Indian PM Narendra Modi has won his third consecutive term in power, but coalition politics could leave him with less control and curb his authoritative style of rule. Is this good news for India's largest minority?
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00:00India's PM Narendra Modi has made history after securing a third consecutive term in
00:05office.
00:06With this feat, Modi has now equalled this man, Jawaharlal Nehru, one of India's founding
00:11fathers and its first PM.
00:14But Modi failed to deliver a super-majority in these elections.
00:18A government requires the support of 272 lawmakers in the 543-member lower house of parliament
00:25and his party, the BJP, fell 32 seats short of a majority.
00:29Modi is now forced to rely on coalition partners to remain in power.
00:34This has diminished Modi's political brand, and experts say it will pose a challenge to
00:39his usual style of rule.
00:41Mr. Modi is not known to be somebody who works with a coalition.
00:45He's known as somebody who makes his own decisions.
00:49Often, these are secretive decisions.
00:51It's a very top-heavy and a top-down government style that we have seen.
00:55He's not used to really being questioned.
00:58He has taken many controversial decisions which could only have been taken by somebody
01:03who has a brute majority.
01:05Others feel that Modi will find a way to cut the coalition partners to size.
01:09They have managed to form a council of ministers where there are 30 cabinet ministers, 25 of
01:17them are from the BJP, and only one each from five other coalition partners.
01:25And all the key portfolios have been retained by the BJP.
01:31But what about the issues that coalition partners and Mr. Modi do not align on?
01:35What about his campaign promise to push through the uniform civil code for all citizens, replacing
01:41religion-based laws for things like marriage, divorce, and cohabitation?
01:45Opponents of the proposal argue that the code will be used to make policies favoring India's
01:50Hindu majority.
01:51Meanwhile, the BJP still remains the single largest party at 240 seats.
01:55But clearly, it will not be able to take unilateral decisions.
01:58It will not be able to bulldoze legislations because it has to work amongst its alliance
02:03partners with two very crafty, if I may use the word, and astute politicians.
02:09Another issue is the controversial Agni Veer scheme, a military recruitment reform aimed
02:14to create short-term employment.
02:16Coalition partners want a review of the program.
02:19The BJP seems to have lost in some key North Indian constituencies because of dissatisfaction
02:24among young voters, and many contribute it to the employment model.
02:28But under pressure from the alliance now, where they are already calling for at least
02:32a revision, there will be a lot of thinking that will be forced to be done on a lot of
02:38crucial issues and legislations that the BJP was planning to bring in.
02:41There are other thorny issues, such as the plans for a caste census and the push to synchronize
02:46elections, branded as one nation, one election.
02:49So I think there will be a lot of give and take, there will have to be a lot of ironing
02:53out of issues.
02:54The BJP will need to tread carefully on key issues and try to get a consensus with their
03:00partners on that by, I think, promising them packages, financial packages for their states,
03:06which they desperately need, and as a trade-off for being allowed to run the central government.
03:13And how will Modi's third term fare on Hindu nationalism?
03:20His new coalition partners are secular parties, and they do not share the BJP's Hindu-first
03:26agenda.
03:27The inauguration of a grand temple in Ayodhya for Hindu god Ram in January, a centrepiece
03:33of Modi's Hindu nationalism, failed to yield electoral dividends.
03:37In fact, the BJP was defeated in the very constituency that is home to the temple.
03:42It also lost nearly half the seats in Uttar Pradesh, a bellwether state which sends most
03:48lawmakers to parliament.
03:50And in the South, many voters found regional issues more important than the nationalist
03:54narrative.
03:55My own reading is, by 2019, the support on Hindutva had already plateaued.
04:02And there was not much scope to really garner more votes on that principle.
04:07The issues of governance, the issues of the central government, the issues of India's
04:12image, perceived image abroad, all that seemed to play a more crucial role when you came
04:17to the South.
04:18But what about the fears of the largest minority, the 200 million Muslims in the country?
04:24For the first time in India, a cabinet has been formed without a single Muslim minister
04:28in it.
04:29It's not that the Hindu-Muslim divide is going to go away from India.
04:33It's going to be very much alive and kicking.
04:35All political parties in the last few years, we have seen, peddle Hindu nationalism in
04:40different ways and different shapes.
04:41With a reduced mandate, coalition conflicts, and strong opposition parties, all eyes firmly
04:48remain on Prime Minister Modi as he enters the third term.