#BJP 2024

[uttarakhandwalanegi]

10 साल में क्या किया Narendra Modi Ji ने उत्तराखंड के लिए 

साल 2019 के लोकसभा चुनाव में bharatiya janata party ने सभी पांचों सीटों पर कब्जा जमाया था। narendra modi लहर में BJP को 60.7 प्रतिशत वोट मिले जो वर्ष 2014 के मुकाबले पांच प्रतिशत अधिक थे। इन 10 साल में मोदी जी ने उत्तराखंड के लोगों के लिए क्या क्या किया है! इस वीडियो के माध्यम से जान सकते है!

[reasonsforhope]

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is, by some measures, the most popular leader in the world. Prior to the 2024 election, his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held an outright majority in the Lok Sabha (India’s Parliament) — one that was widely projected to grow after the vote count. The party regularly boasted that it would win 400 Lok Sabha seats, easily enough to amend India’s constitution along the party's preferred Hindu nationalist lines.

But when the results were announced on Tuesday, the BJP held just 240 seats. They not only underperformed expectations, they actually lost their parliamentary majority. While Modi will remain prime minister, he will do so at the helm of a coalition government — meaning that he will depend on other parties to stay in office, making it harder to continue his ongoing assault on Indian democracy.

So what happened? Why did Indian voters deal a devastating blow to a prime minister who, by all measures, they mostly seem to like?

India is a massive country — the most populous in the world — and one of the most diverse, making its internal politics exceedingly complicated. A definitive assessment of the election would require granular data on voter breakdown across caste, class, linguistic, religious, age, and gender divides. At present, those numbers don’t exist in sufficient detail. 

But after looking at the information that is available and speaking with several leading experts on Indian politics, there are at least three conclusions that I’m comfortable drawing.

First, voters punished Modi for putting his Hindu nationalist agenda ahead of fixing India’s unequal economy. Second, Indian voters had some real concerns about the decline of liberal democracy under BJP rule. Third, the opposition parties waged a smart campaign that took advantage of Modi’s vulnerabilities on the economy and democracy.

Understanding these factors isn’t just important for Indians. The country’s election has some universal lessons for how to beat a would-be authoritarian — ones that Americans especially might want to heed heading into its election in November.

-via Vox, June 7, 2024. Article continues below.

A new (and unequal) economy

Modi’s biggest and most surprising losses came in India’s two most populous states: Uttar Pradesh in the north and Maharashtra in the west. Both states had previously been BJP strongholds — places where the party’s core tactic of pitting the Hindu majority against the Muslim minority had seemingly cemented Hindu support for Modi and his allies.

One prominent Indian analyst, Yogendra Yadav, saw the cracks in advance. Swimming against the tide of Indian media, he correctly predicted that the BJP would fall short of a governing majority.

Traveling through the country, but especially rural Uttar Pradesh, he prophesied “the return of normal politics”: that Indian voters were no longer held spellbound by Modi’s charismatic nationalist appeals and were instead starting to worry about the way politics was affecting their lives.

Yadav’s conclusions derived in no small part from hearing voters’ concerns about the economy. The issue wasn’t GDP growth — India’s is the fastest-growing economy in the world — but rather the distribution of growth’s fruits. While some of Modi’s top allies struck it rich, many ordinary Indians suffered. Nearly half of all Indians between 20 and 24 are unemployed; Indian farmers have repeatedly protested Modi policies that they felt hurt their livelihoods.

“Everyone was talking about price rise, unemployment, the state of public services, the plight of farmers, [and] the struggles of labor,” Yadav wrote...

“We know for sure that Modi’s strongman image and brassy self-confidence were not as popular with voters as the BJP assumed,” says Sadanand Dhume, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who studies India. 

The lesson here isn’t that the pocketbook concerns trump identity-based appeals everywhere; recent evidence in wealthier democracies suggests the opposite is true. Rather, it’s that even entrenched reputations of populist leaders are not unshakeable. When they make errors, even some time ago, it’s possible to get voters to remember these mistakes and prioritize them over whatever culture war the populist is peddling at the moment.

Liberalism strikes back

The Indian constitution is a liberal document: It guarantees equality of all citizens and enshrines measures designed to enshrine said equality into law. The signature goal of Modi’s time in power has been to rip this liberal edifice down and replace it with a Hindu nationalist model that pushes non-Hindus to the social margins. In pursuit of this agenda, the BJP has concentrated power in Modi’s hands and undermined key pillars of Indian democracy (like a free press and independent judiciary).

Prior to the election, there was a sense that Indian voters either didn’t much care about the assault on liberal democracy or mostly agreed with it. But the BJP’s surprising underperformance suggests otherwise.

The Hindu, a leading Indian newspaper, published an essential post-election data analysis breaking down what we know about the results. One of the more striking findings is that the opposition parties surged in parliamentary seats reserved for members of “scheduled castes” — the legal term for Dalits, the lowest caste grouping in the Hindu hierarchy.

Caste has long been an essential cleavage in Indian politics, with Dalits typically favoring the left-wing Congress party over the BJP (long seen as an upper-caste party). Under Modi, the BJP had seemingly tamped down on the salience of class by elevating all Hindus — including Dalits — over Muslims. Yet now it’s looking like Dalits were flocking back to Congress and its allies. Why?

According to experts, Dalit voters feared the consequences of a BJP landslide. If Modi’s party achieved its 400-seat target, they’d have more than enough votes to amend India’s constitution. Since the constitution contains several protections designed to promote Dalit equality — including a first-in-the-world affirmative action system — that seemed like a serious threat to the community. It seems, at least based on preliminary data, that they voted accordingly.

The Dalit vote is but one example of the ways in which Modi’s brazen willingness to assail Indian institutions likely alienated voters.

Uttar Pradesh (UP), India’s largest and most electorally important state, was the site of a major BJP anti-Muslim campaign. It unofficially kicked off its campaign in the UP city of Ayodhya earlier this year, during a ceremony celebrating one of Modi’s crowning achievements: the construction of a Hindu temple on the site of a former mosque that had been torn down by Hindu nationalists in 1992. 

Yet not only did the BJP lose UP, it specifically lost the constituency — the city of Faizabad — in which the Ayodhya temple is located. It’s as direct an electoral rebuke to BJP ideology as one can imagine.

In Maharashtra, the second largest state, the BJP made a tactical alliance with a local politician, Ajit Pawar, facing serious corruption charges. Voters seemingly punished Modi’s party for turning a blind eye to Pawar’s offenses against the public trust. Across the country, Muslim voters turned out for the opposition to defend their rights against Modi’s attacks.

The global lesson here is clear: Even popular authoritarians can overreach.

By turning “400 seats” into a campaign slogan, an all-but-open signal that he intended to remake the Indian state in his illiberal image, Modi practically rang an alarm bell for constituencies worried about the consequences. So they turned out to stop him en masse.

The BJP’s electoral underperformance is, in no small part, the direct result of their leader’s zealotry going too far.

Return of the Gandhis? 

Of course, Modi’s mistakes might not have mattered had his rivals failed to capitalize. The Indian opposition, however, was far more effective than most observers anticipated.

Perhaps most importantly, the many opposition parties coordinated with each other. Forming a united bloc called INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance), they worked to make sure they weren’t stealing votes from each other in critical constituencies, positioning INDIA coalition candidates to win straight fights against BJP rivals.

The leading party in the opposition bloc — Congress — was also more put together than people thought. Its most prominent leader, Rahul Gandhi, was widely dismissed as a dilettante nepo baby: a pale imitation of his father Rajiv and grandmother Indira, both former Congress prime ministers. Now his critics are rethinking things.

“I owe Rahul Gandhi an apology because I seriously underestimated him,” says Manjari Miller, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Miller singled out Gandhi’s yatras (marches) across India as a particularly canny tactic. These physically grueling voyages across the length and breadth of India showed that he wasn’t just a privileged son of Indian political royalty, but a politician willing to take risks and meet ordinary Indians where they were. During the yatras, he would meet directly with voters from marginalized groups and rail against Modi’s politics of hate.

“The persona he’s developed — as somebody kind, caring, inclusive, [and] resolute in the face of bullying — has really worked and captured the imagination of younger India,” says Suryanarayan. “If you’ve spent any time on Instagram Reels, [you’ll see] an entire generation now waking up to Rahul Gandhi’s very appealing videos.”

This, too, has a lesson for the rest of the world: Tactical innovation from the opposition matters even in an unfair electoral context.

There is no doubt that, in the past 10 years, the BJP stacked the political deck against its opponents. They consolidated control over large chunks of the national media, changed campaign finance law to favor themselves, suborned the famously independent Indian Electoral Commission, and even intimidated the Supreme Court into letting them get away with it. 

The opposition, though, managed to find ways to compete even under unfair circumstances. Strategic coordination between them helped consolidate resources and ameliorate the BJP cash advantage. Direct voter outreach like the yatra helped circumvent BJP dominance in the national media.

To be clear, the opposition still did not win a majority. Modi will have a third term in office, likely thanks in large part to the ways he rigged the system in his favor.

Yet there is no doubt that the opposition deserves to celebrate. Modi’s power has been constrained and the myth of his invincibility wounded, perhaps mortally. Indian voters, like those in Brazil and Poland before them, have dealt a major blow to their homegrown authoritarian faction.

And that is something worth celebrating.

-via Vox, June 7, 2024.

[maintohthakgayibhaishaab]

[kuch-toh-garbad-hai-daya]

"caste politics won in ayodhya"

stfu and fuck you.

Do not throw around words, not when people can throw it back at you, that most of the urban city seats won by BJP are from the votes of upper caste Hindus.

but I won't go around saying that, because you don't get to decide who votes for who.

Do you believe that a temple is enough to fulfill people's livelihood?

Do not claim to know the condition and needs of Ayodhya better than the people of Ayodhya.

[that-was-a-bit-stupid-of-you]

okay okay but plan b. what if we kill modi

[someoneintheshadow456]

Idk why everyone is saying BJP lost (even though they REALLY dropped the ball this time) when the results literally say that BJP won, just not by a landslide. It shows that Congress is so bad that even when BJP drops the ball this hard they STILL can’t beat them.

The left is literally being this meme right now:

[bipdf]

[swanirbhar]

This is a very funny election

1) BJP is celebrating because they are forming Government.

2) Congress is celebrating because they are crossing 100 seats

3) SP, RJD are celebrating because they got their support back

4) NCP-SP and SS- UBT happy because they showed all that they are boss.

5) TMC is happy because they saved their party from failing

6) Citizens are happy that the whichever Party they are following are happy.

Never before seen Congress and BJP both celebrating wins together in their Head quarters😂😂

And Most Importantly......Election Commission is Celebrating.....that Nobody is putting allegations of EVM Manipulations now😀😀😀

Issi Ko Toh Kehte Hain.....Sabka Saath.....Sabka Vikaas😂😂

[timetravellingkitty]

wrt I don't know how to explain to people that our defeat feels like a victory

yeah that's pretty much it

[dilemmism]

me all day yesterday (metaphorically, i do not have a television) instead of studying for my finalest ever exam 😂

[fishyyyyy99]

Source:

https://x.com/sardesairajdeep/status/1782278920395731283?t=HfGthM7SQpssCtQgE4Vixg&s=09

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Hannah Ellis-Petersen at The Guardian:

Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party has lost its parliamentary majority, dealing an unexpected blow to the prime minister and forcing him to negotiate with coalition partners in order to return to power. With all votes counted early on Wednesday morning, it was clear that the landslide for the BJP predicted in polls had not materialised and instead there had been a pushback against the strongman prime minister and his Hindu nationalist politics in swathes of the country. The party lost 62 seats, bringing its total down to 240, below the 272 required for a parliamentary majority. It is the first time since Modi was elected in 2014 that the BJP has not won a clear majority on its own. Nonetheless, together with its political allies, known as the national democratic alliance (NDA), its win amounts to about 292 seats, which is enough to form a majority government to rule for the next five years and return Modi to office for a third term.

Meanwhile, the opposition alliance, which goes by the acronym INDIA, far outperformed expectations, collectively winning more than 230 seats. The alliance, formed of more than 20 national and regional opposition parties, had come together for the first time in this election with the aim of defeating Modi.

Incumbent Indian PM Narendra Modi and his right-wing BJP won the most seats, but not enough to gain a majority on its own in the recent election in India. Modi is likely to remain PM, as his coalition partners National Democratic Alliance are likely to cobble a majority.

[maintohthakgayibhaishaab]

[kuch-toh-garbad-hai-daya]

oh my god I did not just see a post where op said that if Ram mandir couldn't unite the Hindus what even could and that we deserve to be enslaved because BJP lost ayodhya-

how can someone be so blind? so far off from reality? First of all, is the right wing finally accepting that Ram mandir was a political move?

Can't you see? Hindus are united. They are united on poverty, unemployment, their fucking LIVELIHOODS. Do not shame the voters of Ayodhya for voting for their own good.

[curiosity-kills-literally]

So I was scrolling through youtube and found a video from our dearest PM's channel, and I thought, hey lets what the old fellow has to say about all the ways he's fucked up the country-

and BOY, was it depressing

Ummmm.... Excuse me Mr. Modi, but ELECTORAL BONDS????

Yes, and they are SO safe under the leadership of a party that supports convicted rapists

Oh yes!!, firing pellets and raining tear gas over peacefully protesting farmers is not neglect. HELL YES ITS NOT NEGLECT, it's TERRORISING!!

YES, and we pay that debt by ignoring demands linked with their SURVIVAL after WE made them promises because oh, that would inconvenience our rich friends, and for those of you who dont know, because biased media, yk, LADAKH!!

VOTE BANK POLITICS!!!, REALLY?? what about Ram Mandir??

YES!!!, while our fellow party members talk about CHANGING the constitution with a HEAVY majority

The complete title is:

Electoral Bonds in a true sense has imparted a greater sense of transparency in political funding:PM

BRO??

what are you talking about. You did all you could to hide it. SC forced SBI to release data. And if you really wanted transparency, you should have let the media do its job and cover the full extent of damage done to the country and the way its interests were ignored in favour of your bffs.

Also, ever occur to you that there wouldn't have been a money trail in the first place if there was no electoral bonds??

So I can go on and on, but you get the point. YOU DO RIGHT??

also I want to mention that I do not support the TMC, it has it's faults. BUT MODI IS DEFINITELY NOT THE PERSON TO TALK

[blueberrycasanova]

being a better person because of past trauma obviously doesn’t apply to wholeass countries.