BJP wins decisively in Indian elections

[hinduwoman]

At last the great election circus is over and the wiiiineeeer is Bharatiya Janata Party, it of the lotus symbol, also called by critics as Hindu Nationalist Party.

The new Prime Minister is going to be Narendra Modi, ('butcher of gujrat', 'going to kill all muslims', 'maker of vbrant gujrat' etc etc). After years of denying him Visa on "moral" grounds USA govt has promptly agreed to give him one.

The win of the party is highly significant because for the first time in 15 years one single party has enough majority to create a govt. Before it was always a coalition govt of various parties. But Modi has managed to make his party cross the magic mark and some more.

The stock market has promptly jumped at the win of the big Corporate favourite.

Pro: We don't have to put up with the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty anymore since the Congress could not get even enough seats to qualify as the main opposition. The Left is also wiped out.

Con: In five years Modi may very well proclaim himself dictator. Also don't know how much influence conservative Hindu idealogues would be allowed to have over policy.

 

[hinduwoman]

Modi has done several things right:

He positioned himself as a strong and efficient honest leader against the inefficiency and massive corruption of the previous govt.
Told the young generation (in his own words from 18 - 28) that he is building for the future; so they should not vote for him or a party but to be able to have job opportunities.
Told the businesses --- more investment friendly govt and less handouts.
Security for women boasting how in his state Gujarat women can venture out at 2 am without fear.
Emphasied his background --- son of poverty stricken parents, selling tea at railways station, low caste to boot. From log cabin to President -- and true as well while the Congress party is ruled by a single rich upper caste family.
In one key state that gave him 71 seats managed to consolidate Hindu votes cutting across caste lines against Muslims.
Yet, managed to persuade a significant chunk of Muslim voters in other places that he would make life better for them through development if they would only set aside their religious blindness and not initiate mass-killings which he is always being accused of.
Sheer scale of marketing blitz of himself and use of technology (using video conference call to appear simulteneously in many places)

All things to all people --- unless he is a genius heading for a fall in five years.

 

[aupmanyav]

After years of denying him Visa on "moral" grounds USA govt has promptly agreed to give him one.
Con: In five years Modi may very well proclaim himself dictator.

As the prime minister of a friendly country, he automatically gets a diplomatic visa.
Cons: That is a nice joke. Will go very well with BJP/Modi haters.

 

[aupmanyav]

Emphasied his background --- son of poverty stricken parents, selling tea at railways station, low caste to boot. From log cabin to President -- and true as well while the Congress party is ruled by a single rich upper caste family.

Gandhis are supposed to be Zoroastrians (at least Feroze was one). What caste do they belong to? You can say 'rich/richest class' with all the money (billions) stashed outside India.

 

[hinduwoman]

Nehru was a Kashmiri Pandit and very conscious about it too.

 

[Perspicuo]

I don't know jack about Indian politics, but I will say-... (Ok, I won't )

Show

Sometimes nationalism in politics is a good thing, depending how it is carried about and it isn't jingoistic. I don't know this guy, though. And it's good for a country to have a clear majority of either side... to a point.

That is what I wanted to say.

 

[hinduwoman]

Just as well Perspicuo!
Here is this article from Guardian written by an Indian, a supposed Indian expert:

T

his general election in India was almost a test case: just as advertising can make people want a particular brand of soft drink or breakfast cereal, can a massively funded and aggressive media campaign make people choose a particular leader? The answer, sadly, seems to be yes.

It is hard to speak of "one" Indian electorate – there is so much variation across each state – but both local and national issues have always been significant. The BJP's campaign this time was different, seeking to present one man as the national leader and creating an unprecedented media blitz around him for nearly a year, so that voters simply got used to the idea and even started believing the hype, through sheer repetition of the images and slogans.
...

The BJP's economic programme for India has thus far been short of specifics. But if the experience of Modi's rule in Gujarat is anything to go by, it will involve crony capitalism that promotes and incentivises big business through all sorts of explicit and implicit subsidies, keeping wages low and suppressing any workers' action, repression of popular movements and cracking down on dissent. The human costs of this kind of growth are enormous, as are the human costs of achieving communal "peace" through fear.
Corporate India and Hindu majoritarianism have won this particular round. But can they also reshape Indian politics, economy and society in this unpleasant image?

Sounds more like a campaign speech for Congress party. All these things have been said to death over the last five years without any reliable data being shown.

 

[aupmanyav]

Nehru was a Kashmiri Pandit and very conscious about it too.

Nehru was three generations ago.

 

[aupmanyav]

Sounds more like a campaign speech for Congress party. All these things have been said to death over the last five years without any reliable data being shown.

Written by a progressive person. They must denigrate anything Hindu. That has been the measure of progressiveness till now (and the former Indian Congress governmenhts supported it).

 

[hinduwoman]

Interesting piece on Lucknow muslims voting fro BJP:

Kunwar Iqbal Haider, a Shia Muslim lawyer in Lucknow, the capital city of Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state, was a Congress Party member until last week, when he switched to the Bharatiya Janata Party.





He’s one of many of Lucknow’s 180,000 Shia Muslims who are expected to vote for the BJP when the city heads to the polls today, April 30, despite the party’s controversial prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, whose reign as chief minister of Gujarat was marked by violence against Muslims in 2002.
...
Divisions between Shias like Haider and the city’s 450,000 Sunni Muslims, coupled with a fear of what some see as the growing threat of fundamentalist Islam from Pakistan, could actually bring more votes to the BJP this election than in 2009, despite Gujarat’s bloody history. Muslims make up about one-fifth of Lucknow’s 1.9 million registered voters, and some see the election of the BJP, and Modi, as a deterrent to the growing threat of Wahhabism, an ultra-conservative branch of Islam.
...
Last year, Shia community leader Kalbe Jawad told this reporter last year that the community was “anxious” about the spread of the hard-line Wahhabi movement from Pakistan. “They don’t tolerate any except their interpretation of Islam,” Kalbe said.

That is interesting. To prevent radicalization they are turning to the butcher of Gujrat.

 

[Rhea]

Thanks for the discussion of this - it did make the news here, including the remarkable size of the win and the overwhelming of the opposition. But never enough detail and discussion on background and support vs. opposition of his plans.

 

[Deepak]

Butcher of Gujrat

Bah. This is India's version of Benghazi and Trutherism rolled together. Modi's 'butchery' consisted of calling a terrorist attack a terrorist attack. The reaction to the train attack was both unfortunate and predictable but to consider Modi to be a 'butcher' means that he called for or encouraged the violence. As I recall the Gujarati government requested military support of local police to quell the violence and quickly called a shoot to kill order in the city to anyone violating curfew, Hindu and Muslim alike.

Full disclosure: I think the BJP are a bunch of yahoos, while simultaneously appreciating Congress being ousted from power.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Emphasied his background --- son of poverty stricken parents, selling tea at railways station, low caste to boot. From log cabin to President -- and true as well while the Congress party is ruled by a single rich upper caste family.

Gandhis are supposed to be Zoroastrians (at least Feroze was one). What caste do they belong to? You can say 'rich/richest class' with all the money (billions) stashed outside India.

That's weird. I don't know much about the religion, but wasn't Zorro kind of a Robin Hood type where he robs from the rich and gives to the poor?

 

[Canard DuJour]

Gandhis are supposed to be Zoroastrians (at least Feroze was one). What caste do they belong to? You can say 'rich/richest class' with all the money (billions) stashed outside India.

That's weird. I don't know much about the religion, but wasn't Zorro kind of a Robin Hood type where he robs from the rich and gives to the poor?

Yeah he was basically Robin Hood for Spaniels.

 

[aupmanyav]

.. but wasn't Zorro kind of a Robin Hood type where he robs from the rich and gives to the poor?

Never heard that. Heard that he was an 'athravan' (Atharvan) against the 'Angirasas', that is why Angre Mainyu. Tribal rivalry. (Atharva and Angirasa are two oldest Aryan family lines of fire worshipers, in Central Asia and in India. In India there was no competition between the two. Both are considered primordial sages)

 

[hinduwoman]

That's weird. I don't know much about the religion, but wasn't Zorro kind of a Robin Hood type where he robs from the rich and gives to the poor?

Until he got tired of the lifestyle and decided to do the opposite.

 

[hinduwoman]

Full disclosure: I think the BJP are a bunch of yahoos, while simultaneously appreciating Congress being ousted from power.

A pity Rahul Gandhi was not defeated.

Wonder if BJP will introduce Astrology in the science curriculum.

Also the voting share was only 31% for BJP ; Congress much worse only 19%. the rest was nibbled away by numerous regional parties. Is it time to stamp down on very small parties whose share is less than 2%?

 

[Togo]

Wonder if BJP will introduce Astrology in the science curriculum.

I know almost nothing about Indian politics, so I have no idea how accurate all of hinduwoman's sniping comments are. But they certainly encourage me to regard the new leader in a favourable light. All these comments tell me is that is she really really doesn't like this shift in power, and has nothing substantial to say about it.

 

[Lugubert]

There shouldn't be a game of dynasties ruling, so I'm quite comfortable with reducing Cong's power.

On the other hand, BJP is too close to Hindu extremists like the RSS to my liking.

 

[Rhea]

Also the voting share was only 31% for BJP ; Congress much worse only 19%. the rest was nibbled away by numerous regional parties. Is it time to stamp down on very small parties whose share is less than 2%?

Another reason to enourage instant runoff voting or one of the other methods?
USA shows why too few parties can cause problems; India shows why too many can also prevent people from getting the leader who best represents the most people?