India votes with Hindu nationalist Modi as favorite

(Haridwar) India has been voting since Friday morning in general elections that Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems almost certain to win in the face of weak opposition.

A long queue formed early outside a polling station when it opened in Haridwar, an important Hindu pilgrimage site on the banks of the Ganges and one of the first towns to vote in these elections.

Uday Bharti, a 59-year-old saddhu, is adamant Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is working for what “matters most”.

“Modi ensured the protection of our country and our faith,” he said in front of a polling station. “We are here to ensure that Modi continues to do good work.”

Mr. Modi urged from the start of the vote, voters in the first phase of the poll, which includes seven, to “exercise their right to vote in record numbers”, particularly young people and those voting for the first time.

“Every vote counts and every voice is important,” he added on the social network X.

Against “hate and injustice”

The Congress, the main opposition party in India, reminded voters, on the same platform, that their “vote can end inflation, unemployment, hatred and injustice”, and to underline : “Make sure to vote”, “Don’t forget to vote”.

In total, 968 million Indians are expected to elect the 543 members of the lower house, more than the total population of the United States, the European Union and Russia combined.

Elections take place until 1^er June, with more than a million polling stations across the country.

Ballots across the country will be counted on June 4. Results are usually announced the same day.

Mr. Modi, aged 73, is still very popular after two terms, during which India increased its diplomatic influence and economic weight.

A 2023 Pew survey indicated that Mr. Modi was viewed favorably by nearly 80% of Indians.

He has already given the BJP two landslide victories in 2014 and 2019 by playing on the religious fiber of the Hindu electorate.

This year, he inaugurated a large temple in the city of Ayodhya dedicated to the Hindu deity Ram, built on the site of a centuries-old mosque destroyed by Hindu fanatics.

This event, eagerly awaited by its activists, benefited from extensive media coverage and public festivities throughout India.

“A deception”

For Mukesh Dubey, a priest at a small Hindu temple in Haridwar, the Modi government’s play on faith is a “deception” intended to distract from more serious and urgent difficulties facing India, with millions of young people unemployed university graduates.

Religious gifts are of no use if “people don’t have work and food,” he says.

But political analysts have already given him the victory against a coalition of opposition parties which has not yet named its candidate for the post of prime minister.

His prospects have been boosted by several criminal investigations against his opponents.

Congress’ bank accounts have been frozen since February by the Indian tax authorities, following a dispute over tax returns dating back five years.

“We have no money to campaign, we cannot support our candidates,” warned its leader Rahul Gandhi in March. “Our ability to fight the electoral battle has been damaged. »

Mr Gandhi, 53, whose father, grandmother and great-grandfather all served as prime minister, was briefly removed from Parliament last year after being convicted of defamation.

He accuses the government of a certain democratic backsliding and criticizes its appeals to India’s majority faith, to the detriment of significant minorities worried about their future, including 210 million Muslim Indians.

Mr. Modi’s mandates were marked by “a pattern of repression aimed at undermining democracy and civic space”, denounced the rights association CIVICUS in a report on Wednesday.

The Congress has formed an alliance with more than twenty regional parties to take on the BJP with its well-oiled and generously financed electoral machinery.

The coalition accuses Mr. Modi’s government of using the justice system to neutralize certain opposition leaders such as Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, currently in detention.

Under Mr. Modi’s mandate, India became the world’s fifth largest economy ahead of the United Kingdom, the former colonial power.

And Western countries are rushing to court this potential ally to fight against the growing assertiveness of China, a great rival in the region, despite warnings from rights defenders about the decline in press freedom.

Since Mr. Modi came to power in 2014, India has fallen 21 places in the world press freedom rankings established by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), standing at 161^e rank out of 180 countries.