Canada and Quebec are positioning India as a key player in their Indo-Pacific strategy. Quebec is even considering opening its own office, the current one being located within the Canadian consulate in Mumbai. This was also suggested in a policy recommendation document produced by the Montreal Institute of International Studies (IEIM).
It is India’s economic growth and its title of “largest democracy” which justify the enthusiasm and international interest.
On April 19, the country entered the electoral period. A democratic exercise of unprecedented scale: until 1er June, 969 million people are called to the polls. Since 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been at the head of the country with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The BJP is a far-right Hindu nationalist party that drastically changed India’s political landscape during its two majority mandates (2014 and 2019).
One of the important changes brought about by the BJP concerns the state of Indian democracy and the concentration of national wealth in the hands of a few conglomerates. This has repercussions on the electoral context.
Context of violence
The main political objective of the BJP is to make India a Hindu state. This is what it has been doing since 2014, supporting a pro-Hindu discourse, adopting laws and policies that discriminate against religious minorities and strengthening its control of democratic spaces.
A concrete impact is the increase in violence between religious communities, with great tolerance, even silence, on the part of the State and the police forces in the face of the violent actions of Hindu groups. This violence even pushes many to seek asylum in Canada.
Steps were taken by the Electoral Commission to ensure that voting took place in complete security, including the deployment of police forces and observers. This will be followed in the coming weeks.
Information control
The Modi government restricts the work of human rights NGOs and journalistic work through financial regulations and excessive use of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. In the name of national security, several people have been arrested without evidence and are often illegally detained.
In an electoral context, this poses risks in terms of access to information and freedom of the press. Several journalists fear for their safety at the start of the election.
This fear can also be explained by the proximity of the Modi government to the Adani and Reliance Industries groups, both of which together exercise an oligopoly in the Indian media landscape.
The issue of electoral funds
The BJP’s main opposition is the Inclusive Alliance for Indian National Development, led by the Congress Party, bringing together 41 parties. We will have to observe in the coming weeks whether this coalition will present itself as a united front or whether it will be rather fragmented.
One of the main issues for the opposition concerns electoral funds which are phenomenal on the BJP’s side, allowing it to massively purchase advertising space to saturate public space.
Behind this gap lies a system of private party financing put in place in 2017 by the BJP and recently declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Through this system, Modi’s party received nearly $750 million.
During the campaign, the BJP acted to put obstacles in the way of the opposition. The Congress Party, for example, saw its bank accounts frozen earlier this year. The chief minister of Delhi, elected under the banner of the Aam Aadmi party and a major opponent of Modi, Arvind Kejriwal, was arrested for a case of granting private alcohol licenses almost a month before the start of elections.
Who benefits from this economic power?
India is experiencing economic growth, expected to be around 7% this financial year.
Part of the explanation lies in the Modi government’s tendency to act decisively, without consulting Parliament, and by concentrating wealth within a few conglomerates. For example, the Adani Group is the one that benefits the most: it builds ports, highways, bridges, solar parks and operates mines. Gautam Adani became India’s richest man in 2022, and reached the third richest person in the world in the same year.
PHOTO MR. SCOTT BRAUER, THE NEW YORK TIMES ARCHIVES
Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani in October 2022
This economic growth is far from benefiting everyone, inequalities are extreme and growing. Even though the country has reduced the rate of extreme poverty, almost half of its population of 1.4 billion still lives below the poverty line, while 10% of the population owns 77% of the national wealth total. The needs are especially acute in terms of job creation. It is estimated that around 70 million jobs need to be created within 10 years.
India is on 11e commercial partner of Quebec and the 13e partner of Canada. The Indian diaspora represents 5% of the Canadian population. The latter is very sensitive to the Indian political context, most of them maintaining family ties in the country. We will have to remain on the lookout for the impact of this election on Canadian territory.
Canada and Quebec want to increase trade with India, and with good reason. However, it should not be done blindly and by failing to consider the political changes which mean that India no longer bears the characteristics of “the largest democracy in the world”.
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reference: www.lapresse.ca