Varanasi is the spiritual capital of Hinduism, where devotees from around India and even from outside often come to cremate deceased loved ones by the Ganges river, and Narendra Modi has represented the city since sweeping to power a decade ago in 2014 polls.
Then he had said, "Mujhe Maa Ganga ne bulaya hae (It appears, I am here because mother Ganges had called me)" -- in 2014.
Nothing much has changed. “I swear on God… I will have faith and allegiance to India’s constitution,” the Prime Minister read out the mandatory clauses before handing over the paperwork to an election officer. Modi was flanked on the occasion by a bearded Hindu mystic dressed in a loincloth.
Cheering crowds greeted Namo on Tuesday, May 14 as he submitted his candidacy for a Hindu holy city’s parliamentary seat in a general election his party is strongly favoured to win.
Modi remains roundly popular in India, in large part due to his cultivated image as an aggressive champion of the country’s majority faith and also as someone who delivered on developmental front, welfare measures and in diplomatic taking India's prestige to newe heights.
“It’s our good fortune that Modi represents our constituency of Varanasi,” devout Hindu Jitendra Singh Kumar, a 52-year-old farmer, told AFP while waiting to catch a glimpse of the leader. (according to a report in Pakistani newspaper 'Dawn')
Modi waved to the gathered crowd after emerging from the office before leaving with his entourage, made up of senior figures from his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The 73-year-old Modi, who has made acts of religious devotion a fixture of his premiership, had spent the morning visiting temples and offering prayers at the banks of the Ganges.
Tens of thousands of supporters had lined the streets of Varanasi to greet Modi as he arrived in the city on Monday, waving to the crowd from atop a flatbed truck as loudspeakers blared devotional songs. Many along the roadside waved saffron-coloured flags bearing the lotus flower emblem of the BJP, throwing marigold flowers at the procession as it passed by, reports AFP.
Modi-fications of Indian elections : Can an unsure America influence outcome of a mammoth exercise?
New Delhi
America is known as the world's most self-confident nation. But is it an unsure land today and alsoa bit glum ? Should the US policy makers and other key stakeholders interfere in Indian elections? Is not Indiaits friend and a dependable strategic partner?
Russia, also a friend of India more due to historical legacy and defence cooperation butnot a democracy, says Washington wants to "unbalance the internal political situation in India and complicate the general elections".
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The terse remarks came from Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, who said"America continues to make 'unfounded accusations' about religious freedoms," and is also being "disrespectful" towards India.
Interesting part of the story is that Moscow itself was charged a few years ago with influencing US Presidentialelections. Now Vladimir Putin is probably trying to give an impression that he has stronger ties with India's Narendra Modi.
Though from total different backgrounds, Putin and Modi share good personal rapport and during theentire period of ongoing Ukraine crisis, Modi-ruled India has charted out independent pathand did not oblige its western friends including the US in voting with them against Putin's aggressivemilitary adventurism at the UN Security Council.
Now India is going through its election season and somehow the 'western' attacks from unofficial channels like institutional reports and media coverage published from western capitals are immensely anti-Modi.
"There is a school of thought in BJP which believes that though a friend; the US government especiallyunder democratic Joe Biden is not comfortable with Modi's rise and India choosing an independentpath. If India is not behaving like a junior ally which Pakistan readily did once a few years back and India is pursuingfriendship with Russia, they know Biden cannot be too happy," says analyst Tushar Bhadra in Modi's parliamentary constituency Varanasi.
In all these if today Russia is trying to build up a case for stronger ties with India; one should not be surprised.
Here is an example. 'The Guardian', London in Editorial asked Indians to 'think hard' about re-electing PM Narendra Modi. Now analyst Chris Blackburn says such articles hinder work of foreign press in India.
“Editorials of this nature hinder the work of foreign press in India. Collectively, foreign correspondents should express their concerns to 'The Guardian' — asking them to refrain from biased reporting.
Tell them to put a sock in it,” Chris Blackburn wrote in the 'Daily Express'.
It is natural that the will of the masses would manifest through periodic elections in India - that is world's largest democracy.
It is also true in terms of strategic ties, governance models and politics empowered by pro-Hindutva (Hindu first) phenomenon that Narendra Modi had offered a decade of big time difference than his predecessors especially any Congress Prime Minister.
Hence, if some strategic thinkers in the west or newspapers such as New York Times and London-based'The Guardian' build up a case against the Modi government; one need not be surprised much.
But at the same time to suggest that the Biden government in Washington and governments in some European countriesmay not like Modi's return to power in Delhi or are trying to disturb and influence the poll outcome in India could be still a little far-fetched.
In fact, a video footage prepared by BJP for the election campaign implies the Congress partybeing assisted by George Soros.
Swapan Dasgupta is a BJP leader and a former journalist.
He writes acidly sounding critical of the west, "If the June 4 results lead to the BJP decimating the Rahul Gandhi-led-Congress party yet again, it is likely that Modi's overseas critics will team up with India's opposition to question the legitimacy of the triumph. .... the larger objective is to sow doubts in the minds of business leaders and political decision-makers about India's success story."
Dasgupta further wrote: "Modi is the real target and by taring him with the brush of autocracy, his critics hope to envelop him their yet another murky controversy".
There is another fact of the matter. In 2005, the US denied Visa to Modi for his alleged complicityin 2002 anti-Muslim carnage in Gujarat when Modi was the state Chief Minister.So to feel the Americans still have complaints about Modi is also not unthinkable.
But in 2014 when Modi became the Prime Minister with such a huge mandate; no lessthan Barack Obama had received Modi with 'Kemchho (How are you)' Gujarati salutation.
It is true the Modi-Donald Trump and later Modi-Biden relationship have also grown stronger and so have the diplomatic ties. But for last few months the US has been trying touse an alleged hidden Indian operation (which New Delhi has denied) carried out in US and Canada
to eliminate a few Sikh pro-Khalistani radical leaders.
On the other hand, Dasgupta also says: "The twinning of the western liberal establishment concerns over India's democratic backsliding with the opposition Congress party's fighting the polls on a similar platform is significant".
The unique position that India has attained lately is actually effectively explained wellby India's suave foreign minister Dr S Jaishankar.
“It is time for us to engage America, manage China, cultivate Europe, reassure Russia, bring Japan into play, draw neighbours in, extend the neighbourhood and expand traditional constituencies of support," he says.
In fact it is also true that If India drove the revived 'Quad arrangement', it also took membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which is guided generally by China. Moreover, there is a longstanding trilateral arrangement between India, Russia and China - RIC. And it alsocoexists when India is also a partner of Australia and also the US and Japan forming Quad.
BJP leaders also feel that much of the western criticism of Indian systems and governance modelsarise from an "ignorance" of the thought processes in India.
"That is hardly surprising when much of the West was historically so dismissive of our society," Jaishankar said.
Now let us take a few headlines from the western media and a few from likely Chinese proxies - in the context of elections in India and the functioning of the Modi Govt and PM Narendra Modi in particular.
'Laments India's descent into authoritarianism' --- Nikkei Asia (Japan)
** "Is India's BJP, the world's most ruthlessly efficient political party" ?? - 'Financial Times'.
"The 'Mother of Democracy' is not in Good shape"
'Modi's Slide Toward Autocracy' -- 'The Foreign Policy'
The BJP leaders do not find these palatable and far from reality perhaps written with a sense ofsuperiority complex by western journalists with their usual prejudices.
Foreign Minister Jaishankar addressing a forum for 'nationalist thinkers' in Hyderabad last month said, "I get a lot of these noises from the Western press and if they criticize our democracy, it's not because they lack information. It is because they think they are also political players in our election".
Jaishankar also stressed that "They (West) actually think they are part of our electorate", adding, "I think it's time today that we disabuse them, and the best way that we do that, is by confidence."
These in other words sound like 'western interference'.
Hence, it may not be totally erroneous to say that what Russia has tried to say is what has been echoed byBJP leaders including foreign minister Jaishankar.
Sanjay Das, a Congress leader in Meghalaya state, says, "I can connect the dots.....Russia's statementabout US interference in Indian elections may be a case to suggest that "India's Putin, Modi" is this time getting helpand moral support from Russian czar Vladimir Putin. But Russia is no democracy, hence our fear isgenuine if BJP comes back, India's parliamentary democracy may be sacrificed".
“By embracing complexity and diverse voices, Western journalists can contribute to a more nuanced and insightful portrayal of India on the global stage,” Blackburn added.
"A glaring example of the disparity between foreign media and Indian journalism surfaced during a panel discussion on violence in Manipur featured on BBC's Newsnight last year.
Amana Begam Ansari, a journalist for The Print, one of India’s leading news outlets, challenged the portrayal of Muslims and minorities facing genocidal threats.
She emphasized that while communal tensions exist in India, they are often exaggerated by Western media.
ends
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