Source: Associated Press
By AMRIT DHILLON
NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi described his first term as “filling in potholes” — shorthand for addressing the country’s basic needs.
In a campaign speech in April, he pledged his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in the next five years would “try to address people’s aspirations and take the country to new heights.”
Modi claimed a decisive victory in India’s elections, the vote count showing his BJP winning a commanding majority in the lower house of Parliament allowing it to form a form a government on its own.
The victory signals that millions of Indians believe that Modi’s leadership is what the country needs to become a modern, developed and prosperous nation, while raising questions over how he and his party use such hefty political capital to advance their Hindu-first ideology and development agenda.