The results of the national elections announced on Monday in India, a key member of the BRICS and the world’s most populous country, returned the coalition backing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to the majority of Lok Sabha (the lower, but decisive chamber of India’s parliament), with 294 of the 543 seats. Modi will now serve as Prime Minister for a third consecutive term. His BJP party, however, did not do as well as Modi had projected, losing its absolute majority in the Lok Sabha.
What Indians chose to do in the wake of the electoral shift is up to them and remains to be seen, but the hyenas of the “rules-based order” wasted no time in announcing that they see an opportunity to wreak havoc so India learns to “stay in its place.”
The City of London quickly pronounced Modi “weakened” and “humbled,” and thus vulnerable to their pressure. “A shock election result in India humbles Narendra Modi,” read the headline of The Economist’s June 4 report. The kicker forecast that “instead of strongman rule an uncertain era of coalition government beckons.” The Economist seems particularly eager to find that Modi’s plans to “revamp policies intended to boost the manufacturing industry, including the government’s flagship industrial-subsidy scheme” may become “complicated.”
