Inside Modi's strategy to win the Indian election | The Story

India's PM Narendra Modi is favoured to win a third term as 970 million voters hit the polls in a six-week general election. Using an aggressive digital campaign, he’s doubling down on Hindu nationalism and promising more development. However, crackdowns on opposition and the press have intensified during his decade-long leadership, raising concerns about the future of India's secular democracy.

Guest: Philip Sherwell, Asia correspondent, The Sunday Times.

Host: Maveen Rana.

Clips: ANI, Reuters, DW News, BBC, CNN, The Wire, Brut India.

[harshpatel]

😂 UK should take care their island first

[IndroneelMukerji]

All western media houses are purblind in their ‘opinion’ and narrative of India. The ordinary Indian, entirely ignored by the so called ‘socialist’, ‘secular’, ‘liberal’ political parties and cynically exploited during past elections, unequivocally does not see Mr. Modi as autocratic, dictatorial, or corrupt. What is also ignored is the progress made for the ordinary Indian in the last ten years on access to drinking water, electricity, safe lavatories for women (yes, the socialist - secular - English speaking elite look at such development with utter contempt), public transportation infrastructure, a digital public welfare - social security framework and other similar work. Moreover, the underlying civilisation of India is Hindu, and successive, barbaric assaults by invaders over time has been exacerbated by the socio-economic - political subjugation of the population over a millennium. These are not subjects that the elites would like to air. India has turned its ship, and is now progressing on its own path - and those who profited immediately after the partition and transfer of power - hate it. Viscerally. And that visceral hate is what the western media hears.

[silverlineash]

This is what Modi doesn’t do:

So socialism with other people’s money, or secularism with other people’s religion! Hence he is authentic - no authoritarian! He is democratic - not demoniac! He is visionary- not a puppet from missionaries!

[subhash]

I have been to india for 3 weeks and i have not seen any of the issues mentioned

[srijandatta]

What a waste of time. Is this journalism or propaganda? No nuance!!

[veljishah]

Modi is bharat
You will have to change
Change

[manoharchandrashekar]

U don't know anything about the facts tgis is nonsense

[mmsapollo]

I first heard Pres Modi speak shortly after his election, and the 'vibe' I got was that this was where he was heading. So sad that the intention of democracy is being erroded world-wide when we are One World Family. Methinks much more could be accomplished thru cooperation than opposition😢

[TCCTeam-jjrq]

You dare to call it a controversial temple! that is a proof that we are tolerant, and the world is taking advantages of us. I ask you, do you dare to call Mecca Madina a controversial mosque?
Everyone makes fun of our religious beliefs. Temples were broken and Hindus were converted. Most muslims in India are converted forcefully, read our history. Do you support this conversion? And christian conversion is on since decades. You christians believe Jesus is the only way to salvation. Muslims believe Mohammad and Koran are the only way to salvation.
But we the Hindus, are far more tolerant than you. we accept every religion, and DO NOT believe in conversion. we believe that your "duty" towards mankind is your foremost religion, and you should only follow your own religion, not ours, or anyone else's.
Do you think such a person is an extremist? In fact channels like yours are unknowingly supporting extremism.
For us Ayodhya Ram Mandir is far more than Mecca Madina is for Muslims (And if your intellect tell you that this is just a false belief, ask yourself how tolerant you are). But this is the pain of Hindus, you call it controversial. This "controversial" Ayodhya and Shri Ram and his character guide every moment of our lives. Countless people sacrificed their lives to get back our temple which was broken 500 years ago. And RSS and Modi are born out of this and many such pains. Our country was big, now broken into religions and castes and regions, because of races like yours, and foreign invasions, and it is still facing attacks from all sides. Western Media cries, because India is awakening. It is rising for the first time in the history. India is synonymous to Hindu (ask ChatGPT how) and this is OUR country. How much do you respect Indians in your countries, the world knows, and every indian knows. So we defend our self respect by claiming our rights!
Also read @IndroneelMukerji's comments. They will also give you some insight on the Hindu viewpoint.

[HIMANSHU]

India does not and should not aspire to adhere to "western values" assuming that there is a standard definition of that term that can capture all the complexity of coastal US, southern US, Canada, UK, Germany, France and Italy, not to mention the smaller western nations and cultures.

India is a civilisational state that has its own system of values - as a key example Indians of all religious persuasions will agree that taking care of parents and elderly is the adult children's responsibility and not that of the State. This is so deeply ingrained as to constitute a fundamental value system of its own and that value system in turn drives economics - as it properly must, which is another point of departure from the "economistic" way of thinking that reduces all human relations to economics.

Mahatma Gandhi said we must balance "Rights" in the Western sense with "Duties". That notion of Duty is deeply ingrained in our civilisation, duty to our parents and elders, duty to our teachers, duty to broader society, duty to mother nature and so on.

This is not some old-fashioned thinking that will disappear with "modernity". It is a deeply relevant perspective the West can usefully learn from.

[maureenstarr]

I was India and there were plenty of people that did not approve of him

[mayerrathore]

India have the same policy as Israel what is why modi supports Israel

[yeshua]

Fighting Islam is essential to his victory.

[rizwanhussain]

Modi is the quintessential Mandirchaap!

[dmib]

Modi sounds like a bit of a rascal to me...

[techups]

so many sensitive modi fans in comments. proving "cult" comments

[MoralScienceEducation]

Given India is the largest democracy in the world, it will be interesting to see how its human rights record will be elevated to become exemplary to the world🙏

[BRODI-vthy]

Mal Nesetu needs to be binned the audio is trash