The Modi Era Continues

Narendra Modi-led BJP government consolidates power. National security, COVID-19 pandemic, farmers’ unrest, communal clashes, CAA protests and abrogation of Article 370 form undercurrents of this divisive period.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance returned to power, with a stronger and sweeping mandate. The 17th sitting convened with the abrogation of the special status for Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution; the last session concluded with a ‘special discussion’ on the construction of the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya.

In Narendra Modi’s second term as Prime Minister, national security, handling of COVID-19 pandemic and economic growth emerged as poll planks. The government passed critical and contentious legislation, including the three new criminal laws, Citizenship Amendment Act and Women’s Reservation Bill. Income inequality, price rise and women’s low participation in the labour force were discussed in the House. Wrinkles deepened in the social fabric: ethnic violence engulfed Manipur, central agencies targeted civil society and Opposition leaders, officials raided media houses, with questions emerging over Mr. Modi’s “autocratic” nature of governance.

The polls

This was the largest—ever election in the world. Polls were conducted in 543 constituencies, in seven phases between April 11 and May 23. Voter turnout was at its highest ever, registered at 67.40%, with the highest participation from women voters.

Almost 8,000 candidates vied for Lok Sabha seats, a 2.39% decrease from previous elections. The highest count of contesting female candidates — 726 — contested in this Lok Sabha; 78 female candidates were elected as members. The ‘None of the Above’ (NOTA) option, introduced in the 2014 elections, secured 1.06% votes – highest from Bihar’s Gopalganj. EVMs were 100% backed by a “voter-verifiable Paper Audit Trail” (VVPAT) for the first time this year.

Elections were also fought on WhatsApp, Facebook and digital corridors; fake speech and online extremism flooded social media in the run-up to elections.

The BJP was elected with a bigger majority than before, capturing 37.5% of the vote share, the highest for a political party since the 1984 elections, and won 303 seats in the Lok Sabha. Congress won 52 seats, followed by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) with 23 seats to its name. The Non-Aligned parties’ vote share – including Trinamool Congress, Left Front, BJD – surpassed Congress-led United Provincial Alliance’s share.

The National Democratic Alliance formed the government. Mr. Modi continued as Prime Minister for the second term.

The house of the people

The NDA won 350 seats in the House, with BJP and its allies — Shiv Sena, Janata Dal (U), AIADMK — registering wins. BJP held its position in Hindi-speaking States, made inroads in West Bengal and Odisha, and even Telangana. It failed to make a dent in the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. BJP’s allies — Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party in Bihar and Shiv Sena in Maharashtra — flourished in respective States. BJP President Amit Shah won first Lok Sabha election from Gandhinagar in Gujarat with five lakh votes.

Parties based on social justice politics or regional politics were “dismantled” in this election, The Hindu noted in an editorial. The Rashtra Janata Dal in Bihar, and Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal in Uttar Pradesh, collapsed due to family fiefdoms and corruption charges. Elsewhere, Biju Janata Dal in Odisha won a fifth term; candidate Chandrani Murmu won the Keonjhar seat in Odisha to become the youngest-ever Lok Sabha MP. In Andhra Pradesh, Y.S. Jagan Mohan steered the YSR Congress party to victory benefitting from a strong anti-incumbency wave against the Telugu Desam Party.

Congress got over 40% of votes in Kerala, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Goa. Rahul Gandhi secured 64.67% in a record win in Wayanad, Kerala. Mr. Gandhi, however, lost the family seat of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh to BJP leader Smriti Irani. Stalwart Mallikarjun Kharge faced first-ever defeat from Gulbarga in Karnataka. Candidate Jyotiraditya Scindia lost his family seat from Guna in Madhya Pradesh constituency (Mr. Scindia resigned from Congress in 2020 along with 22 other MLAs and joined the BJP).

The Congress improved upon its 2014 performance but failed to capture 10% of seats to be recognised as the official Opposition in the Lok Sabha. BJP leader Om Birla served as the Speaker of the House. Notably, the 17th Lok Sabha was the first ever to function without a Deputy Speaker, a constitutionally mandated position.

The politics

The NDA’s win was a factor of economics and politics. Unemployment, implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), price rise and poverty were cited as “economic issues”. The 2019 Pulwama attack and India’s response to it carried national security as a key issue and “dovetailed” into the BJP’s campaign, The Hindu observed.

Mr. Modi’s individual appeal and endorsement of Hindu nationalism drove sentiments. The ‘PM Candidate’ effect led to nearly one in every three BJP voters and one in four voters of its allies said that they had voted looking at Mr. Modi instead of the BJP or the local candidate. In contrast, corruption charges, nepotism and dynastic politics bogged down the legitimacy of Opposition candidates.

The elections were “powered by the hyper-nationalism agenda that was the mainstay of Mr. Modi’s five-year term in government”, The Hindu noted, and the outcome “has pushed Nehruvian secularism to the margins of Indian politics”. In 2024, the government inaugurated the new Parliament building with the Prime Minister installing the sacred ‘Sengol’ (associated with the divine right of kingship) in the Lok Sabha chamber, right next to the Speaker’s chair.

The agenda

The average annual sitting of the 17th Lok Sabha was 55 days — less than half of the average of the first Lok Sabha with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru as the leader of the House. A study by PRS India found that 58% of Bills were passed within two weeks of their introduction. The J&K Reorganisation Bill, 2019 and the Women’s Reservation Bill, 2023 were passed within two days of their introduction. A special session of the Lok Sabha also passed the three new criminal laws — the Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita Bill, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha (Second) Sanhita Bill and the Bharatiya Sakshya (Second) Bill — to replace the Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act. The Bills were passed without the Opposition in attendance.

Parliament also passed the women’s reservation Bill, 27 years after it was first introduced; its implementation is linked to a delimitation exercise frozen till 2026. The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill was also introduced in 2019, which not only banned instant triple talaq but also made it a criminal offence. The Lok Sabha also debated the handling of COVID-19 pandemic, migrant exodus and India’s response to climate change-induced hazards.

The Lok Sabha created a record of witnessing the maximum number of suspensions of Opposition members in a single session. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was disqualified briefly in a criminal defamation case; Opposition leader Mahua Moitra was expelled over ‘unethical conduct’.

History repeated itself on December 13, 2023, with a security breach in the Lok Sabha on the 22nd anniversary of the terror attack on the Indian Parliament.

The government rallied around the cause of national security and economic performance. It abrogated the special status to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution, a political goal of Jan Sangh ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee. India-China ties deteriorated, with the Galwan Valley clash in 2020 and another in 2022, along the Yangtse area in Tawang region. India has on average been one of the fastest-growing large economies under Mr. Modi’s governance. Income inequality has also grown during this period; concentration of 1% income and wealth shares are at their highest historical levels, surpassing the inequality of the British colonial period, according to the World Inequality Lab.

India walked a tight rope on the foreign policy front. Alliance with the U.S. and Europe grew, while traditional ties with Russia were maintained in the backdrop of the Ukraine war. India in 2023 hosted the G-20 summit and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Historically a supporter of the Palestine cause, India has not called for a ceasefire or urged for an end to Israel’s attacks in the ongoing siege of Gaza, The Hindu observed in an editorial.

Mr. Modi presided over a series of conflicts and unrest in his second term. The three farm laws were rolled back in 2021 after unprecedented protests by farmers for over a year (the protests were resumed in January 2024). Ethnic violence engulfed Manipur in May 2023. The contentious Citizenship Amendment Act which excludes Muslim communities triggered riots in northeast Delhi in 2020, where more than 50 people died. The Act came into effect in March 2024.

The government has fared poorly on global humanitarian, democratic, academic and press freedom indices; India in 2024 was “one of the worst autocratisers”, according to a report.

References

1. CSDS-Lokniti survey of 2019 General Elections, published in The Hindu
2. “Democracy Report 2024” by V-Dem Institute
3. Election Commission of India
4. Election Atlas of India: Parliamentary elections 1952 – 2014, edited by Dr. R. K. Thukral
5. “Functioning of the 17th Lok Sabha report” by PRS Legislative Research
6. The video was taken from Sansad TV’s YouTube page: https://youtu.be/nAEi596jYSs?si=6xlVpOABcoFB07Bc
7. The Hindu Archives