translated from Spanish: Narenda Modi: 5 keys explaining why India reelected the ultranationalist Hindu who ruled the last five years

India re-elected a “strong man” to govern it for The next five years: the ultranationalist Narendra Modi.
The ruler, candidate of the party Bharatiya Janata (BJP), had achieved until this Thursday 303 of the 543 seats of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament.
And although the count of the more than 600 million votes cast was not over, the results until this Thursday and guarantee a secure victory: to win only needed 272 deputies.
That, after a first term, was a mix of successes and setbacks amidst concerns about growing Hindu nationalism, the slowdown of the economy, and violence against the Muslim minority.
During those years he promoted some public-good policies that were highly commended, such as the supply of cheap cooking gas to the less affluent, a national tax on goods and services, a health insurance plan for the poor, and a new bankruptcy law and Insolvency.
However, although it came to power for the first time in 2014 with the promise of creating jobs for millions of Indians five years later, the unemployment rate is so high that the Ministry of Labour no longer provides statistics.
Meanwhile, there has been a notable drop in employment subsidies, school canteen allowances, drinking water access schemes have also generated controversy, and agricultural and industrial productions have also plummeted.

So how do you explain that you have won by such a remarkable majority?
1. Modi’s leadership
Modi made himself a subject for this election.
And although the economy was worse, the unemployment rate rose to record numbers, and agricultural and industrial productions have also plummeted, many Indians do not see it as responsible.
The Prime Minister has repeatedly asserted that he needs more than five years to undo more than “60 years of mismanagement.”
The voters agreed to give him more time.

According to Biswas, many Indians seem to believe that Modi is a kind of messiah who will solve all his problems.
A survey conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), a group of experts based in Delhi, indicated that one third of the BJP’s voters said they would have voted for another party if Modi were not the candidate.
“This gives an account of how this vote was for Modi, rather than for the BJP. This election was mainly about his leadership, “he explains to BBC Milan Vaishnav, a senior member of the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace in Washington.
“There is no doubt that Modi is the most popular politician in India since Indira Gandhi. It is unparalleled in regard to the national scene in the present, “he adds.
2. A cocktail of social assistance and promises of development
According to Biswas, a combination of nationalist rhetoric, subtle religious polarization, and a host of social assistance programs helped Modi achieve a second consecutive victory.
In a very divided campaign, Modi effortlessly fused nationalism and development.
It created binary pairs: the Nationalists (their partisans) against the Antinationals (their political rivals and critics); The caretaker (the Modi himself, who protects the country in “land, air and outer space”) against the corrupt (an obvious objection in the main opposition party of Congress).

Next to this, skillfully, there was the promise of development and Modi’s social welfare schemes for the poor (households, toilets, credit, kitchen gas).
The Prime Minister also undermined national security and foreign policy in a form never seen in general elections in recent history.
But for many in their politics there is also a risk.
The Politologist Suhas Palshikar believes that India could be advancing towards a dominant single-party state in Congress.
3. Nationalism
Modi’s strident nationalism as the main planner of the campaign seems to have invalidated the most pressing economic problems that voters face.
Some analysts believe that under their government, India may be advancing towards an “ethnic democracy,” which requires “mobilization of the majority to preserve the ethnic nation.”
This would be more like what happens in Israel, which sociologist Sammy Smooha characterized as a state that “strives to combine an ethnic (Jewish) identity and a parliamentary system inspired by Western Europe.”
But will Hindu nationalism become the default mode of India’s Politics and society?
It will not be easy: India thrives on diversity. Hinduism is a diverse faith. Social and linguistic differences keep the country together. Democracy is an additional glue.
The line of the BJP’s strident Hindu nationalism, which confuses Hinduism and patriotism, may not be appealing to all Indians.
“There is no other place in the world where diversity is so spectral and an impulse to homogenize so much,” says political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan.

Moreover, India’s right turn is not exclusive: it is happening with the new right in the Republican Party in the U.S., but also in Europe and Latin America.
India’s right turn is clearly part of a broader trend where the nature of nationalism is being redefined and a renewed emphasis on cultural identity is being given.
4. The yearning for a “strong man”
Modi is a “strong man” and people may love him for that.
A report of 2017 CSDS showed that respondents who supported democracy in India had dropped from 70% to 63% between 2005 and 2017.
A Pew report in 2017 found that 55% of respondents supported a “system of government in which a strong leader can make decisions without interference from Parliament or the courts.”
But the yearning of a strong man is not exclusive to this country.

There is also Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Hungarian Viktor Orban, Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro, and Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines.
It is not the first Indian leader to be called fascist and authoritarian by its critics: Indira Gandhi was called thus also when it suspended civil liberties and imposed the state of emergency in the middle of the years 70.
The Indians expelled her two years later.
5. India’s former main party faces an existential crisis
Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Congress party and the United Progressive Alliance who also faced Modi five years ago, again repeated his defeat.
The party has suffered a second successive beating, but for now it is likely to remain the second largest nationwide.
But it’s losing space.

In Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Bengal, India’s most populous region, the party is virtually non-existent.
It is hardly visible in southern states like Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
In the industrially developed West, the party last won a state election in Gujarat in 1990 and has not been in power in Maharashtra since Modi became prime minister.
The Politologist Yogendra Yadav believes that the Congress party has ceased to be useful and “must die”.
But political parties are able to reinvent themselves and renew themselves.
Only the future will tell if it manages to rebuild itself from the ruins it has left now.

Original source in Spanish