Unpacking India’s Elections: Implications and Next Steps

India’s Elections: Implications and What’s Next

Earlier this month, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi won reelection, giving him a third straight term—a feat achieved by only one other Indian leader, independence hero Jawaharlal Nehru. But Modi and his party failed to gain an outright majority, meaning that Modi will now have to lead a governing coalition for the first time. In this Indo-Pacific Program discussion, a group of past and present Wilson Center fellows take stock of the election results and what they mean for India. They look in particular at implications for the economy—including reform prospects—and for Hindu nationalism, as well as for foreign policy.

The panelists are Venkat Lokanathan, former Indian NSC and Wilson Center Global Fellow; Neeti Nair, professor of history, University of Virginia and Wilson Center Global Fellow; Ajay Shankar, Distinguished Fellow, The Energy and Resources Institute (New Delhi), and former Wilson Center Public Policy Fellow; and Ajay Verghese, associate professor, Middlebury College, and Wilson Center Fellow. Wilson Center Indo Pacific Program deputy director Michael Kugelman moderates the discussion.

[dhiraj]

Hindu influence uniform civil code😂😂😂😂😂just like Christian influence UCC in USA.

[dhiraj]

Lower caste groups are indigenous groups 😂😂😂😂 brilliant history

[dhiraj]

Talking against religious based reservations is antiminority🤣🤣 brilliant sociology

[akshaykalbhor]

lol Mr. Ajay Shankar just lying through his teeth. The spineless bureaucrats should also be held responsible for the country's downhill trajectory.

[deekshagupta]

Dr. Venkat was the only speaker who thought it important enough to come prepared. Only speaker purely based on research and data. Excellent presentation.

[NGutsNGlory]

“Hindu inflicted Uniform Civil Code”- Pseudo Secularism at its peak 😂😂 by Ms Neeti Nair

[ndhrtd]

Modi hatred makes 2 of the Brown Coolies find faults with every aspect of election/ democracy without any objective past data/ policy. They can try harder next time, with Pak-apologist Kugelman😂

[IN-udks]

You, from abroad, can speculate any reason but let me tell you the real reason. Following a same toolkit, all opposition parties have set some propaganda narratives on constitution, OBC and CAA and that have given PM Modi some drawback but not for long. Anti-India toolkit is in action and this toolkit was also supported by the western foreign governments because they want to deal with a weak Indian Government and a weak Prime Minister of India and therefore have used their various news media to target the ruling party BJP and PM Modi and by doing so, they have also interfered into Indian election by trying to influence Indian voters during that election. OBC and Muslims are the decisive vote bank in many constituencies in North India. But false narratives do not deceive the people of India and now they understand what has just happened. Just do some research on these propaganda narratives on constitution, OBC and CAA during this election and you will get your answer.

[saibalganguly]

Only skewed narrative without any knowledge or understanding about Bharat and its diversity and history... Better rejected and neglected from audience from glorious ancient civilization of Bharat... Best wishes..

[rakadus]

Venkat - the only sensible speaker. Data driven.

[ex-fabiansocialist]

That’s all you could manage from “intellectual” circles ? 😂

[banditonehundred]

Feku has been exposed in this election. The downfall has started, I expect him to become more extreme now as he has gone senile. He promised development, but now only talks about temple construction 😒

[BaagiBunty]

When u talk just about muslims you are secular and call urself minority activists when India have 2nd highest population is muslims and we have 6 minorities who are too little compared to 1.4 B . Nevertheless tribes in India are far more backward and need attention which no so called social activist highlight or talk 😅😅

[GautamDewan]

This was a very substantive discussion. I like this non-interruptive format. Thank you.

[Narendra]

That Neeti Nair is probably confused about the number of genders in the world

[debashishmukerji]

Please don't worry about the comments you have been receiving, most of which are adverse. If they really reflected public opinion, Modi's BJP would have won over 400 seats (as it claimed it would before the results were known)