It is ironic, but the fact that incumbents routinely lose or underperform in Indian elections leads to people having very high trust in the validity of the elections.
On a different note, India's economic reforms have historically not correlated negatively with coalition governments. The Narasimha Rao government which initiated the mother of all policy reforms was itself a minority government. I think on major policies, BJP can still set the agenda. TDP is also extremely pro-business. Modi is not known for his coalition skills, but that may also be underestimating the man. Nitish Kumar is a wild card, but BJP will probably induce some more fence sitters to its fold to make management of the coalition government easier. They have enormous money advantage at the end of the day.
The importance of this election is likely the realization among opposition parties of the simple math that BJP has won only a third of the vote, and cannot win a majority of the seats if the opposition is united. This will likely put a ceiling on hegemonic behavior on the part of BJP.
Not rushing to form judgement about the election results. Is Thomas the only foreign writer who has learnt not to see India through any ideological lens?
Keep writing. Your voice is Indispensable
Such a sorted take on what's unfolding!
Love reading your weekly substack .
It is ironic, but the fact that incumbents routinely lose or underperform in Indian elections leads to people having very high trust in the validity of the elections.
On a different note, India's economic reforms have historically not correlated negatively with coalition governments. The Narasimha Rao government which initiated the mother of all policy reforms was itself a minority government. I think on major policies, BJP can still set the agenda. TDP is also extremely pro-business. Modi is not known for his coalition skills, but that may also be underestimating the man. Nitish Kumar is a wild card, but BJP will probably induce some more fence sitters to its fold to make management of the coalition government easier. They have enormous money advantage at the end of the day.
The importance of this election is likely the realization among opposition parties of the simple math that BJP has won only a third of the vote, and cannot win a majority of the seats if the opposition is united. This will likely put a ceiling on hegemonic behavior on the part of BJP.
What an interesting comment. Thank you for writing this
Not rushing to form judgement about the election results. Is Thomas the only foreign writer who has learnt not to see India through any ideological lens?
If it makes your day any happier. You are really humble in your writings. God bless Thomas ji.