India’s PM Modi retreats for meditation as marathon election nears end

Issued by: January 6, 2024 – 13:58

3 minutes

Modi arrived at the Swami Vivekananda Rock Memorial in southern India on Thursday and is not expected to appear again until late Saturday, by which time voting in the remaining 57 constituencies to determine their representatives in India’s parliament should be over.

Saturday’s vote marks the seventh and final phase of a phased general election that began on April 19.

Full results are due to be announced on June 4, with the prime minister’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) expected to win a majority for the third consecutive term.

In a symbolic move, Modi will spend his final hours of voting at an underwater retreat dedicated to Vivekananda, the 19th century spiritual leader and social reformer who is said to have attained enlightenment there in 1892.

Surrounded by police and armoured boats, Modi will go into meditation at 7 pm on Thursday and is due to break his silence 48 hours later, party workers told RFI.

Strategic Choices

Analysts say Modi’s choice to retire to the southern state of Tamil Nadu was a strategic one, as his Bharatiya Janata Party has struggled to gain influence in southern India.

But rivals say the high-profile religious event was actually aimed at voters in Modi’s northern constituency of Varanasi, where voters are due to decide on Saturday whether to re-elect him to a third term.

The main opposition BJP party, the BJP National Congress, complained to the Election Commission of India that the prime minister’s displays of piety violated election laws that require a ban on election campaigning shortly before voting.

“The visit will be widely televised and will be broadcast during a 48-hour silence period in Varanasi,” the Indian National Congress told watchdog groups on Thursday.

“Through his meditation trip, Prime Minister Modi is exploiting the ethno-cultural significance of the chosen location to bolster his election campaign and maximise his vote share.”

Vocation

The BJP described the Prime Minister’s visit to the memorial as a “personal matter”.

Modi, who has developed a cult of personality within his party, says he was only following God’s orders on earth.

“I believe God has sent me with a purpose and once that purpose is achieved, my job is done,” he told NDTV news channel over the weekend.

“God doesn’t open cards, he commands me to carry out his commands.”

But critics accuse Modi of using increasingly authoritarian tactics to stay in power.

“Modi is pursuing a ‘one leader, one nation’ policy and his intentions are very dangerous for India,” said Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi’s chief minister and leader of the opposition Ahmadabad Party.

“He sent many rivals to prison and excluded colleagues who dared to speak out,” said Kejriwal, who was jailed by the Modi government until he was released on bail earlier this month.

Majoritarianism danger

During his election campaign, Modi also made a series of inflammatory rhetoric aimed at people outside India’s Hindu majority, particularly Muslims.

In one case, the prime minister said at a rally that the opposition BJP wanted to distribute Hindu wealth to “infiltrators” from large families, a remark that was widely seen as a derogatory remark about Muslims.

Analysts said the comments, delivered just as six weeks of voting was about to begin, were a deliberate attempt to pave the way.

“With voting divided into seven phases, we can see that Prime Minister Modi’s speeches have become tougher and more divisive,” Gopinath Ravindran, a professor of history at Delhi’s Jamia Millia University, told RFI.

Ravindran said the anti-Muslim rhetoric reflected insecurity within the ruling party, “but that does not mean they will lose this election,” he argued.

“The threat now is that if the current government comes to power again, it may make significant changes to the constitution and move towards a Hindu-majority polity.”

“The public needs to watch closely,” he added.