Narendra Modi Elected Prime Minister of India

After a grueling month long season of vote casting, the winner of human history’s largest exercise of democracy has been announced – Mr. Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will become the next Prime Minister of India.

Mr. Narendra Modi, the next Prime Minister of India (image courtesy of IBN Live News)

Five hundred and fifty million voters elected Mr. Modi and the BJP with a landslide majority of about 282 seats out of the Parliament of India’s 543 total seats; his coalition, comprising of numerous regional parties that have allied with Mr. Modi and his BJP, further bring Mr. Modi’s seat count in the Indian Parliament to around 338. No party has ever ruled the Parliament of India with a complete majority on its own since 1984. Mr. Modi’s single party majority, the first in 30 years, is therefore rightfully being hailed as what will be one of the most stable governments in modern India’s history.

Mr. Modi is a controversial and divisive figure in both international and Indian media, academic, and political circles; however, it is apparent that the Indian populace has ignored repeated anti-endorsements by media outlets and publications such as The Economist, The Guardian, and The New York Times and have given Mr. Modi a landslide mandate.

Mr. Modi and the BJP have won the support of the electorate of India primarily based on his and his party’s platform of Hindu nationalism and, most prominently, economic development – a platform greatly enhanced by Mr. Modi’s stellar record of development in his home state of Gujarat, whose above average growth and development he has presided over as the state’s Chief Minister since 2001. His free market views and humble origin – Mr. Modi had been the quintessential “chai wallah” or ‘tea boy’ at a train station as a boy – contributed to his characterization as the “Ronald Reagan of India” recently by The Daily Caller.

We at The Dartmouth Review heartily congratulate Mr. Narendra Modi and wish him the best of luck – the people of India have given him a mandate for what is perhaps the toughest job in the world. The futures of a billion and 200 million people and the future of the world’s largest democracy are at stake.