Seventeenth general elections to the House of people (Lok Sabha) in the largest democratic state of the world were held almost fairly and peacefully. This election was held in seven phases and the polling results were finally disclosed. In this election, the Narendra Modi-led NDA got absolute majority with 352 seats. BJP holds 303 seats alone.
In the 543 seats of the House of people, a political party needs 272 seats for the absolute majority. That is, if the BJP wishes, then they themselves would be able to form the government independently. Although Narendra Modi is criticized in his own country as well as in the world for Hindu extremism, the Indian voters kept trust on him at last. Narendra Modi sworn in as the Prime Minister for the second consecutive term after claiming the landslide win.
In the middle of the nineteenth century, India became a British colony completely. Then, through a long struggle and bloodshed, the country was born in 1947 as a independent state. By the formation of the Constitution in 1950, India became a sovereign, liberal, non-communal and a democratic country. But when the BJP led by Narendra Modi-Amit Shah won the 282 seats in the 2014 elections, and since Modi became the Prime Minister, the Indian secular character is drawn to the fundamentalism. After the BJP came to power, various types of torture and oppression came down to the minority Muslim community of that country.
In the past years of Modi's government, we noticed that the Cow Protection Committee formed by extremist Hindus in India tortured and killed many Muslims for carrying cattle or beef meat. Cow slaughter has been banned in many Indian States. In the name of cow protection, innocent Muslim citizens were beaten to death by spreading rumours. Such hateful incidents have also happened in the country, the fanatic made hindrance to the the Muslims in their religious practice and forced them to eat pork.
During the BJP rule over the past five years, Hindu-Muslim relations have deteriorated in India and the Muslims are now worried about their future. Even though communal violence in the country is being grown up, Hindu nationalist leader Narendra Modi did not take any steps against the fanatic, rather he remained silent on this issue. BJP came to power in the elections of 2014 based on hindu extremism and capitalising the previous Congress government's corruption, nepotism, lack of promised development, investment drought, economic recession, rural development slowdown, unemployment making a slogan 'Make in India'. In the past, 'Make in India' was one of the main projects of the Narendra Modi government. But there was no major success in this project. Before coming to power, Modi's promised that he will take a step so that the farmers may gain more than 50 percent of the investment but in reality it did not.
The farmers expressed dissatisfaction not getting the fair price and many of them committed suicide. The people of the whole of India were annoyed on the issue of canceling 500 rupees and one thousand rupees notes in 2016. In the national or international, there is nothing to say in the term of the Modi government. Rather, there is a variety of turmoil in and out of the country. Modi who came to power with a dream of prosperity has gradually brought a ill-fate to the peaceful Indians. Narendra Modi realized that this term the only way to wear down the opponents in the seventeenth House of people elections is to take shelter under Hindu extremism.
That is why, emotional issues like re-established of Ram Mandir in place of Babri Masjid, cancellation of special status of Kashmir and protection of cow gets importance in BJP's election campaign. Norendra Modi very tactically took advantage of this sentiment of Hindu voters. In addition, Recently Modi's statement about the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama gave him additional benefits in the elections. Modi became able to convince most of his country's voters that India is safer with him than others. As a result, Things like Rafael's corruption, unemployment problem, continuous peasant dissatisfaction and minority persecution could not impede in the way of victory.
Meanwhile, in the media reports, Hindu extremists started violence against Muslim as soon as the result of the election is out. Three Muslims, including a woman, were beaten seriously at Siwan in Madhya Pradesh on the charge of trafficking cow. Not only that, they have been forced to shout 'Joy Sri Ram'!
There are now a lot of challenges ahead in the BJP government. Among them if the sensitive promises like the re-establishment of Ram temple, withdrawing the special status of Kashmir from the Constitution and the so-called NRC be in effective by BJP, it will create a crisis in the internal politics of India which will create unrest in the neighbouring countries.
On the other hand if the promises made by BJP before the election are not executed, the pressure of Hindu extremists on Modi will increase. In such a situation, Modi should emphasize the internal peace of India and at the same time keeping India's status in the world. And for this, of course, Modi will have to cast aside the politics of divide and hatred and should now walk on unity. It will bring benefits to the entire region, not just for India. And only Modi's liberal policies can increase dignity of India as a secular, multilingual and multinational and as the world's largest democratic country. We shall have to wait to see what path Modi actually chooses- -divide and rule or the path of peace and harmony.
