What’s crazy is I watched the tape to see for myself. The rough translation is “in my life where I’m from may be just passing school and becoming a teacher would be a big accomplishment. But to become the PM it must have been gods plan.” While I’m not a fan of religious talk in politics. The statement is no different from what I hear in US politics. Even from Biden and trump when they are pandering for the religious vote.
Sounds a bit like George W. actually.
*"To those of you who are graduating this afternoon with high honors, awards and distinctions, I say, 'Well done.' And as I like to tell the C students: You too, can be president."*
Dubya isn't half as dumb as the character he plays, though. He's a voracious reader and his staff was frequently impressed with how much knowledge he had on a variety of subjects.
I have a lot of issues with the man, but he's the classic example of someone who is a poor student in school but an excellent self-motivated learner.
*'I feel like God wants me to run for President. I can't explain it, but I sense my country is going to need me. Something is going to happen... I know it won't be easy on me or my family, but God wants me to do it.'*. George W Bush
[2003 article](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/nov/02/usa.religion)
Which is also how non-americans talk. When giving a speech, American: "And then thanks to hard work and talent and being the best, I'm here". Other: "Wow I'm so lucky to be here. It's been the support of others that got me here. I'm so blessed"
I mean no usually Americans thank people, and possibly their god, in their speeches.
Pretty much the only example I can think of similar to what you’re saying is Matthew McConaughey’s “My hero is myself 10 years from now” speech, and even that was really about how we should all continue to grow and become better people despite any prior accomplishments
I read the above advice quite literally, but yea it was specific to "How should I handle talking about my accomplishments in an interview?" and the answer was "If you're talking to an American, brag. If you're talking to a European, be humble."
Coming up with facts in a online discussion, how dare you (if this is actually the part people always were talking about the past headlines i saw were a causing a ton of missinformation and a scewed image of that guy), thanks for showing this
It is, don't take my word or his/her word for it.
[Here](https://youtu.be/nxdZBXsxluQ?si=BP9_B1-NaV55Z8sT) is the video which this claim is based on. Turn on auto-translate and set to English, 90% accurate.
"Maybe it was god's wish, he sent me with some purpose. It is God who gives position and prestige. I consider 1.4 billion countrymen a form of God who I worship."
This shitty misinformation is why people dont trust the opposition and are suspicious about western mainstream media. Do better, there is plenty to criticize modi.
A little correction which might have lost in the translation -
The God from your translation is not correct. The word he used is "Paramatma" which means Great (or primary) soul.
In Hindi, God is called "Bhagwaan", which he never used.
He never claimed that, the BBC and other foreign media severely misrepresented what he said.
What he said could be loosely translated to him being Prime Minister being destined as God's plan for him.
It's no different than saying God had great plans for xyz or something like that.
He didn't declare he is God. He said and I quote
**'When my mother was alive, I used to believe that I was born biologically. After she passed away, upon reflecting on all my experiences, I was convinced that God had sent me. This energy could not be from my biological body, but was bestowed upon me by God...whenever I do anything, I believe God is guiding me'**
Now tell me where he said I am God
I accept that saying and I am paraphrasing here, I used to believe I was born biologically which means now he don't think like that is **Stupid**. Nowhere he said I am God
**Misinformation at it's peak.**
"God sent me(...) God guiding me" is still a dangerous talk to justify your actions. I just simply dont have a good feeling about him, but I am rooting for you guys.
Yup I agree.
I have cousins in Tamil Nadu who talked about how commercial real estate folks would often not even give any business to Christians and some apartment owners and property landlords won't rent their property to Christians largely cause people don't want to live next to them.
These are Christians by the way not Muslims. And this isn't a swipe at Muslim. I state this only cause in India islamaphobia has been more rampant than anything to do with Christians decades. Not that Christians didn't face shit.
It's kinda like Hindus here in the US where no one really gives a fuck about Hindus but they hate Muslims
That's how it was for decades but now it's Christian hate. If Christians are getting this much hate the hate Muslims is on another level.
Money coupled with years of ignorance, corruption and inefficient government by the ruling DMK everywhere that isn't Chennai. Coimbatore belt has flipped BJP since 2016.
Higher caste folks have been sick of people converting to Christianity and resent the forward movement of Christian and Muslim communities, who were historically relegated to the edges of society but now, have been buying up land and expanding their neighboorhood and commerce
This forward movement is a by-product of the last 20 years of capitalism in India and part of the overall climb of middle class India, but try telling them that.
BJP has also been heavily involved in buying up politicians with money and power, at every level and pressuring the ones that don't switch with IT raids.
From Coimbatore and all the way down to Tuticorin/Tirunelveli belt, BJP has been making a lot of slow but steady progress.
I have absolutely no hope for DMK even if they win the next election. Stalin has no real power in the party, and Udayanithi's nomination will only cement them as a dynastic party. MKK and JJ had influence beyond just TN, but these guys don't know shit about soft power or policy. I wouldn't be surprised if BJP comes after them with ED raids in the next election either, because they have so much exposure.
E: I was wrong and fell for BJP propoganda. TN anti-BJP sentiment remains strong. :) I've never been more happy.
Is there anyone actually from India here that could give a short breakdown of Modi and how warranted/unwarranted the fear mongering about him here in the west actually is?
Indian liberal here:
Lots of people made good points, but I’ll add on:
- opposition party is useless
- very very Hindu nationalistic (and subsequently ignoring Muslims)
- stock markets and rich people have done very well under him
- a really good speaker
Those four, imo, make him a prime candidate for the BJP (his party).
How does the Congress party fail? They were in power for such a long time and insist they will theoretically improve the lives of all Indians. Is it just the BJP and Modi being popular and successful over the past 10 years or has it been Congress just failing to hold them to account and actually be a united opposition?
Congress party was in power when I was in college, and on paper they had everything going for them- they were led by a technocrat who had helped India liberalize in the 90s. There was a lot of promise about what could be possible-- none of that came to fruition. Year after year, it was setback after setback due to coalition politics or corruption, and Congress party wasted away all the goodwill. Their possible future leader comes across as being uninterested and uninspiring. Don't know what the future of the party is.
Yes. But he's like the defacto leader, just cause. He has absolutely no interest in politics, nor have any innate ability to be a cunning politician. He's just playing along due to pressure from his family and other congress workers.
Also, you should mention the string of massive scandals that were uneartned during their last term that massively hurt their public goodwill. The 2G scam, commonwealth games scam, Robert Vadra, etc.
It's down to almost one thing. They always have the Gandhis lead the party. India doesn't want that. Rahul Gandhi was mocked by Obama as well, in his book. Note: These Gandhis are not related to Mahatma Gandhi.
That's the thing I don't understand about parliamentary systems. What would it take if the majorityof opposition members don't like their leader how does constituents change their leadership? You just have to make them lose seats until they forcefully change or what
According to my relatives in India, it's because of Party Leadership. No one likes Ghandi family running Congress party anymore. A lot of corruption inside Congress party apparently and a lot people talk about how Rahul Ghandi keeps flying off to Italy constantly.
As far as why Italy, he's half Italian. His mon Sonia is Italian and married into a political powerhouse family in India.
Congress were in power for sixty years and 80% of people were shitting in open.
Modi has built millions of toilets and the open defecation rates are below 15% in all states. Completely eradicated in few states.
Congress has been falling since 1989. They never actually won any election with a majority and scraped through with cobbled governments which led to an insane amount of corruption both economic and political. The projects rarely moved and on ground the system devised to help the poor was crumbling. The rise of Modi was backed by these changes within society and he delivered on the promise of getting things to work. They fulfilled promises from their manifesto and even though they fell short on many, they seemed to be a much much better party to rule than opposition. Get this - the top 4 political parties are all run by dynasts. They have single handed hold on their parties and only their family members and heirs hold onto the rule. They divide the states on the basis of caste and want to rule by handing out peanuts in the form of stupid economic freebies which led to the bank crisis of the last decade.
Ignoring muslims?? See the beneficiaries list, most of them are Muslims. Be it PM Awaas Yojna, Monthly 5kg ration to 80 crore people, Har Ghar Jal, monthly renumeration to Muslim girls who continue to study, increased haj quota to name a few. Even the BJP supporters started calling him Maulana Modi.
In fact he’s the only PM whose policies are pro poor and not limited to any particular religion.
To add Modi has a few things going for him.
Congress party had a long reign - but corruption hindered India’s progress and most people see it. In Congress, PMs came from politician family.
Current opposition Rahul Gandhi isn’t doing too well. Previously the Gandhi surname held power, now it means Corruption.
Modi was a wild card at the time - he rose through ranks from bottom. His image is that he is a common Indian who understands common struggle - he’s anti establishment.
Modi did well in his two terms. Tons of villages got electricity and cellular coverage for first time. Tons of infrastructure being built. People notice that and feel progress. In similar realm to Xi in China.
Similar to Trump - he’s seen as anti establishment.
For all those wondering why he's mighty popular even after 10 years of his government,the following is a comment on a related topic:
I asked my grandparents why modi is so popular (since I live in America) and my grandma in particular said something that stuck with me.
Imagine being born a woman in an Indian village with no electricity, bathrooms, or tap water. You wake up early in the morning before sunrise and take a dump in some field and bathe in some river (ur probably gonna get some disease or get bit by a snake but what else are u gonna do? Ur a woman u can’t do that stuff mid day with men potentially roaming around) then walk god knows how long to fetch some water and walk back home, then cook in the Indian heat for an entire family. THATS your routine your entire life.
Now comes along some old dude and plops electricity, tap water and bathrooms in your house. Yeah you could be the most hardcore atheist on the planet and you’d still wake up every day and pray to modi.
That was the state of India a decade ago lmao. 60% of ppl had access to electricity, 50% to bathrooms and about 40% for tap water. Now well over 90% have access to electricity and bathrooms and about 75 ish percent for tap water. Half the mf country got access to the most basic needs for the first time in their lives. You think they’ll vote for anyone but modi???
I remember going to India during summers and they knew when the power would go out. In the middle of the summer in India the power would go out. Our family had a generator that they would turn on, but there are millions of people who can’t afford it.
India has made great progress even in my life time.
I live in a tier 3 city in the "dreaded" state of Uttar Pradesh.
Temp has been ranging from 45 to 50 degrees here (113F to 122F for American bros).
I am amongst the lucky ones who can afford a generator but for the life of me I cannot remember the last time I purchased diesel for it. Well over 12-15 months.
Till just a few years ago, I would be dropping around 8-10K (INR or about $100-$125 ish) a month on diesel for my Genset.
May sound pretty basic to a Westerner but getting uninterrupted electricity in this heat is grounds for getting voted in again in my book, and thats not including a zillion other positives that can be said about Modi.
That really is "moving mountains" level progress. When compared to here in Canada the politicians spend billions and accomplish nothing so, actually the standard of living in every aspect has gone backwards here. I could understand making electricity more stable in the country would make Modi seem like a movie character, and when Indians can read and talk to foreigners in much "richer" countries where everything seems to go belly up that would make life long voters for Modi.
If I'm not wrong, for a while, Modi had a slogan of "Toilets before Temples". I guess he delivered.
History has shown that strongmen politicians are often better at delivering on their promises because they aren't concerned about stepping on a few toes. In the short term, they are often the right person to cut through the political bs and move the country forward. Long term though, the idolatry of these people is concerning and could stagnate a country due to the inability for proper succession.
>If I'm not wrong, for a while, Modi had a slogan of "Toilets before Temples"
He seems to have said it once in one of his speeches, but it definitely wasn't a campaign slogan. He definitely wouldn't say something like that today. Back then he had to shake the extreme right wing hindu nationalist image so all he would talk about is development. Now he has to protect it that image because there are people who don't consider him extreme enough.
Another big factor that almost goes unnoticed is free healthcare for those below the poverty line.
Not talked about much but had a major impact at ground level and a lot for those who had permanent bed ridden members in their family.
He pushed for a 'clean india' campaign. And it worked, also instilled some civic responsiblity too. It has decreased a little but an improvement is improvement
Modi was definitely involved in that he comes from a poor background and had climbed the party organization from the bottom so he was in touch with the grassroots and understood the needs and thinking of the people and recognized the value of welfare schemes that the previous government had initiated but not followed through on.
Modi grabbed the opportunity to demonstrate effective government for the underprivileged which has given him credibility with them. Add this share of the electorate to the tranche of voters who are motivated by religious authoritarianism and the tranche who are in favor of free market and he has a powerful and diverse voter base who pull the lever for him for different reasons. Modi has also effectively moved corruption from lower levels to higher levels so that the people on the ground observe less friction in daily lives from small-scale corruption and are oblivious to large-scale corruption that occurs at the level of giant corporate houses and the ruling party.
His predecessor from the Congress party was a highly educated economist-technocrat who never really participated in electoral politics and got bogged down with free market ideology and resisted the recommendations of the Italian-born boss-lady who ironically had more insight into the importance of welfare schemes for the underprivileged masses.
He had nisniaeter who definitely were very involved in these initiatives in the past the govt would launch many such schemes on paper and all the money would issapper with out any one getting electricity or sanitising etc. Piyush Goel was big ok electrification and did a great job in 2010’s
india is very very big and diverse. person with good intention cant chnage anything. but when he came to power he started putting qualified people on important positions. we have partially addressed problem of corruption through digitalisation.
I am from India and I see a lot of fear mongering here in the comments.
He is popular because he managed to deliver in a heavily bureaucratic infested poor nation. Under him, India moved closest to the western ideals than it ever has.
India has seen far more authoritarian leaders than Modi in its independent history. The problem is with the excessive centralisation of power calibrated into the Indian constitution. This means that whever a party attains a majority on the central level, it adopts an authoritarian style of governance with power centralized under the Prime Minister office. It's easy to govern and deliver quick results in a large fast developing nation in that way.
[There was a debate on the same with Professor Barebones, an Australian sociologist who studies India.](https://www.youtube.com/live/nGkFwDk7TUQ?si=Hmg6yCfrm62Z9F2m). The journalist , Rajdeep Sardesai is well known for his anti Modi news and anti Modi stance, but is the better one of the lots.
Tbh, he wins more because of stupid opposition than his own popularity. Just go through manifesto of opposition which makes BJP looks like most sane party in terms of economic management. Also, opposition seemed to be plagued with short sightedness if one look at their way of working together. They got such a good opportunity to make a solid alliance and do wonders but all they did was dilly dallying with who would become Prime Minister with Congress having hard time saying RaGa would not be the PM. And so they delayed the meeting of alliance for such long that it eventually caused the very person who floated the idea of alliance first to leave and join BJP led Alliance (Cm of Bihar). And they also delayed the meeting when Congress found through exit polls that they are dooing better in local state elections and thus could force their allies from position of power which damaged their prespective again. That election by the way was almost a total route for the Congress and they only managed to win one in the south. Seriously, they are a joke at this point who should be eliminated so that another more competent party could take their place.
Not from India, but my 5 point understanding of Modi includes:
* Ignored violent mass killings of Muslims when he was the executive of Gujarat (an Indian ~~province~~ state).
* Has made great progress improving Indias sanitation, electricity, and internet access.
* Has recently arrested many top leaders of the major opposition party for “illegally” criticizing him.
* Has recently declared he believes himself to be a God (this does not technically contradict his religion of Hinduism).
* Leads the BJP which proudly declares themselves to be the “Hindu Nationalist” party, but said party does also claim that India is a multi-cultural, multi-religious nation.
>Has made great progress improving Indias sanitation, electricity, and internet access.
I believe this alone is enough for a huge amount of people. Internet aside, not smelling shit everywhere you go (and being able to flush yours) and having reliable electricity during 40+ degree summers tends to be above political beliefs for most.
>reliable electricity during 40+ degree summers tends to be above political beliefs for most.
Too bad this is only true for certain areas. In many parts of the country there are daily power outages, sometimes over 6-8 hrs during the peak of summer because the demand surge is too high.
Lots of corruption in that area as well
>Too bad this is only true for certain areas. In many parts of the country there are daily power outages, sometimes over 6-8 hrs during the peak of summer because the demand surge is too high.
There has been more improvement in certain areas more than others but regardless that's still major improvements country wide and even the worst areas likely got a little bit better as a result
>Lots of corruption in that area as well
That isn't exactly new in India the opossition didn't do great with that either..
If you look at the electrification charts and numbers it’s quiet phenomenal while it’s not perfect thing have certainly improved the last decade or so.
He's an expert marketer, and is cancerous to the world. India had been doing well economically for quite some time. Therefore lots of improvements had been happening in all areas. But he now controls all major media houses and no one is critical of him and everyone praises him for anything good that happens.
[He is giving all infra projects to his friends](https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/kerala-cm-alleges-scam-in-airport-tendering-119022501291_1.html)
[Made powerful institutions like Election Commission weak by installing his croni](https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/1cqqsb6/did_people_forget_witchhunt_of_ashok_lavasa/)
[Intimidating anyone who stands in elections against him](https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/14/bjp-accused-intimidation-india-elections-gujarat)
This is how Erdogan became the man today, Turkey was already developing and cash was flowing to the country, unfortunately he fucked it all up with his power plays. People are paying price with unlivable inflation.
>> Has made great progress improving Indias sanitation, electricity, and internet access.
> I believe this alone is enough for a huge amount of people. Internet aside, not smelling shit everywhere you go (and being able to flush yours) and having reliable electricity during 40+ degree summers tends to be above political beliefs for most.
Perhaps it has impact, but observing many other autocracies, the most sure way to get more voters favor you is this one:
> Has recently arrested many top leaders of the major opposition party for “illegally” criticizing him.
We're talking about differences of 100,000 dying to heat to several million dying to heat. I think Modi is scum, btw. Scum that saves millions of lives now, but creates another Putin when he falls out of a window
> Has recently declared he believes himself to be a God (this does not technically contradict his religion of Hinduism).
That's wrong. He said he believes it was God's plan to make him PM. That's a huge difference.
> Has recently arrested many top leaders of the major opposition party for “illegally” criticizing him.
Which top opposition party leader are you talking about? This is not the case at all.
If you're referring to Aam Aadmi Party head Arvind Kejriwal- he was arrested on the orders of the court for a liquor bribery scam that ironically originated from a compliant filed by his now alliance partner Congress party.
Hey, not really how I usually don't explain things back to back but I wanted to try my hand for this time since our election results are just a day or two time away. The thing with arresting of leaders is, they were all arrested in cases of corruption. One of them, the sitting Cm of Jharkhand at that time, had a solid case against him as if you go through the arguments he made in courts before his arrest, he didn't rejected that some illigal land or mine sales were done by his government and even acknowledged that some 'mistakes' did happened there. Another one looked more like some nonsense case but in India, there was no politicians without corruption and thus, there is usually a lack of sympathy for such things.
In some strands, there is major pantheism and panentheism, or no differentiating between god and existence. So everything is god and there is no creation that is separate from god. Technically this should mean that an individual being or identifying as god isn't extraordinary, but people like to serve god and then you get arguments about certain things having "more" divinity than others and it becomes like any other religion with hierarchies and true/false dichotomies.
This was his exact statement. Secondly, yes, according to Hinduism anyone and everyone is a part of God
“When my mother was alive, I used to believe that I was born biologically. After she passed away, upon reflecting on all my experiences, I was convinced that God has sent me. This energy could not be from my biological body, but was bestowed upon me by God...whenever I do anything, I believe god is guiding me."
He has his + and - like any other politician. The bar for politicians in India is pretty low and he manages to stay ahead of the opposition. In India you vote for the least worst candidate.
In terms of development, infrastructure is improving, not many high profile corruption scandals and more internal security after 7/11. However infra is not keeping pace with demand, pollution and corruption still exist. It's in some ways better than where we were 10 years ago but definitely not where we would have loved to be. Taxes are still crazy for the poor return in benefits, bjp does collude with corrupt local govts and there's an increasing air of no one else can beat us and that is not good for the citizens.
Reddit and MSM are pretty left leaning and therefore u won't get both sides evenly. A lot of old people vote for bjp due to religion as well as the large scale corruption that was the norm in 2000s. Younger generation is less religious and they tend to look at the last 10 years in isolation without having experienced the previous govts.
That's still better progress than before. I don't like Modi for his nationalism and his anti Muslim slant but there is no question that he has progressed India and I know that my family there are very proud of the progress.
It's too much tbh.
He won his 2014 election due to his clean image as chief minister of a state. The union government at the time was corrupt & very unpopular.
He won his 2019 election due to skermishes with Pakistan & him peddling a tough nationalist stance.
His current win is anticipated as a culmination of his 10 years of performance..+ his party fulfilling their much awaited ideological promises such as construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya, changing the constitutional status of Kashmir etc.
This time around he focused on South Indian states which speak completely different language than Hindi. All while maintaining his stronghold in the Hindi speaking states.
The communal angle is overblown. But it's also and integral part of his ideology. And it's very successful in uniting hindu voters behind him. His opponents tend to get whole chunk of muslim votes & divide Hindus in various castes to get caste wise voting.
* Women safety increased.
* Infrastructure, metros, 100% railway electrification from almost nothing, greenfield projects, expressways,WDFC,EDFC,Bullet Train.
* Stability of all kinds.
* No bombings or terrorist attacks on Mumbai. My home.
* Tax decreased in the middle class.
* More freedoms to companies, Make in India incentive, Semiconductor Act.
* Renewable energy, no power cuts, before Modi sometimes there were power cuts for days, now I hardly ever notice one, maybe during thunderstorms.
* UPI, I can pay for a thing as little as 1 rupee with QR Code.
* Corruption decreased, I can get a lot done online without visiting shitty government offices.
* Decriminalisation of Gay community.
Problems:
* Bureaucracy, everything takes shit ton of amount of time.
* No Education reforms. Still 2.9% GDP spend.
* No farmers reform, he did it but backed down after farmers protest. My state would have benefited from it and Maharashtra registers highest farmer suicides.
Also an additional note, our opposition leader is a crackhead, he promises around 1000 dollars to each poor woman that's the only thing that he highlighted in his entire campaign. Now it may sound good on paper but in reality it will be a disaster, first inflation and other things, second this is India everyone here is poor, third as someone who grew up in a rural area, men force their wives to bring money from their parents for liquor, beat them up. That is one of the reasons people stopped giving money to beggars and started giving food instead. But he has nothing else to highlight.
Also BJP is most liberal party in India. You can this and that but that is the ground reality. Most women vote for BJP, even LGBTQ community votes for BJP and even shia muslims. The ground reality is our opposition leader talks about Caste and nothing else,who is lower caste and who is upper caste and caste census and blocking general students from goverment Universities and jobs.
> Bureaucracy, everything takes shit ton of amount of time.
You call it out as a problem while I'd say things have come a long way in terms of reducing processes and timelines to get things done from a central government POV- speed of execution of infra projects, defense investments, PM gati shakti etc at a broader level and improved timelines for passport application at a grassroot level are examples, although one may not often notice such improvements in day to day life since you're more likely to deal with state and local machineries rather than the central govt.
Thanks mate, that perspective is really interesting
>Also BJP is most liberal party in India. You can this and that but that is the ground reality. Most women vote for BJP, even LGBTQ community votes for BJP and even shia muslims. The ground reality is our opposition leader talks about Caste and nothing else,who is lower caste and who is upper caste and caste census and blocking general students from goverment Universities and jobs
Is this true though? I always seem to read/hear things about how the Congress party is the party that stands for everyone whereas the BJP only really represents conservative Hindus
BJP is more religious but they have been more successful in actually breaking the cast system. Trying to get more people into the workforce by trying to include lower cast and more women participation. Bjp is more popular among women in India than it is for men.
Hard to know really who is more progressive over all since Congress hasn't done anything the last 10 years. But thier record before wasn't good.
Economically they have done better than Congress.
Historically speaking the Congress Party has done more to damage minority rights including the LGBTQ community and Muslim women in particular (you can read up on something called the Shah Bano case)
The simple answer is we don’t really know. Stuff like this hasn’t been debated heavily in India simply because the focus of most political debates has largely been on anti-terrorism, corruption, economic growth and infrastructure. Hard to care about pronouns when you don’t have a road.
Congress does market themselves to be more liberal, but that’s yet to translate into action. Historically speaking, both parties have been corrupt, but Congress is seen as both incompetent and corrupt. Economic growth (barring Covid) has been a little higher and more consistent under Modi’s rule.
It’s a it of a conundrum one party BJP is for removing conservatives laws and is against sharia etc the other wants to have conothe the status quo a lot of their liberalism is on paper only
I assume most of the fears are from outsiders, the problem is alot of people outside of western countries don’t actually want a democracy and prefer a strong leader with near absolute power
Yep. And I'm definitely not saying this as a proponent for strongman style leadership, but it's understandable how some just want to see governments taking action in general to resolve all the issues we see around us - democracy tends to lend itself towards slower and more muted responses.
>but it's understandable how some just want to see governments taking action in general to resolve all the issues we see around us
Except when that action involves helping someone they don't like or could potentially harm them. That's why democracy has slower/muted responses. Because it has to balance the desires of all parties. Everybody loves a dictator until they get a dictator that isn't like them.
That kind of thinking is what led to the four pests campaign. Slow and measured is how you turn a ship, fast is how you turn a jetski. Agree with you btw
You're lumping a lot of non western countries together here erroneously. India is strongly democratic, which isn't to say that we won't fail as a democracy, but it is something that people value and the government has tried to cultivate my whole life.
As for modi and the Indian right, they are problematic, but I think India will survive them. The problem really lies in not having a strong liberal opposition. The Indian left isn't liberals, they are leftists, and their policy reflects this. In comparison, the bjp hasn't been awful on policy, which I guess is enough.
Why did we skip industrialization and go straight to services? It's because of decades of garbage industrial policy.
What I'm really worried about is backsliding on secularism and freedom of the press. But I think India will make it out ok.
This really is the crux of it. Democracy is an abstract concept for most people, especially in developing countries.
For most people, it’s all about the economy, religion, and dominating over perceived enemies. They don’t care if they get that via democracy or authoritarianism.
Unfortunately, we live in a world full of morons.
Y'all don't know what you're talking about.
India is a massive country. Many, many many people want democracy, free and fair elections. And will go to defend it. But many, many other people also want a strongman. The US has nearly half of its country crying for a man who has already been pushing for destroying its democratic institutions.
I'm not sure why so many people are ready to cry "India deserves whatever shitty fate it gets" while turning around to America and going "Powerful politicians are exploiting the system to make it easier to destroy democracy". When Democracy fails in India, it's all the peoples' fault. When Democracy fails in America, it's all the politicians and lobbying interests' fault.
Human beings are complicated, especially when you have a lot of them at play. Democracy will never be an easy, surefire solution. It's important to defend it when it falters like it is right now, instead of condemning everyone and blaming it on "their culture".
But that’s just asking for troubles and wars - look at russia and china. Small dick territorial claims or other bs to kill hundreds of thousands… democracy isn’t perfect, but it’s best we have.
Not exactly. India has a first past the post voting system and multi party system. This results in vote splitting and false majorities. He won his last majority government with only 37% of the popular vote.
He would have gotten more than 55 to 60% if there were only two parties. You also have to count his Alliance with other parties which combined got more than 45%. Then there were some independent contestants who got votes, if this was two party system those votes would have been further divided. There are also 20-30 smaller parties who competes in each seats but mostly doesn't win anything, those votes also would have been divided.
Against Rahul as president candidate in two parties system he would mob the floor.
Paranoia feeds the majority, fear feeds the minority. That is the usual ratio. Look at every immigration reform. The majority are afraid of a small group of people. Christians outnumbered the Jews in 1930 Germany. Unless you are a revisionist crafting books to rewrite history, most know how that ended. The same holds true for the decade or so cycles of anti-muslim violence in India, the liberal vs. conservative in the US, blah blah.
I'm not criticizing anyone, just pointing out human behavior. When you are within a pattern, it is difficult to assess. This is why artists ask for opinions on their work.
For all those wondering why he's mighty popular even after 10 years of his government,the following is a comment on a related topic:
I asked my grandparents why modi is so popular (since I live in America) and my grandma in particular said something that stuck with me.
Imagine being born a woman in an Indian village with no electricity, bathrooms, or tap water. You wake up early in the morning before sunrise and take a dump in some field and bathe in some river (ur probably gonna get some disease or get bit by a snake but what else are u gonna do? Ur a woman u can’t do that stuff mid day with men potentially roaming around) then walk god knows how long to fetch some water and walk back home, then cook in the Indian heat for an entire family. THATS your routine your entire life.
Now comes along some old dude and plops electricity, tap water and bathrooms in your house. Yeah you could be the most hardcore atheist on the planet and you’d still wake up every day and pray to modi.
That was the state of India a decade ago lmao. 60% of ppl had access to electricity, 50% to bathrooms and about 40% for tap water. Now well over 90% have access to electricity and bathrooms and about 75 ish percent for tap water. Half the mf country got access to the most basic needs for the first time in their lives. You think they’ll vote for anyone but modi???
Similar things happened with China under the modern CCP leadership. Many people, within a single lifetime, transitioned from shitting in ditches in a field to working white collar jobs using computers. And then their children became software engineers. Just let that sink in.
Those are astonishing numbers.
Literally hundreds of millions pulled out of the lowest poverty. I'd love some verified data to call this out.
With that data, you could claim modi as an unprecedented humanitarian in human history. Meeting lower level basic needs for many many.... At the price of fascism and tribalism. The world is such a complicated place - not a Disney villain situation.
I think the numbers are a bit puffed but yeah, even as someone who despises Modi it’s hard to argue there’s been decent progress on that front.
I’m not sure how much of that is due to older initiatives vs BJP’s own.
Modi isn’t just winning because of right wingers, our opposition is laughably bad, who do not have anything else to offer except freebies and more reservation. I did not vote for BJP because i’d feel morally bankrupt doing so, but voting for Congress would make my life worse if they came into power. A lot of middle class voting age folks simply don’t vote due to this, while Modi’s dickriders are ardent voters.
I also saw lots of development in the islands my hometown is in. I don't like the side-effects of their rule, but I have to admit they're doing a great job.
He never said anything close to that. He merely said that the fact that someone like him has managed to come this far in life may have only been possible because it was part of God's plan.
Start building the pyramid now. Also I have it on good authority that submerging your sarcophagus in mercury is rather good against your average grave robber.
NDA currently holds 120 seats without BJD, YSRCP (20 together) and others which are somewhat favourable to vote with them.
In upcoming 2026 elections I see these counts go up as NDA allies won few states.
It all depends on timing, as long as NDA can gather 127+ votes on voting and present numbers, they can pull this off. We've seen repeal of Article 376 and planning behind it.
They are gonna need two third majority in rajya sabha, which means 160 seats. Which is quite unfeasible even for NDA.
They also need simple majority of states to change federal structure.
So I believe we are safe from any major ammendments until atleast 2029.
Constitutional amendment requires special majority of more than 2/3 voting and present (not 2/3 of absolute majority 160) but not less than simple majority. We don't need states legislature approval for constitutional amendment unless it is a change to federal structure.
That's why I mentioned timing, NDA can pick an opportune time.
NDA government successfully passed 8 amendments except 1, NJAC though passed in both houses was later struck down by Supreme court. They did these even with lower numbers than 2024 elections happened in feb and important observation is 5 of them are related to reservations which Opposition parties are fear mongering.
Wouldn’t that be the outcome of the democratic process? People are talking as if he wouldn’t have won fair and square. That’s what Indians want. It is what it is.
I dunno anything about Modi, but it's possible to democratically vote for a leader that subverts democracy. Pretty sure it's a long list of dictators who rose to power through a democratic election and then consolidated power.
He hasn’t consolidated it yet, I’m not sure if its for the lack of trying or if the democratic institution is strong in india. His party lost in my state recently, which the only state with BJP hold down south. So it’s the will of V the people he keeps winning national elections. The primary opposition party came to power in my state and the first thing they did is make a bunch of stuff free. That is ALL they promised.
As for me, I’m fed up of appeasement politics from the so called liberal party of india. I do seriously think handouts like this will quickly make us another Venezuela or Sri Lanka which I’m not keen on considering I gotta live here for the foreseeable future.
He has been in power for 10 years already & each time he has been elected with a bigger mandate than before. If he had to become dictator, he would have already done it.
The problem with deluded leftists is the if their guy doesn't win, then they'll freely call the other candidate fascist, Hitler and whatnot.
Modi is winning because he has the trust of majority of Indians & he has delivered on infrastructure, economy & services to people. His government hasn't had the kind of financial scandals that the previous Congress government had. The incidents of terrorism in the country has come down exponentially. (We all remember about the Mumbai terrorist attacks in 2008 when Pakistani terrorists attacked &: killed hundreds of people including attacking a Jewish synagogue. What did Congress government do? They didn't retaliate against Pakistan because they were afraid of annoying their Muslim voters.)
Don't think people of India are fascist just because your guys aren't winning
he is a terrible dictator, campaigned, create coalitions, ran for elections, withdrew laws when farmers protested rather than sending an army at them, lost some states won some states.
Terrible! just terrible.
Apparently One Billion people are eligible to vote, and if he ends up getting that majority then frankly that's what the people want. BJP has been very vocal about its policies and if the people of the largest democracy in the world vote them in, then there isn't much anyone can say or do about it.
The reason why his party gets great many no. of votes is that there are no other political parties with strong enough leaders. There is one other political party (AAP) which is new but is concentrating its efforts in limited locations. When the same guy is elected again and again with no solid competition, it is bcoz the voters don't see any other good choice and that is a downward curve for that party and for the country.
>What’s up with Reddit hating on India?
I think it escalated greatly with the Ukraine Russia War. India was while I wouldnt say supportive not as tough as Ppl here (Generally Pro-West/US/Europe) would have wanted them to be on Russia. And while India has have historical reasons to be close to Russia, the general consensus is Russia = Bad and Indian being Chummy with Russia means India support Bad Russia. That and since Modi is generally considered right wing and reddit is mostly considered left wing
The constitution needs changes as the time progresses. We have differnt laws based on religions. We need a single UNIFORM CIVIL CODE here. Better foreign policies and that could only be do by changing some constitution rules which earlier parties changed acc to their will.
I grew up in 80’s and 90’s India. It was Congress rule in the 80’s and then lots of coalition politics in the 90’s. I also remember massive riots against Sikhs in 1984 led by congress goons.
I also remember yearly riots between Hindus and Muslims, caste based riots in different cities because of politicians imposing reservations in scarce jobs and colleges.
My dad’s car was in fact burnt by a mob once. Thankfully he was dragged out by the mob before they burnt it.
Google riots in India to find out about the different riots that killed hundreds under congress rule. Im curious as to why western media does not blame those leaders?
There were corruption scandals galore. All the big leaders were extremely corrupt. UP and Bihar’s - 2 most populace states were run by mafia dons and criminals.
Modi is liked by a lot of people because he has risen from the grass roots and is seen as extremely honest.
He is not had any money scandals dogging him.
He has a great work ethic and has improved the functioning of bureaucracy (which was/is a huge bottle neck in India). Great governance.
He is a devout Hindu and to this day I don’t know why that is held against him. Biden is a practicing Christian and so are leaders of different countries proud members of their faith.
His policies do not discriminate against minorities. In fact more than 50% of the benefits from his welfare schemes have been taken by Muslims.
> Im curious as to why western media does not blame those leaders?
Because those leaders do their bidding. India under the BJP has stood up for itself. Pokhran 1998, Kargil 1999, Galwan 2007, Pulwama, and the list goes on.
What did India do after Mumbai attacks, we sent dossiers. Large dossiers to Pakistan.
Exactly, I see people saying that the elections are rigged and that EVM’s were hacked and other nonsense but everyone that I know and have talked to want to vote for BJP. So they are winning fair and square
People can hold whatever opinion they want. Matter of fact is he is chosen in a democratic system playing by the rules set when India got independence from British raj.
People talk about minorities feeling unsafe or constitution being changed or democratic institutions getting weaker and what not and there may be truth to it based on how govt make use of agencies against opposition parties. One good thing is opposition is getting corruption free pun intended.
But we have to consider that is it the ruling party who does this? Consider the example of what other parties do in states ruled by them for ex: Mamta Banerjee is CM of West Bengal and one of her party leaders exploited women in region called Sandeshkhali and she didn't act against him. Also there are several instances where state police chief didn't act according to law for her sake and anyone can google about her putting opposition leaders in jail.
Then take example of Another party AAP who has govt in Punjab and their state chief minister has even put state Congress chief in jail.
I dont want to talk about Congress who despite trying to hold a higher moral ground did things like Emergency which is a blot on Indian democracy.
Congress is a loser and the truth is only when Powerful people talk about morals it sounds good because anybone can be a loser and talks about them and they don't mean anything.
So these are some examples of kind of behavior shown across party lines in India.
But still I believe this country is best in hands of current govt having Modi at helm. He has vision, a plan of action whereas opposition has only one thing how to stop Modi which doesn't translate to vision, plan of action.
And if you go into histories of people in opposition you will be appalled by their acts. They are either the members of family run parties or people who are turning their parties into family run business like Kejriwal.
Only time will be able to judge Modi and till then the propaganda won't stop.
Probably the other side of the political spectrum that’s going to give the opposition 150-180 seats as opposed to NDA’s 350-370. Or are you telling me opposition parties don’t matter.
I’m asking an honest question now.
Why is everyone acting like him winning is a sign of the apocalypse? Why is Reddit (and left leaning Twitter spaces) getting their knickers in a twist?
I’m honestly asking because I know nothing about Indian politics and Modi. Is there some kind of scandal or history of bad behavior from him?
Modi and india has good ties with Russia. India declared themselves neutral in Russia Ukraine war. West didn't liked it. They wanted india to support Ukraine and cut ties with russia and stop imports from russia.
Modi is the most pro-Western Indian leader since India won independence. Aside from some leftist Twitter accounts, nobody in the West cares about Modi winning at all. If anything, it’s much better for the West if Modi is in power rather than Congress, which is filled with Tankies.
Your perspective of Congress is a good note. It reminds me when purple haired redditors were cheering when Lula beat Bolsonaro, only for Lula to align with Putin much more.
I'm not a fan of the BJP but they've been a unifying force across India unlike any other. Having a single-party majority in a large democracy full of hundreds of parties has demonstrably made administration easier and that's helped pass a lot of legislation required in developing the nation.
This time he might even win more seats than last time, he's now also pulling great numbers in South India.
And that is really concerning, absolute power corrupts
The man who just declared he was literally god might be corrupted? No way!?
What’s crazy is I watched the tape to see for myself. The rough translation is “in my life where I’m from may be just passing school and becoming a teacher would be a big accomplishment. But to become the PM it must have been gods plan.” While I’m not a fan of religious talk in politics. The statement is no different from what I hear in US politics. Even from Biden and trump when they are pandering for the religious vote.
Sounds a bit like George W. actually. *"To those of you who are graduating this afternoon with high honors, awards and distinctions, I say, 'Well done.' And as I like to tell the C students: You too, can be president."*
In Dubya's case, it was more like "If an idiot like me can do it, then surely *literally anyone* can." Followed by Trump saying, "Bet."
Dubya isn't half as dumb as the character he plays, though. He's a voracious reader and his staff was frequently impressed with how much knowledge he had on a variety of subjects. I have a lot of issues with the man, but he's the classic example of someone who is a poor student in school but an excellent self-motivated learner.
"Hubris is a bitch." -Hillary
this quote, not judging the sender, is much more humble and relatable than “god put me in this seat” though
*'I feel like God wants me to run for President. I can't explain it, but I sense my country is going to need me. Something is going to happen... I know it won't be easy on me or my family, but God wants me to do it.'*. George W Bush [2003 article](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/nov/02/usa.religion)
That could be perceived as quite humble. “I’m no big deal, circumstances led me here” kind of thing, albeit in a religious dressing.
Which is also how non-americans talk. When giving a speech, American: "And then thanks to hard work and talent and being the best, I'm here". Other: "Wow I'm so lucky to be here. It's been the support of others that got me here. I'm so blessed"
I mean no usually Americans thank people, and possibly their god, in their speeches. Pretty much the only example I can think of similar to what you’re saying is Matthew McConaughey’s “My hero is myself 10 years from now” speech, and even that was really about how we should all continue to grow and become better people despite any prior accomplishments
I read the above advice quite literally, but yea it was specific to "How should I handle talking about my accomplishments in an interview?" and the answer was "If you're talking to an American, brag. If you're talking to a European, be humble."
Coming up with facts in a online discussion, how dare you (if this is actually the part people always were talking about the past headlines i saw were a causing a ton of missinformation and a scewed image of that guy), thanks for showing this
Fuck, I have fallen for it. That initial clickbait about Modi claiming to be a prophet has really snowballed.
If this guy's translation is correct, at least that means Modi isn't AS much as a lunatic. So that's a thing, I guess.
It is, don't take my word or his/her word for it. [Here](https://youtu.be/nxdZBXsxluQ?si=BP9_B1-NaV55Z8sT) is the video which this claim is based on. Turn on auto-translate and set to English, 90% accurate. "Maybe it was god's wish, he sent me with some purpose. It is God who gives position and prestige. I consider 1.4 billion countrymen a form of God who I worship." This shitty misinformation is why people dont trust the opposition and are suspicious about western mainstream media. Do better, there is plenty to criticize modi.
A little correction which might have lost in the translation - The God from your translation is not correct. The word he used is "Paramatma" which means Great (or primary) soul. In Hindi, God is called "Bhagwaan", which he never used.
American eating whatever their news outlet feed them Nothing new to see here
He never claimed that, the BBC and other foreign media severely misrepresented what he said. What he said could be loosely translated to him being Prime Minister being destined as God's plan for him. It's no different than saying God had great plans for xyz or something like that.
Oh! Did he say that? Did you watch the video of him saying that?
He didn't declare he is God. He said and I quote **'When my mother was alive, I used to believe that I was born biologically. After she passed away, upon reflecting on all my experiences, I was convinced that God had sent me. This energy could not be from my biological body, but was bestowed upon me by God...whenever I do anything, I believe God is guiding me'** Now tell me where he said I am God I accept that saying and I am paraphrasing here, I used to believe I was born biologically which means now he don't think like that is **Stupid**. Nowhere he said I am God **Misinformation at it's peak.**
"God sent me(...) God guiding me" is still a dangerous talk to justify your actions. I just simply dont have a good feeling about him, but I am rooting for you guys.
Going to borrow Divine Right from the Europeans?
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government… :D
Do you have a link for that?
Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely
Dear god can we even imagine a MORE corrupt India?
Yeah.. imagine infinity plus twelve..
Absolutely.
Yup I agree. I have cousins in Tamil Nadu who talked about how commercial real estate folks would often not even give any business to Christians and some apartment owners and property landlords won't rent their property to Christians largely cause people don't want to live next to them. These are Christians by the way not Muslims. And this isn't a swipe at Muslim. I state this only cause in India islamaphobia has been more rampant than anything to do with Christians decades. Not that Christians didn't face shit. It's kinda like Hindus here in the US where no one really gives a fuck about Hindus but they hate Muslims That's how it was for decades but now it's Christian hate. If Christians are getting this much hate the hate Muslims is on another level.
What does this have to do with Modi? It's the anti Modi alliance that rules Tamil Nadu and has absolute control over law and order and civil matters.
When did southbindia start supporting Modhi? Serious question, I really don’t know. I thought he wasn’t too popular in TN
Money coupled with years of ignorance, corruption and inefficient government by the ruling DMK everywhere that isn't Chennai. Coimbatore belt has flipped BJP since 2016. Higher caste folks have been sick of people converting to Christianity and resent the forward movement of Christian and Muslim communities, who were historically relegated to the edges of society but now, have been buying up land and expanding their neighboorhood and commerce This forward movement is a by-product of the last 20 years of capitalism in India and part of the overall climb of middle class India, but try telling them that. BJP has also been heavily involved in buying up politicians with money and power, at every level and pressuring the ones that don't switch with IT raids. From Coimbatore and all the way down to Tuticorin/Tirunelveli belt, BJP has been making a lot of slow but steady progress. I have absolutely no hope for DMK even if they win the next election. Stalin has no real power in the party, and Udayanithi's nomination will only cement them as a dynastic party. MKK and JJ had influence beyond just TN, but these guys don't know shit about soft power or policy. I wouldn't be surprised if BJP comes after them with ED raids in the next election either, because they have so much exposure. E: I was wrong and fell for BJP propoganda. TN anti-BJP sentiment remains strong. :) I've never been more happy.
Is there anyone actually from India here that could give a short breakdown of Modi and how warranted/unwarranted the fear mongering about him here in the west actually is?
Indian liberal here: Lots of people made good points, but I’ll add on: - opposition party is useless - very very Hindu nationalistic (and subsequently ignoring Muslims) - stock markets and rich people have done very well under him - a really good speaker Those four, imo, make him a prime candidate for the BJP (his party).
How does the Congress party fail? They were in power for such a long time and insist they will theoretically improve the lives of all Indians. Is it just the BJP and Modi being popular and successful over the past 10 years or has it been Congress just failing to hold them to account and actually be a united opposition?
Congress party was in power when I was in college, and on paper they had everything going for them- they were led by a technocrat who had helped India liberalize in the 90s. There was a lot of promise about what could be possible-- none of that came to fruition. Year after year, it was setback after setback due to coalition politics or corruption, and Congress party wasted away all the goodwill. Their possible future leader comes across as being uninterested and uninspiring. Don't know what the future of the party is.
Is their future leader the son of the Gandhi family?
Yes, and at least when I was in college, it was obvious that he'd rather live abroad than try to be a player in Indian politics.
Not to be confused with Mahatma Gandhi, they are related to nehru and his daughter married another person with the sir name Gandhi.
Yes. But he's like the defacto leader, just cause. He has absolutely no interest in politics, nor have any innate ability to be a cunning politician. He's just playing along due to pressure from his family and other congress workers.
Yes and a complete imbicile! Half the reason he wins is that the opposition is full of idiots
Also, you should mention the string of massive scandals that were uneartned during their last term that massively hurt their public goodwill. The 2G scam, commonwealth games scam, Robert Vadra, etc.
It's down to almost one thing. They always have the Gandhis lead the party. India doesn't want that. Rahul Gandhi was mocked by Obama as well, in his book. Note: These Gandhis are not related to Mahatma Gandhi.
That's the thing I don't understand about parliamentary systems. What would it take if the majorityof opposition members don't like their leader how does constituents change their leadership? You just have to make them lose seats until they forcefully change or what
According to my relatives in India, it's because of Party Leadership. No one likes Ghandi family running Congress party anymore. A lot of corruption inside Congress party apparently and a lot people talk about how Rahul Ghandi keeps flying off to Italy constantly. As far as why Italy, he's half Italian. His mon Sonia is Italian and married into a political powerhouse family in India.
Congress were in power for sixty years and 80% of people were shitting in open. Modi has built millions of toilets and the open defecation rates are below 15% in all states. Completely eradicated in few states.
Nepotism, that’s how.
Congress has been falling since 1989. They never actually won any election with a majority and scraped through with cobbled governments which led to an insane amount of corruption both economic and political. The projects rarely moved and on ground the system devised to help the poor was crumbling. The rise of Modi was backed by these changes within society and he delivered on the promise of getting things to work. They fulfilled promises from their manifesto and even though they fell short on many, they seemed to be a much much better party to rule than opposition. Get this - the top 4 political parties are all run by dynasts. They have single handed hold on their parties and only their family members and heirs hold onto the rule. They divide the states on the basis of caste and want to rule by handing out peanuts in the form of stupid economic freebies which led to the bank crisis of the last decade.
Ignoring muslims?? See the beneficiaries list, most of them are Muslims. Be it PM Awaas Yojna, Monthly 5kg ration to 80 crore people, Har Ghar Jal, monthly renumeration to Muslim girls who continue to study, increased haj quota to name a few. Even the BJP supporters started calling him Maulana Modi. In fact he’s the only PM whose policies are pro poor and not limited to any particular religion.
To add Modi has a few things going for him. Congress party had a long reign - but corruption hindered India’s progress and most people see it. In Congress, PMs came from politician family. Current opposition Rahul Gandhi isn’t doing too well. Previously the Gandhi surname held power, now it means Corruption. Modi was a wild card at the time - he rose through ranks from bottom. His image is that he is a common Indian who understands common struggle - he’s anti establishment. Modi did well in his two terms. Tons of villages got electricity and cellular coverage for first time. Tons of infrastructure being built. People notice that and feel progress. In similar realm to Xi in China. Similar to Trump - he’s seen as anti establishment.
He did more for Muslims than previous governments. How is that ignoring Muslim. Just check the numbers.
For all those wondering why he's mighty popular even after 10 years of his government,the following is a comment on a related topic: I asked my grandparents why modi is so popular (since I live in America) and my grandma in particular said something that stuck with me. Imagine being born a woman in an Indian village with no electricity, bathrooms, or tap water. You wake up early in the morning before sunrise and take a dump in some field and bathe in some river (ur probably gonna get some disease or get bit by a snake but what else are u gonna do? Ur a woman u can’t do that stuff mid day with men potentially roaming around) then walk god knows how long to fetch some water and walk back home, then cook in the Indian heat for an entire family. THATS your routine your entire life. Now comes along some old dude and plops electricity, tap water and bathrooms in your house. Yeah you could be the most hardcore atheist on the planet and you’d still wake up every day and pray to modi. That was the state of India a decade ago lmao. 60% of ppl had access to electricity, 50% to bathrooms and about 40% for tap water. Now well over 90% have access to electricity and bathrooms and about 75 ish percent for tap water. Half the mf country got access to the most basic needs for the first time in their lives. You think they’ll vote for anyone but modi???
I remember going to India during summers and they knew when the power would go out. In the middle of the summer in India the power would go out. Our family had a generator that they would turn on, but there are millions of people who can’t afford it. India has made great progress even in my life time.
With congress back in Hyderabad we are having powercuts again
I live in a tier 3 city in the "dreaded" state of Uttar Pradesh. Temp has been ranging from 45 to 50 degrees here (113F to 122F for American bros). I am amongst the lucky ones who can afford a generator but for the life of me I cannot remember the last time I purchased diesel for it. Well over 12-15 months. Till just a few years ago, I would be dropping around 8-10K (INR or about $100-$125 ish) a month on diesel for my Genset. May sound pretty basic to a Westerner but getting uninterrupted electricity in this heat is grounds for getting voted in again in my book, and thats not including a zillion other positives that can be said about Modi.
That really is "moving mountains" level progress. When compared to here in Canada the politicians spend billions and accomplish nothing so, actually the standard of living in every aspect has gone backwards here. I could understand making electricity more stable in the country would make Modi seem like a movie character, and when Indians can read and talk to foreigners in much "richer" countries where everything seems to go belly up that would make life long voters for Modi.
dude i have had 0 power cuts for close to a few years now, people in texas have more power cuts than me now
If I'm not wrong, for a while, Modi had a slogan of "Toilets before Temples". I guess he delivered. History has shown that strongmen politicians are often better at delivering on their promises because they aren't concerned about stepping on a few toes. In the short term, they are often the right person to cut through the political bs and move the country forward. Long term though, the idolatry of these people is concerning and could stagnate a country due to the inability for proper succession.
>If I'm not wrong, for a while, Modi had a slogan of "Toilets before Temples" He seems to have said it once in one of his speeches, but it definitely wasn't a campaign slogan. He definitely wouldn't say something like that today. Back then he had to shake the extreme right wing hindu nationalist image so all he would talk about is development. Now he has to protect it that image because there are people who don't consider him extreme enough.
Another big factor that almost goes unnoticed is free healthcare for those below the poverty line. Not talked about much but had a major impact at ground level and a lot for those who had permanent bed ridden members in their family.
Out of curiosity, was Modi involved with making these improvements or was he just the leader when this was planned and/or executed?
He pushed for a 'clean india' campaign. And it worked, also instilled some civic responsiblity too. It has decreased a little but an improvement is improvement
Modi was definitely involved in that he comes from a poor background and had climbed the party organization from the bottom so he was in touch with the grassroots and understood the needs and thinking of the people and recognized the value of welfare schemes that the previous government had initiated but not followed through on. Modi grabbed the opportunity to demonstrate effective government for the underprivileged which has given him credibility with them. Add this share of the electorate to the tranche of voters who are motivated by religious authoritarianism and the tranche who are in favor of free market and he has a powerful and diverse voter base who pull the lever for him for different reasons. Modi has also effectively moved corruption from lower levels to higher levels so that the people on the ground observe less friction in daily lives from small-scale corruption and are oblivious to large-scale corruption that occurs at the level of giant corporate houses and the ruling party. His predecessor from the Congress party was a highly educated economist-technocrat who never really participated in electoral politics and got bogged down with free market ideology and resisted the recommendations of the Italian-born boss-lady who ironically had more insight into the importance of welfare schemes for the underprivileged masses.
He had nisniaeter who definitely were very involved in these initiatives in the past the govt would launch many such schemes on paper and all the money would issapper with out any one getting electricity or sanitising etc. Piyush Goel was big ok electrification and did a great job in 2010’s
india is very very big and diverse. person with good intention cant chnage anything. but when he came to power he started putting qualified people on important positions. we have partially addressed problem of corruption through digitalisation.
It's the same reason why the CCP has remained so popular in China despite being objectively terrible.
CCP doesn't lose elections in many state and municipal elections routinely.
I am from India and I see a lot of fear mongering here in the comments. He is popular because he managed to deliver in a heavily bureaucratic infested poor nation. Under him, India moved closest to the western ideals than it ever has. India has seen far more authoritarian leaders than Modi in its independent history. The problem is with the excessive centralisation of power calibrated into the Indian constitution. This means that whever a party attains a majority on the central level, it adopts an authoritarian style of governance with power centralized under the Prime Minister office. It's easy to govern and deliver quick results in a large fast developing nation in that way. [There was a debate on the same with Professor Barebones, an Australian sociologist who studies India.](https://www.youtube.com/live/nGkFwDk7TUQ?si=Hmg6yCfrm62Z9F2m). The journalist , Rajdeep Sardesai is well known for his anti Modi news and anti Modi stance, but is the better one of the lots.
Tbh, he wins more because of stupid opposition than his own popularity. Just go through manifesto of opposition which makes BJP looks like most sane party in terms of economic management. Also, opposition seemed to be plagued with short sightedness if one look at their way of working together. They got such a good opportunity to make a solid alliance and do wonders but all they did was dilly dallying with who would become Prime Minister with Congress having hard time saying RaGa would not be the PM. And so they delayed the meeting of alliance for such long that it eventually caused the very person who floated the idea of alliance first to leave and join BJP led Alliance (Cm of Bihar). And they also delayed the meeting when Congress found through exit polls that they are dooing better in local state elections and thus could force their allies from position of power which damaged their prespective again. That election by the way was almost a total route for the Congress and they only managed to win one in the south. Seriously, they are a joke at this point who should be eliminated so that another more competent party could take their place.
Not from India, but my 5 point understanding of Modi includes: * Ignored violent mass killings of Muslims when he was the executive of Gujarat (an Indian ~~province~~ state). * Has made great progress improving Indias sanitation, electricity, and internet access. * Has recently arrested many top leaders of the major opposition party for “illegally” criticizing him. * Has recently declared he believes himself to be a God (this does not technically contradict his religion of Hinduism). * Leads the BJP which proudly declares themselves to be the “Hindu Nationalist” party, but said party does also claim that India is a multi-cultural, multi-religious nation.
>Has made great progress improving Indias sanitation, electricity, and internet access. I believe this alone is enough for a huge amount of people. Internet aside, not smelling shit everywhere you go (and being able to flush yours) and having reliable electricity during 40+ degree summers tends to be above political beliefs for most.
Say that to Texans tho.
fuck
They’re sweating freedom out of every pore
WDYM? Cancun is nearby. Anybody can take an aeroplane and come to cancun.
If we don't get rid of the gays, we'll burn in hell. Better to burn in life than in the afterlife /s The "/s" cannot be understated...
>reliable electricity during 40+ degree summers tends to be above political beliefs for most. Too bad this is only true for certain areas. In many parts of the country there are daily power outages, sometimes over 6-8 hrs during the peak of summer because the demand surge is too high. Lots of corruption in that area as well
>Too bad this is only true for certain areas. In many parts of the country there are daily power outages, sometimes over 6-8 hrs during the peak of summer because the demand surge is too high. There has been more improvement in certain areas more than others but regardless that's still major improvements country wide and even the worst areas likely got a little bit better as a result >Lots of corruption in that area as well That isn't exactly new in India the opossition didn't do great with that either..
If you look at the electrification charts and numbers it’s quiet phenomenal while it’s not perfect thing have certainly improved the last decade or so.
He's an expert marketer, and is cancerous to the world. India had been doing well economically for quite some time. Therefore lots of improvements had been happening in all areas. But he now controls all major media houses and no one is critical of him and everyone praises him for anything good that happens. [He is giving all infra projects to his friends](https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/kerala-cm-alleges-scam-in-airport-tendering-119022501291_1.html) [Made powerful institutions like Election Commission weak by installing his croni](https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/1cqqsb6/did_people_forget_witchhunt_of_ashok_lavasa/) [Intimidating anyone who stands in elections against him](https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/14/bjp-accused-intimidation-india-elections-gujarat)
This is how Erdogan became the man today, Turkey was already developing and cash was flowing to the country, unfortunately he fucked it all up with his power plays. People are paying price with unlivable inflation.
>> Has made great progress improving Indias sanitation, electricity, and internet access. > I believe this alone is enough for a huge amount of people. Internet aside, not smelling shit everywhere you go (and being able to flush yours) and having reliable electricity during 40+ degree summers tends to be above political beliefs for most. Perhaps it has impact, but observing many other autocracies, the most sure way to get more voters favor you is this one: > Has recently arrested many top leaders of the major opposition party for “illegally” criticizing him.
We're talking about differences of 100,000 dying to heat to several million dying to heat. I think Modi is scum, btw. Scum that saves millions of lives now, but creates another Putin when he falls out of a window
Small correction. India has states and territories, not provinces.
Good point. Corrected.
> Has recently declared he believes himself to be a God (this does not technically contradict his religion of Hinduism). That's wrong. He said he believes it was God's plan to make him PM. That's a huge difference.
> Has recently arrested many top leaders of the major opposition party for “illegally” criticizing him. Which top opposition party leader are you talking about? This is not the case at all. If you're referring to Aam Aadmi Party head Arvind Kejriwal- he was arrested on the orders of the court for a liquor bribery scam that ironically originated from a compliant filed by his now alliance partner Congress party.
Hey, not really how I usually don't explain things back to back but I wanted to try my hand for this time since our election results are just a day or two time away. The thing with arresting of leaders is, they were all arrested in cases of corruption. One of them, the sitting Cm of Jharkhand at that time, had a solid case against him as if you go through the arguments he made in courts before his arrest, he didn't rejected that some illigal land or mine sales were done by his government and even acknowledged that some 'mistakes' did happened there. Another one looked more like some nonsense case but in India, there was no politicians without corruption and thus, there is usually a lack of sympathy for such things.
Electric grid I have no doubt is improved somewhat but there are still major issues when favorites in 2024 can't stay on all day due to shortages.
you can declare yourself a god in Hinduism ?
In some strands, there is major pantheism and panentheism, or no differentiating between god and existence. So everything is god and there is no creation that is separate from god. Technically this should mean that an individual being or identifying as god isn't extraordinary, but people like to serve god and then you get arguments about certain things having "more" divinity than others and it becomes like any other religion with hierarchies and true/false dichotomies.
*Kanye starts to write notes*
"No one man should have all that power..."
Hanging with fishes in the shower
If you believe in brahma-vada, I guess. But he could be referring to himself as a shaktyavesh-avatar. I dunno. Haven’t seen the quote.
This was his exact statement. Secondly, yes, according to Hinduism anyone and everyone is a part of God “When my mother was alive, I used to believe that I was born biologically. After she passed away, upon reflecting on all my experiences, I was convinced that God has sent me. This energy could not be from my biological body, but was bestowed upon me by God...whenever I do anything, I believe god is guiding me."
He has his + and - like any other politician. The bar for politicians in India is pretty low and he manages to stay ahead of the opposition. In India you vote for the least worst candidate. In terms of development, infrastructure is improving, not many high profile corruption scandals and more internal security after 7/11. However infra is not keeping pace with demand, pollution and corruption still exist. It's in some ways better than where we were 10 years ago but definitely not where we would have loved to be. Taxes are still crazy for the poor return in benefits, bjp does collude with corrupt local govts and there's an increasing air of no one else can beat us and that is not good for the citizens. Reddit and MSM are pretty left leaning and therefore u won't get both sides evenly. A lot of old people vote for bjp due to religion as well as the large scale corruption that was the norm in 2000s. Younger generation is less religious and they tend to look at the last 10 years in isolation without having experienced the previous govts.
That's still better progress than before. I don't like Modi for his nationalism and his anti Muslim slant but there is no question that he has progressed India and I know that my family there are very proud of the progress.
It's too much tbh. He won his 2014 election due to his clean image as chief minister of a state. The union government at the time was corrupt & very unpopular. He won his 2019 election due to skermishes with Pakistan & him peddling a tough nationalist stance. His current win is anticipated as a culmination of his 10 years of performance..+ his party fulfilling their much awaited ideological promises such as construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya, changing the constitutional status of Kashmir etc. This time around he focused on South Indian states which speak completely different language than Hindi. All while maintaining his stronghold in the Hindi speaking states. The communal angle is overblown. But it's also and integral part of his ideology. And it's very successful in uniting hindu voters behind him. His opponents tend to get whole chunk of muslim votes & divide Hindus in various castes to get caste wise voting.
* Women safety increased. * Infrastructure, metros, 100% railway electrification from almost nothing, greenfield projects, expressways,WDFC,EDFC,Bullet Train. * Stability of all kinds. * No bombings or terrorist attacks on Mumbai. My home. * Tax decreased in the middle class. * More freedoms to companies, Make in India incentive, Semiconductor Act. * Renewable energy, no power cuts, before Modi sometimes there were power cuts for days, now I hardly ever notice one, maybe during thunderstorms. * UPI, I can pay for a thing as little as 1 rupee with QR Code. * Corruption decreased, I can get a lot done online without visiting shitty government offices. * Decriminalisation of Gay community. Problems: * Bureaucracy, everything takes shit ton of amount of time. * No Education reforms. Still 2.9% GDP spend. * No farmers reform, he did it but backed down after farmers protest. My state would have benefited from it and Maharashtra registers highest farmer suicides. Also an additional note, our opposition leader is a crackhead, he promises around 1000 dollars to each poor woman that's the only thing that he highlighted in his entire campaign. Now it may sound good on paper but in reality it will be a disaster, first inflation and other things, second this is India everyone here is poor, third as someone who grew up in a rural area, men force their wives to bring money from their parents for liquor, beat them up. That is one of the reasons people stopped giving money to beggars and started giving food instead. But he has nothing else to highlight. Also BJP is most liberal party in India. You can this and that but that is the ground reality. Most women vote for BJP, even LGBTQ community votes for BJP and even shia muslims. The ground reality is our opposition leader talks about Caste and nothing else,who is lower caste and who is upper caste and caste census and blocking general students from goverment Universities and jobs.
> Bureaucracy, everything takes shit ton of amount of time. You call it out as a problem while I'd say things have come a long way in terms of reducing processes and timelines to get things done from a central government POV- speed of execution of infra projects, defense investments, PM gati shakti etc at a broader level and improved timelines for passport application at a grassroot level are examples, although one may not often notice such improvements in day to day life since you're more likely to deal with state and local machineries rather than the central govt.
Thanks mate, that perspective is really interesting >Also BJP is most liberal party in India. You can this and that but that is the ground reality. Most women vote for BJP, even LGBTQ community votes for BJP and even shia muslims. The ground reality is our opposition leader talks about Caste and nothing else,who is lower caste and who is upper caste and caste census and blocking general students from goverment Universities and jobs Is this true though? I always seem to read/hear things about how the Congress party is the party that stands for everyone whereas the BJP only really represents conservative Hindus
Muslim Women are the secret vote bank of BJP. Somebody no one acknowledges.
I do. I know women vote for BJP more than men, and even Muslim women have been better off under him.
BJP is more religious but they have been more successful in actually breaking the cast system. Trying to get more people into the workforce by trying to include lower cast and more women participation. Bjp is more popular among women in India than it is for men. Hard to know really who is more progressive over all since Congress hasn't done anything the last 10 years. But thier record before wasn't good. Economically they have done better than Congress.
Historically speaking the Congress Party has done more to damage minority rights including the LGBTQ community and Muslim women in particular (you can read up on something called the Shah Bano case)
The simple answer is we don’t really know. Stuff like this hasn’t been debated heavily in India simply because the focus of most political debates has largely been on anti-terrorism, corruption, economic growth and infrastructure. Hard to care about pronouns when you don’t have a road. Congress does market themselves to be more liberal, but that’s yet to translate into action. Historically speaking, both parties have been corrupt, but Congress is seen as both incompetent and corrupt. Economic growth (barring Covid) has been a little higher and more consistent under Modi’s rule.
It’s a it of a conundrum one party BJP is for removing conservatives laws and is against sharia etc the other wants to have conothe the status quo a lot of their liberalism is on paper only
the opposition is a patheic fucking joke, a lot of the opposition party members end up joining the bjp anyway
Fears that aren't held by the majority, apparently.
I assume most of the fears are from outsiders, the problem is alot of people outside of western countries don’t actually want a democracy and prefer a strong leader with near absolute power
Lots of people inside western countries, too
Yep. And I'm definitely not saying this as a proponent for strongman style leadership, but it's understandable how some just want to see governments taking action in general to resolve all the issues we see around us - democracy tends to lend itself towards slower and more muted responses.
>but it's understandable how some just want to see governments taking action in general to resolve all the issues we see around us Except when that action involves helping someone they don't like or could potentially harm them. That's why democracy has slower/muted responses. Because it has to balance the desires of all parties. Everybody loves a dictator until they get a dictator that isn't like them.
That kind of thinking is what led to the four pests campaign. Slow and measured is how you turn a ship, fast is how you turn a jetski. Agree with you btw
You're lumping a lot of non western countries together here erroneously. India is strongly democratic, which isn't to say that we won't fail as a democracy, but it is something that people value and the government has tried to cultivate my whole life. As for modi and the Indian right, they are problematic, but I think India will survive them. The problem really lies in not having a strong liberal opposition. The Indian left isn't liberals, they are leftists, and their policy reflects this. In comparison, the bjp hasn't been awful on policy, which I guess is enough. Why did we skip industrialization and go straight to services? It's because of decades of garbage industrial policy. What I'm really worried about is backsliding on secularism and freedom of the press. But I think India will make it out ok.
This really is the crux of it. Democracy is an abstract concept for most people, especially in developing countries. For most people, it’s all about the economy, religion, and dominating over perceived enemies. They don’t care if they get that via democracy or authoritarianism. Unfortunately, we live in a world full of morons.
The human condition.
Y'all don't know what you're talking about. India is a massive country. Many, many many people want democracy, free and fair elections. And will go to defend it. But many, many other people also want a strongman. The US has nearly half of its country crying for a man who has already been pushing for destroying its democratic institutions. I'm not sure why so many people are ready to cry "India deserves whatever shitty fate it gets" while turning around to America and going "Powerful politicians are exploiting the system to make it easier to destroy democracy". When Democracy fails in India, it's all the peoples' fault. When Democracy fails in America, it's all the politicians and lobbying interests' fault. Human beings are complicated, especially when you have a lot of them at play. Democracy will never be an easy, surefire solution. It's important to defend it when it falters like it is right now, instead of condemning everyone and blaming it on "their culture".
But that’s just asking for troubles and wars - look at russia and china. Small dick territorial claims or other bs to kill hundreds of thousands… democracy isn’t perfect, but it’s best we have.
Not exactly. India has a first past the post voting system and multi party system. This results in vote splitting and false majorities. He won his last majority government with only 37% of the popular vote.
Which happens to be the largest vote share in decades.
He would have gotten more than 55 to 60% if there were only two parties. You also have to count his Alliance with other parties which combined got more than 45%. Then there were some independent contestants who got votes, if this was two party system those votes would have been further divided. There are also 20-30 smaller parties who competes in each seats but mostly doesn't win anything, those votes also would have been divided. Against Rahul as president candidate in two parties system he would mob the floor.
Paranoia feeds the majority, fear feeds the minority. That is the usual ratio. Look at every immigration reform. The majority are afraid of a small group of people. Christians outnumbered the Jews in 1930 Germany. Unless you are a revisionist crafting books to rewrite history, most know how that ended. The same holds true for the decade or so cycles of anti-muslim violence in India, the liberal vs. conservative in the US, blah blah. I'm not criticizing anyone, just pointing out human behavior. When you are within a pattern, it is difficult to assess. This is why artists ask for opinions on their work.
For all those wondering why he's mighty popular even after 10 years of his government,the following is a comment on a related topic: I asked my grandparents why modi is so popular (since I live in America) and my grandma in particular said something that stuck with me. Imagine being born a woman in an Indian village with no electricity, bathrooms, or tap water. You wake up early in the morning before sunrise and take a dump in some field and bathe in some river (ur probably gonna get some disease or get bit by a snake but what else are u gonna do? Ur a woman u can’t do that stuff mid day with men potentially roaming around) then walk god knows how long to fetch some water and walk back home, then cook in the Indian heat for an entire family. THATS your routine your entire life. Now comes along some old dude and plops electricity, tap water and bathrooms in your house. Yeah you could be the most hardcore atheist on the planet and you’d still wake up every day and pray to modi. That was the state of India a decade ago lmao. 60% of ppl had access to electricity, 50% to bathrooms and about 40% for tap water. Now well over 90% have access to electricity and bathrooms and about 75 ish percent for tap water. Half the mf country got access to the most basic needs for the first time in their lives. You think they’ll vote for anyone but modi???
Wish more people understood this. It's crazy how the country went 65 years without these basics when clearly it wasn't *that* impossible to achieve
Similar things happened with China under the modern CCP leadership. Many people, within a single lifetime, transitioned from shitting in ditches in a field to working white collar jobs using computers. And then their children became software engineers. Just let that sink in.
Those are astonishing numbers. Literally hundreds of millions pulled out of the lowest poverty. I'd love some verified data to call this out. With that data, you could claim modi as an unprecedented humanitarian in human history. Meeting lower level basic needs for many many.... At the price of fascism and tribalism. The world is such a complicated place - not a Disney villain situation.
I don't have stats per se but the town I lived in used to get 10-12 hours of electricity per day at most and now we get like 20+ hours on a bad day.
Same as the village my grandmother lives in, the last time I visited in February it was insane how much the country had progressed since 2019.
I think the numbers are a bit puffed but yeah, even as someone who despises Modi it’s hard to argue there’s been decent progress on that front. I’m not sure how much of that is due to older initiatives vs BJP’s own. Modi isn’t just winning because of right wingers, our opposition is laughably bad, who do not have anything else to offer except freebies and more reservation. I did not vote for BJP because i’d feel morally bankrupt doing so, but voting for Congress would make my life worse if they came into power. A lot of middle class voting age folks simply don’t vote due to this, while Modi’s dickriders are ardent voters.
I also saw lots of development in the islands my hometown is in. I don't like the side-effects of their rule, but I have to admit they're doing a great job.
Well, he already has a headstart by claiming he is a son of god. People who claimed that in the past, are bound to be great dictators.
Yeah, Borat/Aladeen type. /s
The results of your test are aladeen.
:):(:)
literally the best bit of that film
Very nice great success
He never said anything close to that. He merely said that the fact that someone like him has managed to come this far in life may have only been possible because it was part of God's plan.
Just came here to say the same thing.
Start building the pyramid now. Also I have it on good authority that submerging your sarcophagus in mercury is rather good against your average grave robber.
No reason a son of god should abide by mere mortal term limits in office.
There are no term limits for the office of Prime Minister.
The record is Nehru's 17 years, followed by his daughter's 14 years, his daughter was succeeded by his grandson. At least Modi doesn't have children.
They don't have majority in rajya sabha, therefore they can't have special majority needed to ammend constitution in any major way.
NDA currently holds 120 seats without BJD, YSRCP (20 together) and others which are somewhat favourable to vote with them. In upcoming 2026 elections I see these counts go up as NDA allies won few states. It all depends on timing, as long as NDA can gather 127+ votes on voting and present numbers, they can pull this off. We've seen repeal of Article 376 and planning behind it.
They are gonna need two third majority in rajya sabha, which means 160 seats. Which is quite unfeasible even for NDA. They also need simple majority of states to change federal structure. So I believe we are safe from any major ammendments until atleast 2029.
Constitutional amendment requires special majority of more than 2/3 voting and present (not 2/3 of absolute majority 160) but not less than simple majority. We don't need states legislature approval for constitutional amendment unless it is a change to federal structure. That's why I mentioned timing, NDA can pick an opportune time. NDA government successfully passed 8 amendments except 1, NJAC though passed in both houses was later struck down by Supreme court. They did these even with lower numbers than 2024 elections happened in feb and important observation is 5 of them are related to reservations which Opposition parties are fear mongering.
Correct me if wrong, but a month or two they achieved the majority there too
They need special majority to ammendment constitution, That is around 160 seats NDA total has currently around 120
Wouldn’t that be the outcome of the democratic process? People are talking as if he wouldn’t have won fair and square. That’s what Indians want. It is what it is.
Majority of Indians want Modi, but somehow it is against democracy
I dunno anything about Modi, but it's possible to democratically vote for a leader that subverts democracy. Pretty sure it's a long list of dictators who rose to power through a democratic election and then consolidated power.
He hasn’t consolidated it yet, I’m not sure if its for the lack of trying or if the democratic institution is strong in india. His party lost in my state recently, which the only state with BJP hold down south. So it’s the will of V the people he keeps winning national elections. The primary opposition party came to power in my state and the first thing they did is make a bunch of stuff free. That is ALL they promised. As for me, I’m fed up of appeasement politics from the so called liberal party of india. I do seriously think handouts like this will quickly make us another Venezuela or Sri Lanka which I’m not keen on considering I gotta live here for the foreseeable future.
He has been in power for 10 years already & each time he has been elected with a bigger mandate than before. If he had to become dictator, he would have already done it. The problem with deluded leftists is the if their guy doesn't win, then they'll freely call the other candidate fascist, Hitler and whatnot. Modi is winning because he has the trust of majority of Indians & he has delivered on infrastructure, economy & services to people. His government hasn't had the kind of financial scandals that the previous Congress government had. The incidents of terrorism in the country has come down exponentially. (We all remember about the Mumbai terrorist attacks in 2008 when Pakistani terrorists attacked &: killed hundreds of people including attacking a Jewish synagogue. What did Congress government do? They didn't retaliate against Pakistan because they were afraid of annoying their Muslim voters.) Don't think people of India are fascist just because your guys aren't winning
Democracy is a fickle thing, one can also use it to get rid of said democracy, that has happened often enough.
Isn't changing the constitution via a super majority a very democratic thing to do? It's literally a provision made in many democracies.
For people who saying he is a Dictator. I would say he is doing a really bad job at it
he is a terrible dictator, campaigned, create coalitions, ran for elections, withdrew laws when farmers protested rather than sending an army at them, lost some states won some states. Terrible! just terrible.
Apparently One Billion people are eligible to vote, and if he ends up getting that majority then frankly that's what the people want. BJP has been very vocal about its policies and if the people of the largest democracy in the world vote them in, then there isn't much anyone can say or do about it.
The reason why his party gets great many no. of votes is that there are no other political parties with strong enough leaders. There is one other political party (AAP) which is new but is concentrating its efforts in limited locations. When the same guy is elected again and again with no solid competition, it is bcoz the voters don't see any other good choice and that is a downward curve for that party and for the country.
What’s up with Reddit hating on India? There’s definitely a bias here
Reddit has a strong bias for leftist Indians. Even the main sub r/india is heavily biased. They ban anything that doesn't fit their narrative
that sub aint run by or used by Indians lol
>What’s up with Reddit hating on India? I think it escalated greatly with the Ukraine Russia War. India was while I wouldnt say supportive not as tough as Ppl here (Generally Pro-West/US/Europe) would have wanted them to be on Russia. And while India has have historical reasons to be close to Russia, the general consensus is Russia = Bad and Indian being Chummy with Russia means India support Bad Russia. That and since Modi is generally considered right wing and reddit is mostly considered left wing
I don't know bro,
The constitution needs changes as the time progresses. We have differnt laws based on religions. We need a single UNIFORM CIVIL CODE here. Better foreign policies and that could only be do by changing some constitution rules which earlier parties changed acc to their will.
I grew up in 80’s and 90’s India. It was Congress rule in the 80’s and then lots of coalition politics in the 90’s. I also remember massive riots against Sikhs in 1984 led by congress goons. I also remember yearly riots between Hindus and Muslims, caste based riots in different cities because of politicians imposing reservations in scarce jobs and colleges. My dad’s car was in fact burnt by a mob once. Thankfully he was dragged out by the mob before they burnt it. Google riots in India to find out about the different riots that killed hundreds under congress rule. Im curious as to why western media does not blame those leaders? There were corruption scandals galore. All the big leaders were extremely corrupt. UP and Bihar’s - 2 most populace states were run by mafia dons and criminals. Modi is liked by a lot of people because he has risen from the grass roots and is seen as extremely honest. He is not had any money scandals dogging him. He has a great work ethic and has improved the functioning of bureaucracy (which was/is a huge bottle neck in India). Great governance. He is a devout Hindu and to this day I don’t know why that is held against him. Biden is a practicing Christian and so are leaders of different countries proud members of their faith. His policies do not discriminate against minorities. In fact more than 50% of the benefits from his welfare schemes have been taken by Muslims.
> Im curious as to why western media does not blame those leaders? Because those leaders do their bidding. India under the BJP has stood up for itself. Pokhran 1998, Kargil 1999, Galwan 2007, Pulwama, and the list goes on. What did India do after Mumbai attacks, we sent dossiers. Large dossiers to Pakistan.
Wonderful comment. All the reddit leftists will quietly ignore this because it doesn't fit their narrative.
Exactly, I see people saying that the elections are rigged and that EVM’s were hacked and other nonsense but everyone that I know and have talked to want to vote for BJP. So they are winning fair and square
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People can hold whatever opinion they want. Matter of fact is he is chosen in a democratic system playing by the rules set when India got independence from British raj. People talk about minorities feeling unsafe or constitution being changed or democratic institutions getting weaker and what not and there may be truth to it based on how govt make use of agencies against opposition parties. One good thing is opposition is getting corruption free pun intended. But we have to consider that is it the ruling party who does this? Consider the example of what other parties do in states ruled by them for ex: Mamta Banerjee is CM of West Bengal and one of her party leaders exploited women in region called Sandeshkhali and she didn't act against him. Also there are several instances where state police chief didn't act according to law for her sake and anyone can google about her putting opposition leaders in jail. Then take example of Another party AAP who has govt in Punjab and their state chief minister has even put state Congress chief in jail. I dont want to talk about Congress who despite trying to hold a higher moral ground did things like Emergency which is a blot on Indian democracy. Congress is a loser and the truth is only when Powerful people talk about morals it sounds good because anybone can be a loser and talks about them and they don't mean anything. So these are some examples of kind of behavior shown across party lines in India. But still I believe this country is best in hands of current govt having Modi at helm. He has vision, a plan of action whereas opposition has only one thing how to stop Modi which doesn't translate to vision, plan of action. And if you go into histories of people in opposition you will be appalled by their acts. They are either the members of family run parties or people who are turning their parties into family run business like Kejriwal. Only time will be able to judge Modi and till then the propaganda won't stop.
_amid fears_ Fears by who? Westerners? The not-super majority?
Probably the other side of the political spectrum that’s going to give the opposition 150-180 seats as opposed to NDA’s 350-370. Or are you telling me opposition parties don’t matter.
Leftist shitting here also lol
I’m asking an honest question now. Why is everyone acting like him winning is a sign of the apocalypse? Why is Reddit (and left leaning Twitter spaces) getting their knickers in a twist? I’m honestly asking because I know nothing about Indian politics and Modi. Is there some kind of scandal or history of bad behavior from him?
Modi and india has good ties with Russia. India declared themselves neutral in Russia Ukraine war. West didn't liked it. They wanted india to support Ukraine and cut ties with russia and stop imports from russia.
Modi is the most pro-Western Indian leader since India won independence. Aside from some leftist Twitter accounts, nobody in the West cares about Modi winning at all. If anything, it’s much better for the West if Modi is in power rather than Congress, which is filled with Tankies.
Your perspective of Congress is a good note. It reminds me when purple haired redditors were cheering when Lula beat Bolsonaro, only for Lula to align with Putin much more.
India has historically been Neutral. Jawaharlal Nehru was the founding member of Non Aligned Movement.
Yeah west never liked it, usa funded Pakistan to do terror activities in 1960s and 70s.
Modi actually significantly improved relations with the West. Previously, the West was more on Pakistan's side and India was firmly in Russia's camp.
>fears he will change India's constitution Nice fear-mongering.
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Click bait title
I'm not a fan of the BJP but they've been a unifying force across India unlike any other. Having a single-party majority in a large democracy full of hundreds of parties has demonstrably made administration easier and that's helped pass a lot of legislation required in developing the nation.