Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has won the 18th parliamentary election. Narendra Modi is all set to become India’s Prime Minister for a third consecutive term. Let’s discuss what India's foreign policy priorities would be under Modi 3.0.
The INDIA bloc’s ability to rein in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vaulting ambition to godhood does not extend to addressing a vast democracy deficit
In an interim assessment of the election results, I made six points:
One, India’s next government would be a coalition government.
Two, Indian democracy has become stronger with the emergence of a strong Opposition, and a clear verdict that the people do not appreciate the politics of hatred and division, peddled aggressively by Prime Minister Modi.
Three, the Congress has halted its steady decline, which had persuaded several of its aspiring leaders and spokespersons to defect to the BJP.
The political economy of power pricing discourages the utility to purchase high-cost power, even if that results in load shedding. Heat waves make load shedding unpopular. The alternative is to bite the bullet and raise tariffs
“Outrage over outages” — headlines like these strafe even the election-reinforced cocoon of citizen comfort in city after city, as unusually severe temperatures scorch India. At the same time, much of the installed gas-based generation capacity lies idle in the country. Blame the political economy. By aggressively pursuing the current strategy of adding ever more renewable energy capacity, without any complementary investment in storage, India will face ever-rising shortages of power, even as precious generation capacity lies idle.
Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard had aptly noted, “…it’s not the voting that’s democracy. It’s the counting...". Counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections is still on, but the current trend so far suggests the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is all set to form the next government in New Delhi, India.
The tables have turned for Naveen T Patnaik and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha. Analysts and even the diehard supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could not have imagined that the saffron party would unseat Patnaik, the formidable and popular chief minister of the eastern state since 2000. While it was expected that the BJP would drastically improve its Lok Sabha seat share in the state, largely aided by the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, not many had thought that a comparatively weak BJP would dominate the assembly elections.
Trumpian populism has ensured that a convicted felon stands a good chance of emerging as the 47th president of the US.
Despite stating that it does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, China has made it an art to coerce countries that receive aid from it. Previously, China demanded deference from other countries to the “One China” policy with regard to Taiwan, Tibet and on its South China Sea disputes with South-East Asian nations.