Posts tagged ‘BJP’

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21/05/2014

India Invites Pakistan to Narendra Modi’s Swearing-In – India Real Time – WSJ

Interestingly, China, another close neighbour has NOT been invited!

“In a surprise gesture, India has invited the leader of Pakistan—its neighbor and arch-enemy—to attend the swearing-in ceremony of a new prime minister.

The leaders of other South Asian nations are being invited, too, including Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Bangladesh, according to a spokeswoman for the Bharatiya Janata Party, which dominated India’s recent parliamentary election. But all eyes will be on Pakistan, which has fought three wars with India since the two nations gained independence from the colonial British in 1947.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Pakistan hadn’t yet received its invitation, according to Pakistan’s foreign ministry.

Traditionally, swearings-in have been attended mainly by family members and Indian government figures. India’s next prime minister, Narendra Modi of the BJP, is scheduled to be sworn in at a ceremony on May 26. The invitations have been sent by India’s Ministry of External Affairs.

According to the BJP spokeswoman, Nirmala Sitharaman, invitations have been sent to all members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, or SAARC. The organization’s purpose is to work toward peace and strengthened economic ties in the region.

“We are looking forward to having a good relationship in our neighborhood and we want to build goodwill,” Ms. Sitharaman told The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Modi, a Hindu nationalist leader, is expected to pursue a muscular foreign policy. In the past, he has criticized the rival Congress party’s stance on territorial disputes with China and on border skirmishes with Pakistan.  His party, the BJP, won 282 of the 543 elected seats in Parliament this month. The Congress party, which previously led the national government, won only 44 seats—its worst tally in party history.

After winning the elections, Mr. Modi, who has served as the chief minister of Gujarat for more than a decade, was congratulated by Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Mr. Sharif came to power in Pakistan in the elections held last year.

India and Pakistan have a tense and fragile relationship. The invitation to attend the swearing-in comes only two days after Indian security forces said they were in pursuit of alleged militants in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, where India and Pakistan regularly skirmish.”

via India Invites Pakistan to Narendra Modi’s Swearing-In – India Real Time – WSJ.

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19/05/2014

Modi’s Next Move – India Real Time – WSJ

The simplest way to understand the enormity of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s victory Friday in India’s election is to place it in historical context.

For the first time since 1984, India’s voters have given a single party rather than a ragtag coalition a majority in Parliament. The BJP won 282 seats, 10 more than the 272 needed to reach the halfway mark in the 543-seat lower house of Parliament. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance coalition snagged 336 seats.

For the first time ever, India’s traditionally left-leaning politics has moved decisively to the right. Even when it won more seats than the left-of-center Congress Party in three elections in the late 1990s, the BJP always lagged its rival in share of the popular vote. This time the BJP snagged nearly one third of the national vote, while Congress claimed less than a fifth. The BJP also made inroads into southern and eastern India, outside its traditional strongholds in the north and west.

The rightward swing is all the more notable because incoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi belongs to the conservative wing of India’s conservative party. Unlike the last BJP prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1998-2004), Mr. Modi cut his teeth in politics battling Congress when it briefly suspended democracy in the mid-1970s, not admiring Jawaharlal Nehru’s parliamentary eloquence in defense of socialist policies in the 1950s.

Congress itself has been reduced to a rump. The 44 seats it won is less than half of its previous low of 114 seats in 1999. Congress has proved naysayers wrong before by bouncing back. Still, for the first time talk of the possible extinction of a party that has ruled India for all but 13 years since independence in 1947 seems plausible. And the two main communist parties, which have traditionally wielded influence both inside and outside Parliament and helped set the tone for much anti-capitalist and anti-Western discourse, have been reduced to a footnote. Together they hold a meager 10 seats.

via Modi’s Next Move – India Real Time – WSJ.

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13/05/2014

India stocks, rupee rise as exit polls tip BJP win – Businessweek

India’s stock market and currency rallied Tuesday on exit polls predicting election victory for a pro-business party and its allies.

Flag of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a na...

Flag of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a national political party in India. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Official election results are expected on Friday, but exit polls by at least six major Indian TV stations show the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party likely to win enough seats to form a coalition government.

The Sensex stock index rose more than 2 percent to an all-time high of 24,068.94 before paring its gain and closing at 23,871.23.

via India stocks, rupee rise as exit polls tip BJP win – Businessweek.

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08/05/2014

Four Reasons Why Narendra Modi Makes Some Indians Nervous – Businessweek

The question always comes up in New Delhi these days, somewhere between polite introductions and drinks: What would the reign of Narendra Modi, who seems increasingly likely to be the next prime minister, mean for India?

BJP candidate Narendra Modi addresses an election rally on April 10 at Gopal Maidan in Jamshedpur, India

One man, pro-business and a glass of whiskey in hand at the club, told me recently that Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will bring needed centralization to a government that at times seems unable to impose its writ. Another—a highly educated liberal in socks, slacks, and polo shirt on the sofa just before lunch—wondered aloud whether the nation is forsaking its secular mooring for a dangerous populist.

Prediction in politics, especially in a nation as large and complex as India, is bound to be wrong much of the time. But public remarks by BJP officials and conservative Hindus apparently taking note of political winds are worth considering. (To be sure, there have been sharp words from both sides. For example, video surfaced of a candidate from the ruling Congress Party saying that he would “chop” Modi into tiny pieces.) Beneath the back and forth of explanation and disavowal, the consistency and vehemence of the messaging suggest an approach that, in a nation with a history of sectarian bloodshed, has some worried:

1. A conservative Hindu politician told a crowd that there are ways to discourage Muslims from purchasing property in Hindu neighborhoods. According to one account, Pravin Togadia allegedly met with protestors outside a home owned by a Muslim businessman and gave the occupant 48 hours to vacate the house. Togadia advised his audience to use stones, tires, and tomatoes, according to the Times of India. Togadia disputed that version of events and claimed through an online post that he was only offering advice on using the legal and governmental channels “if they felt that they are being forced into any selling of their houses.” (The newspaper subsequently said it has video confirming the initial report.)

The anecdote takes on broader significance for two reasons: The incident occurred in the western state of Gujarat, where some 1,000 people, mostly Muslim, were killed in brutal riots that included death-by-sword in 2002. The chief minister of Gujarat at the time of that bloodshed, as is still the case, was Narendra Modi. But as ever in Indian politics, there are caveats: A Supreme Court-appointed panel found no evidence that Modi’s decisions prevented the 2002 riot victims from receiving help. While Modi and Togadia have a shared background in Hindu nationalist politics, the two men do not now get along well.

2. A BJP parliament candidate informed a rally that those who do not support Modi will soon have no place in India. With senior BJP leadership standing by, Giriraj Singh said that Pakistan, the Muslim nation to the west, is where such people belong. BJP officials were quick to publicly express displeasure with Singh’s remarks, but he did not back down: “I stand by my statement that those trying their best to stop Modi from coming to power have no place in India and should go to Pakistan.”

3. A senior Modi aide was accused of telling voters they could get revenge by voting for Modi. Amit Shah was speaking in a north India district earlier this month near the site of riots last year that included murder and reports of gang rape. One account described how a “crowd of Hindu men came brandishing guns, swords and machetes, shouting that Muslims should go either to Pakistan or Kabristan (graveyard).”

4. Modi has signaled his desire to distance his campaign from militant sentiment and focus on shared national goals. As he tweeted on Tuesday:

Narendra Modi        ✔ @narendramodi

I disapprove any such irresponsible statement & appeal to those making them to kindly refrain from doing so.

4:58 AM – 22 Apr 2014

Narendra Modi        ✔ @narendramodi

Petty statements by those claiming to be BJP’s well wishers are deviating the campaign from the issues of development & good governance.

4:57 AM – 22 Apr 2014

However, many still point to his remarks during an interview with Reuters last year about the 2002 riots:

“Another thing, any person if we are driving a car, we are a driver, and someone else is driving a car and we’re sitting behind, even then if a puppy comes under the wheel, will it be painful or not? Of course it is. If I’m a chief minister or not, I’m a human being. If something bad happens anywhere, it is natural to be sad.”

There was an expression of sadness in those words. And there was, too, the unavoidable fact that he’d compared the dead to dogs.

via Four Reasons Why Narendra Modi Makes Some Indians Nervous – Businessweek.

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09/04/2014

India’s Election Choice: Growth Economy or Welfare State – Businessweek

Indian elections aren’t known for their clarity. Messy, cacophonous affairs, they stretch across months and almost invariably result in fragmented verdicts. Political groupings are opportunistic, driven by personality rather than issues; competing party platforms are often indistinguishable.

A shopkeeper displays water sprinklers with portraits of Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi in Chennai, India<br />

This year’s parliamentary elections—the nation’s 16th since independence, running from April 7 to May 12—are proving an exception. The distinctions between India’s leading parties are unusually sharp; the race is shaping up as a genuine battle of ideas, a real debate over the direction of the nation.

India’s two main parties are led by men who in many ways couldn’t be more different. Rahul Gandhi, the standard-bearer for the ruling Indian National Congress party, is the scion of a distinguished family that includes three former prime ministers. At 43, he’s also the candidate of youth. Narendra Modi, the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is ahead in most polls, is 63, a self-made man, and an experienced administrator who has served for more than 12 years as the chief minister of the state of Gujarat. Gandhi espouses a brand of secular, inclusive politics; Modi is viewed with suspicion by many for a series of bloody communal riots that took place under his watch in Gujarat. (The Indian courts exonerated him of personal involvement.)

via India’s Election Choice: Growth Economy or Welfare State – Businessweek.

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07/04/2014

Two Visions for India’s Economy, Sort Of – India Real Time – WSJ

India’s national election, which kicked off Monday, is a contest of old-fashioned socialism versus market liberalism, of handouts to the poor versus pro-growth reforms that will benefit all. Right?

Sort of. At least judging by the two main contenders’ official platforms.

The Bharatiya Janata Party — out of power for a decade — looks set to win big this year, helped by its popular prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who promises to reboot India’s economy with a combination of smart policy and able administration.

But now that the BJP has at last released its election manifesto after multiple delays, it’s easier to see where exactly its economic policy ideas differ from the incumbent Congress party’s – and, perhaps more interestingly, where they don’t.

Both parties promise to revitalize India’s manufacturing sector, long a laggard amid the country’s economic rise. Both say they will implement a national goods and services tax, known elsewhere as a value-added tax. Both want to create a “single-window system” to expedite land, environmental, power and other approvals for investors. Both back the current system of food subsidies, though the BJP highlights that the program should be efficient and corruption-free.

And both parties want to build high-speed rail, stem inflation, modernize infrastructure, make housing affordable, create jobs, expand cities and make taxation more predictable. (Though the BJP wins style points for referring to retroactive taxes as “tax terrorism.”) The BJP even matches the splashiest item in Congress’s manifesto — a commitment to providing “universal and quality health care for all Indians” — with its own call for universal health care.

All of that said, the manifestos alone do give the BJP an edge in terms of structural reforms that many economists, businesses and investors have long craved from India’s government.

The party’s manifesto speaks of addressing “over-regulation” in business and “bottlenecks” in the delivery of public services. Its section on developing agriculture focuses more on investing in productivity-enhancing technology than on increasing government subsidies, which the Congress manifesto notes as a major achievement of its decade in office.

The BJP says it will “rationalize and simplify the tax regime,” which the party calls “currently repulsive for honest taxpayers.” The Congress manifesto merely reiterates its support for the Direct Tax Code, an earlier legislative effort to eliminate tax distortions and improve compliance that has stalled in Parliament’s lower house.

The BJP also says it will review India’s creaking labor laws, which it decries as “outdated, complicated and even contradictory.” The Congress manifesto, meanwhile, “recognizes the need for creating flexibilities in the labor market” while redoubling its commitment to “protecting the interests of labor through more progressive labor laws.” The World Bank said in a report last year that India’s “cumbersome and complex” labor policies “have unambiguously negative effects on economic efficiency.”

via Two Visions for India’s Economy, Sort Of – India Real Time – WSJ.

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26/03/2014

Congress Bets on Welfare Programs – India Real Time – WSJ

India’s Congress party is doubling down on welfare.

Facing what is shaping up to be a steep uphill battle to win a third term in office, Congress on Wednesday outlined a policy agenda that would expand healthcare, housing and other benefits for the poor and disadvantaged.

Rahul Gandhi, who is leading Congress’s campaign in the voting that begins in April, also said a new Congress government would invest $1 trillion in infrastructure projects and remove hurdles to business.

For India’s poor to thrive, he said, “we need to unleash business.”

Still, Congress’s tone is sharply different than the one adopted by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and its standard bearer, Narendra Modi, who emphasizes pro-business policies and infrastructure building – while saying government also needs to help the poor.

During the Congress-led government’s most recent decade in office, subsidy spending has soared, from 459 billion rupees in the year ended March 31, 2005, to an estimated 2.55 trillion in the 12 months ending March 31 of this year.

By sticking with and expanding such programs, Congress is hoping it will appeal to its base in India’s impoverished countryside.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi said if re-elected, Indians would get improved healthcare, an expansion of housing benefits for the landless and a boost in social security hand-outs for the elderly and disabled people.

These promises echo themes that have run through the party’s history and have dominated the political careers of Mrs. Gandhi and her son, Rahul, who is leading Congress’s election campaign.

The central Congress belief: A government must engineer economic equality and inclusive growth, even as it celebrates free markets.

“The future of India is the poor people of India, those are the people the Congress party works for,” Mr. Gandhi said. “The biggest problem I have with the BJP is that the India of the BJP’s dreams is an India where a few people run this country.”

Mr. Gandhi, the party’s vice president who took charge this year, has tried to frame the electoral campaign as a choice between these two approaches.

He has gone after the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi for what he calls an exclusive focus on building roads and airports without addressing the question of who gets access to them.

Mr. Modi’s message, however, is striking a chord with many Indians, who are fed up with government inefficiency, corruption allegations and a slowing economy. Many young voters – even those in rural India who through technology and migration are influenced by urban sentiment – are frustrated with a lack of jobs and strong leadership and are drawn to the BJP’s promise of development.

Opinion polls show widespread dissatisfaction with the current situation in India and Mr. Modi is widely considered the frontrunner for the premiership.

via Congress Bets on Welfare Programs – India Real Time – WSJ.

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11/02/2014

UPDATE 1-U.S. ambassador to meet India’s Modi, ending isolation | Reuters

Modi‘s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is considered the favourite to form a government after a general election due by May. He is also the chief minister of Gujarat state, where in 2002, Hindu mobs killed at least 1,000 people, most of them Muslims.

Narendra Modi at a BJP rally

Narendra Modi at a BJP rally (Photo credit: Al Jazeera English)

“We can confirm the appointment,” a U.S. embassy spokesman said. “This is part of our concentrated outreach to senior political and business leaders which began in November to highlight the U.S.-India relationship.”

via UPDATE 1-U.S. ambassador to meet India’s Modi, ending isolation | Reuters.

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25/01/2014

Modi more popular than party, says Jaitley – The Hindu

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday accepted that its prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi is more popular than the party itself. Commenting on the projections made by recent opinion polls, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley said the results of at least two such polls show a surge in Mr. Modi’s popularity and acceptability as prime minister after the 2014 general elections.

Mr Modi with Mr Jaitley. File photo

“The most significant factor in these opinion polls has been that Narendra Modi\’s acceptability as prime ministerial candidate is about 15 to 20 per cent higher than the BJP vote in each state. His ability to pull the party up in strong areas and contribute to its vote percentage in the non-strong areas is evident. How else can we justify the projected 17 per cent vote share in Tamil Nadu and 25 per cent in Odisha,” he said in a statement.

via Modi more popular than party, says Jaitley – The Hindu.

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09/12/2013

BBC News – India’s BJP set to form government in key states

India\’s main opposition BJP is set to form a government in three key states after winning an absolute majority in assembly elections.

India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters celebrate the party’s victory in various state Assembly elections in Allahabad, India, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2013

The Hindu nationalist party has won 162 assembly seats in the northern state of Rajasthan, leaving the ruling Congress with just 21 seats.

The BJP also retained power in the central states of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

It won 165 seats against the Congress\’ 58 in Madhya Pradesh.

But the contest was much closer in Chhattisgarh where the BJP won 49 seats – just three more than the majority needed to form a government – and the Congress finished its tally at 39.

The Congress party also lost control of Delhi\’s 70-seat assembly.

With 31 seats, the BJP fell four short of a majority to form a government in the capital after a surprise strong showing by a new anti-corruption Aam Admi Party (AAP) or Common Man\’s Party.

via BBC News – India’s BJP set to form government in key states.

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