Same old Modi puts himself in throne again but with different mandate this time. This time he came with much force and appeared more vigilant. Sweeping an electoral win with more than 300 seats out of 543 and restricting Indian National Congress to mere 52 seats. This clearly shows that India gave priority to nationalism over any other set of idea.
Prior to previous electoral year i.e. 2014, Modi lured with promises of social and economic reforms and upheaval. Which sunk badly as some of the predicaments are still in society. From being miserable in improving the job sector that gave rise to the unemployment rate to the inducing grieves to the farmers, Modi bagged some failures as well in his previous tenure.
Whereas this time bait was the Hindu nationalistic sentiments, which Mr Modi and his members of the den enjoyed the feast by winning the election. By using hate mandate, Modi successfully manoeuvred himself and his party into the realms of Delhi. Before elections, his unfortunate adventurous voyage with its neighbour and rival Pakistan made a lucid chance to portray himself as a heroic figure. Modi flaunted anger and hate towards its immediate neighbour. It profited him in shape of getting a majority in the lower house of the Indian political saga. Hate sentiments were provoked and inducted in common minds. Question herby rises that how Hindu nationalism can or will transform India?
During the previous reign of Mr Modi, clear social and religious divisions were drawn onto the Indian society. This was mechanized in recent elections as well by promoting nationalism or more likely Hinduism. One of the tactics that were opted by BJP and Modi is persuasion of fears of Indian society and Hindu ideology and presenting himself as the only saviour. Modi portrayed himself as the only option for Hindu caste to save Hindu ideology from external threats.
Modi has always been fond of shifting Indian secular discourse towards a Hindu nationalist sermon. His previous tenure and the plight minorities faced during that time testifies his aims. Now he has been elected for another five years. This time he has secured almost 56% of the lower house that clearly means that Mr Modi will have to face no hurdle in his way towards passing legislation.
Media and Modi have always been close aides to each other. This nexus was also prominent in the recent elections as Social and Electronic media, both were eminent in glaring Modi-ism. It ultimately cultivated his ideology in the minds of a common viewer hence reflecting it in the election results. His election campaign was given more coverage than any other thing on TV. The election soap series continued feeding the people of India. Without any doubt, there has been an immense flow of monetary funds in the veins on Indian media during the election time.
Modi’s Bharatiya Jantya Party or BJP’s Modi have already drawn a plan to be executed in the society. Selection of candidates that were given tickets and won were some of the most extremist in nature. Shakshi Maharaj, a newly elected member of parliament on BJP’s seat already has more than 30 criminal cases against him. Another newly elected BJP’s Member of Parliament, Pragya Singh Thakur remarked Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin as “a patriot”. Not only this, selections for new cabinet members clearly indicated where Mr Modi would be leading Indian society. Amit Shah who is also a president of BJP has ironically been selected as India’s Home Minister. There is a clear chance that new reforms might be religion-centric rather than being focused on governance. BJP will clearly exhibit the Hindu ideology in governance that would further raise concerns for the minorities in India.
The Indian future and its minorities seem bleak. Modi created a narrative on abhorrence and nationalism, he won elections on this mandate but the difficult part is that now he has to defend it and every word of hatred that came out of his mouth through his actions. It puts Indian society further into a dismal situation. It is arduous to analyze how large populous has voted in favour of hate mandate prompted by Modi. But there is a chance that Indian society might be falling prey to its own medicine. It indulged itself so deep and intense in criticizing and accusing its neighbour, Pakistan, for being an extremist and conservative society that it itself is becoming one.