Vaibhav Vats: “Prime Minister Narendra Modi seemed subdued when India’s election results were declared on June 4. His Bharatiya Janata Party still had the most seats in Parliament; however, with 63 fewer than in the previous election, it had failed to secure a majority, meaning it will have to work with others in order to govern. This was not the triumphant spectacle that Modi and many of his Hindu-nationalist supporters had anticipated; rarely had a victory felt more like defeat.” [https://theatln.tc/m6vOf8mV](https://theatln.tc/m6vOf8mV)
“In January, Modi launched his campaign for a third term by inaugurating the newly constructed Ram Temple in the city of Ayodhya, on the site where a 16th-century mosque stood before it was violently erased by a mob of Hindu nationalists in 1992. Bollywood stars and business moguls attended the glitzy ceremony; military choppers showered rose petals from overhead. Earlier that month, the BJP adopted the slogan “Ab ki baar, 400 paar,” which means ‘This time, we’ll cross 400 seats.’ Such a supermajority would have allowed the party to reshape India in an explicitly Hindu-nationalist direction, further along the lines of centralization, authoritarianism, and ethnonationalism.”
“Instead, Indian voters opted to arrest Modi’s growing autocratic excesses and force the BJP to govern with secular allies in a coalition; two of those allied parties are led by notoriously transactional political actors who will control the prime minister’s fate and do not share his Hindu-nationalist ideology. The Modi who became prime minister for the third time, on June 9, did so as a weakened and diminished figure—one who had failed to take the true measure of the country he hoped to continue governing, and was now paying the price.”
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Vaibhav Vats: “Prime Minister Narendra Modi seemed subdued when India’s election results were declared on June 4. His Bharatiya Janata Party still had the most seats in Parliament; however, with 63 fewer than in the previous election, it had failed to secure a majority, meaning it will have to work with others in order to govern. This was not the triumphant spectacle that Modi and many of his Hindu-nationalist supporters had anticipated; rarely had a victory felt more like defeat.” [https://theatln.tc/m6vOf8mV](https://theatln.tc/m6vOf8mV)
“In January, Modi launched his campaign for a third term by inaugurating the newly constructed Ram Temple in the city of Ayodhya, on the site where a 16th-century mosque stood before it was violently erased by a mob of Hindu nationalists in 1992. Bollywood stars and business moguls attended the glitzy ceremony; military choppers showered rose petals from overhead. Earlier that month, the BJP adopted the slogan “Ab ki baar, 400 paar,” which means ‘This time, we’ll cross 400 seats.’ Such a supermajority would have allowed the party to reshape India in an explicitly Hindu-nationalist direction, further along the lines of centralization, authoritarianism, and ethnonationalism.”
“Instead, Indian voters opted to arrest Modi’s growing autocratic excesses and force the BJP to govern with secular allies in a coalition; two of those allied parties are led by notoriously transactional political actors who will control the prime minister’s fate and do not share his Hindu-nationalist ideology. The Modi who became prime minister for the third time, on June 9, did so as a weakened and diminished figure—one who had failed to take the true measure of the country he hoped to continue governing, and was now paying the price.”
Read more: [https://theatln.tc/m6vOf8mV](https://theatln.tc/m6vOf8mV)