His immediate task will be revving up the economy, but an escalating U. S.-China trade war and volatile oil prices — India’s biggest import — are adding to uncertainty
(Bloomberg) — If anyone had any doubts about Narendra Modi’s popularity, India’s masses just put them to rest.
His Bharatiya Janata Party swept to another single-party majority on Thursday, a margin that surprised political watchers who expected him to return with a weakened mandate. A combination of economic populism, Hindu nationalism and air strikes against arch-rival Pakistan earlier this year proved unbeatable.
“This is a stunning reaffirmation of Modi and the BJP and, conversely, a sharp rebuke of the opposition,” said Milan Vaishnav, director of the South Asia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The BJP will have wide latitude to redraw the boundaries between religion and politics in a way that favours the Hindu majority.”
Investors pushed India’s benchmark stock indexes to new highs on Thursday before the rally faded late in the session. The prospect of a coalition government, which was previously the norm for decades in India, had sparked concerns that the nation would see a return to the policy gridlock that led to Modi’s first big win five years ago.
More broadly, the big question is where Modi takes India over the next five years. After his 2014 win, he promised voters staples like jobs, toilets and affordable housing in a bid to bolster an economy where one in five people live on less than $2 per day.
This time around, his presidential-style campaign focused more on stoking patriotism and appealing to Hindus who make up about 80 per cent of the country’s 1.3 billion people.
“I worry that the communal bitterness unleashed in this campaign will make it hard to heal,” said Alyssa Ayres, a former U.
