India’s future on the line in world’s biggest elections

The largest democratic election in history starts today in India where nothing less than the country’s founding principles are on the line.

It will run for 44 days and over 500 million of the 969 million eligible voters are expected to take part. That means roughly one in eight people on Earth constitute the Indian electorate.  

It’s fair to say this is a logistical nightmare. To make matters even more challenging, the country’s election rules state that voting booths must be within two kilometres of every registered voter. Rajiv Kumar, Chief Election Commissioner has insisted that his commission will “take democracy to every corner of India”. 

“Our teams will walk the extra mile to reach every voter, whether they are in jungles or on snowy mountains. We will go on horseback, elephants, mules or helicopters. We will reach everywhere,” Kumar added.

The incumbent Narendra Modi of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is seeking a third term and has not hesitated to stifle descent. His closest rival, current Chief Minister of Delhi and leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (Common Man’s Party) Arvind Kejriwal is in jail on trumped-up corruption charges. 

Another party challenging the BJP is the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). This is a weak coalition of over 30 parties, which includes the only pan-Indian party that can rival the BJP: Congress. Congress is led by the heir of the powerful Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, Rahul Gandhi. Rahul is particularly unpopular, having led Congress to two previous defeats and even losing his safe seat at the last election in 2019.

As Kapil Komireddi told me on the Reaction Podcast, these elections are free but not necessarily fair. Voters can choose who to vote for free from coercion, but the opposition has been starved of the financial means to campaign and the country’s mainstream media will not air any criticism of Modi. 

Komireddi also said these elections were of “existential significance” for the country. The rise of explicit Hindu nationalism from the BJP seemed to reach its apotheosis in January when Modi inaugurated the Ram Temple on the grounds of the old Babri mosque which was razed by Hindu mobs in the 90s. 

Speaking of the importance of these elections, Komireddi said: “We could come out of this election as the Hindu version of Pakistan. We could come out of this election as a plebiscitary autocracy where you have elections but the big man rules and one religion has primacy over all others.”

In law, Komireddi added, everyone might be equal. “But in life, practitioners of one faith end up being treated as natural citizens and everyone else is a second-class citizen.”

Fragile inter-religious relations, specifically between the Hindu majority and the Muslim minority, are nothing new. Violence has also involved the Sikh, Christian and Jewish communities in India’s modern history. 

But what seems to be unique about Modi’s India, which differs from almost every other time since its independence from Britain in 1947, is the mass political acceptance of the idea that different religions cannot live peacefully together. This is combined with the notion that only Hindus can be truly Indian citizens.

Secularism was the founding principle of the Indian Republic – the aspiration of religious harmony. This aspiration is almost gone from mainstream Indian politics and a third Modi term could make that terminal.  

Write to us with your comments to be considered for publication at letters@reaction.life