Weak opposition
According to observers, Modi also benefits from the fact that the opposition is weak and fragmented. “The Indian opposition has been busy with itself for a decade and has no strategy for this election,” said Elias Marini Schäfer of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in New Delhi.
Modi's biggest challenger was Rahul Gandhi of the Congress Party, who had governed most of India's independence from Britain in 1947 – until the party ousted Modi from power with the BJP in 2014. Since then, India's influence on the world stage has increased significantly. Western countries want to cooperate more closely with China in dealing with an increasingly aggressive China.
Criticism of Modi
Modi concentrates power in his office, weakens the independence of public institutions such as the judiciary and media, builds a cult of personality around himself and pursues his party's ideological goals with ruthless efficiency, wrote Foreign Affairs magazine ahead of the Choice event. “There is no more democracy in India,” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi recently commented.
Modi, on the other hand, has reassured his supporters with his vision of making the subcontinent a rich and globally valued nation with Hinduism at the center of its national identity. Critics complain that religious minorities are increasingly becoming second-class citizens. Opposition leader Gandhi worried: “They want to eliminate the democratic process so that they can destroy all other ideas.” To achieve this goal, Modi's party is seeking constitutional changes. However, this would require a two-thirds majority in parliament – which observers say would be difficult.
