 countries, with an overall index score of 63.5 percent.
The government spending under Modi’s rule has primarily focused on setting up a network of infrastructure development of building roads, bridges, parts and dedicated freight corridors.
However, a slow pace of private investment, job shortages, and back-breaking inflation has posed major challenges – that he would carry forward in his third term.
Modi, his government, and the ruling BJP have also faced widespread criticism for handling social issues, with accusations of eroding democratic norms and fostering a climate of intolerance towards minorities as well as his critics.
Rights Situation on Decline
The opposition and India’s civil society have often accused Modi of displaying authoritarian tendencies, with curbs on dissent and press freedom, which has been declining steeply on the global indices since the nationalist came to power.
According to Amnesty International, Indian authorities are increasingly imposing unlawful and politically motivated restrictions on freedom of expression, repeatedly targeting media persons that have “emboldened Hindu nationalists to threaten, harass and abuse journalists critical of the Indian government.”
Early Life and Youth: Unverified Claims
According to his own claims, Modi’s almost mythical journey began in the narrow lanes of Vadnagar, a small and nondescript town in Gujarat. Born on 17th September 1950, Modi was the third of the sixth children of Damodardas Modi and Hiraben Modi.
His “early years were far from what a fairy tale upbringing is like,” according to a biography on his website.
The biography claims, and Modi has often repeated them, that a young Modi helped his father sell tea at the local railway station.
He says that “the war with Pakistan was at its peak,” not specifying which one since India and Pakistan fought three wars after his birth – two of them in 1965 and 1971, respectively -, Modi “set out on the railway station and served tea to the (soldiers) who were going and coming from the border.”
Serving tea to soldiers “at a remarkably young age” displayed a “firm resolve to answer the call of Mother India,” says the biography. Later, he spent much of his time living the life of a homeless mendicant in the Himalayas and sustaining himself by begging for food for 35 years, according to a 2020 interview.
However, Modi, who claims to have graduated with an “Entire Political Science” degree in 1978, says he was tech savvy from the very beginning and used a digital camera in 1988 when the gadget did not exist in India and email in the 1980s when it wasn’t accessible.
However, all these claims and many more, inconsistent with dates, are unverified.
Religiosity and a Cult of Personality
Modi is known for his uncanny knack of mixing his religiosity with politics and governance, which are otherwise secular domains as per the country’s constitution.
His speeches have been characterized by Islamophobic rhetoric and inflammatory language against the 200 million Muslims in India.
One of his grandest displays of religiosity was in January this year, when he consecrated a controversial Hindu temple built on the ruins of a 16th mosque destroyed by Hindu fanatics in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.
As he campaigned for his third five-year term, Modi appealed to his core Hindu nationalist voter base by setting new benchmarks of loud displays of self-righteousness and piety.
Modi claimed to have been chosen by God to accomplish a larger mission.
“Until my mother was alive, I had believed that perhaps my birth was a biological one,” Modi told a Hindi TV channel. “But after her death, I am now convinced that god has sent me here.”
That is Modi’s genius – a storyteller like no other Indian politician, using his masterful abilities to weave new narratives and further a cult of personality within the ruling BJP and millions of his fawning fans. EFE
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