Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met
allies and former mentors Friday to plot a course for his second term
after a landslide victory left the once-mighty Gandhi dynasty reeling.
A considerable to-do list includes addressing India's lacklustre
economic growth and reducing unemployment, as well as fixing a stricken
agriculture sector on which 70 percent of households depend.
Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 303 seats, its
best ever score, giving it an even bigger majority than five years ago
and defying predictions of a dip, final results confirmed Friday.
The main opposition Congress party, which has ruled the roost in India
for much of its post-independence history, improved on its historic low
five years ago of 44 seats but still only managed a paltry 52.
Congress chief Rahul Gandhi even lost his own seat in Amethi, long a
family bastion. He did win a seat in the southern state of Kerala,
however, a quirk allowed under Indian election rules.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, meanwhile, joined a chorus of
international well-wishers, with US President Donald Trump hailing
Modi's "BIG" win and even Pakistan's Imran Khan tweeting
congratulations.
On Thursday there were delirious scenes at BJP party offices across the
nation of 1.3 billion people, including its headquarters where Modi, 68,
was showered with petals by chanting fans.
"The voting numbers in India's election is the biggest event in the
history of (the) democratic world. The entire world has to recognise the
democratic strength of India," Modi told cheering crowds.
"Modi will make India great again. Modi is the strongest prime minister
India has ever had and will get. We need to support his policies to
prosper," said one supporter, Santosh Joshi.
On Friday, ahead of a cabinet meeting, Modi conferred with two
now-sidelined former mentors, LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi,
touching their feet in sign of respect.
-'Can Modi deliver?' -
With the election behind him, Modi must now tackle the economy and
unemployment -- notably among women, who have one of the lowest labour
market participation rates in the world.
"The real question is can Modi deliver on his economic commitments --
for example creating the high number of jobs needed?" said Champa Patel,
of the Chatham House think-tank.
"This is essential to address India's growing wealth inequalities. Can
he address the challenges that millions of Indians face on a daily basis
in a highly stratified country?"
India's agriculture industry is also in a dire state with drought, low
prices and debt driving thousands of farmers to suicide in recent years.
The country's waterways are filthy and India is home to 22 of the
world's 30 most polluted cities, killing 1.24 million people early in
2017 according to a Lancet Planetary Health study.
On Friday, around 80 to 100 people held a demonstration in Delhi as part
of a global day of climate change to demand Modi does more on the
environment, .
"We are here to fight for our right to breathe clean air," said Ishika Goyal, 16.
Modi and the Hindu nationalist BJP must also try to heal divisions which
have left religious minorities -- including India's 170 million Muslims
-- feeling anxious for the future.
During the campaign he managed to deflect criticism on these issues by
focusing on national security, claiming he alone could defend India.
Congress meanwhile was picking up the pieces after the second election
debacle in a row, having failed to win a single seat in 13 states and
five union territories.
These included Rajasthan where it won state elections late last year.
This time the BJP swept all 25 seats, and in Uttar Pradesh Congress took
just one constituency.
An anti-Modi alliance in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state with
200 million people, also failed to prevent the BJP juggernaut sweeping
64 out of 80 seats.
Even in West Bengal, run by formidable Modi critic Mamata Banerjee, the
BJP made major inroads, boosting its seat tally from two to 18.
Congress on Friday was forced to deny media reports that Gandhi -- the
great-grandson, grandson and son of three former premiers -- had offered
to throw in the towel.
"The Congress leadership has clearly failed. It is a discredited and
bankrupt leadership," Kanchan Gupta from the Observer Research
Foundation think-tank told AFP.
"It is astonishing that Rahul Gandhi has not yet resigned", Ramachandra
Guha, a renowned historian, said on Twitter. "The Congress should dump
the Dynasty."
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