I’ve Reported on Modi for Over a Decade. His Hindu Nationalist Ideas Will Be Even More Dangerous Now – By Rana Ayyub

…As a journalist, I have covered Modi’s career since his days as the Chief Minister of Gujarat and know his strategies all too well.

Yet the defining image of the Indian election results was not of Modi’s speech in Delhi; it was of Pragya Singh Thakur, dressed in saffron robes, waving at a large crowd after a massive electoral victory. Thakur, a Hindu priestess from the northern Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, is best known for being charged under a terror law for conspiring and carrying out the 2008 bomb blasts in a Muslim-majority city of Maharashtra that left 10 people dead.…

Narendra Modi has been re-elected as an aggressive leader who can redeem nationalist pride for a country that seems to be basking in his unabashed majoritarian assertion. The defining idea of Narendra Modi’s landslide 2019 victory is Hindutva, the ideology that defines Indian culture in terms of Hindu values. That could assert itself toward a dangerous conclusion in the next five years if left unchecked.

https://time.com/5595576/modi-victory-hindu-nationalism/

SEE ALSO:

• One generation will have to bear the cost of what Modi has done – Ashis Nandy with Ajaz Ashraf (Jun 20, 2019, The Caravan)
  https://caravanmagazine.in/politics/ashis-nandy-interview-2019-election-verdict
• Sabka Vishwas: Will Modi walk the talk? – By Sunil Varghese (Jun 14, 2019, Rediff)
  https://www.rediff.com/news/column/sabka-vishwas-will-modi-2-walk-the-talk/20190614.html
• 2019 Parliamentary Poll Outcome: Drivers: Consequences An Exploration – By Sukla Sen (Jun 15, 2019, Countercurrents)
  https://countercurrents.org/2019/06/2019-parliamentary-poll-outcome-drivers-consequences-an-exploration
• Narendra Modi has an opportunity to rid India of vote-bank politics, close trust deficit with BJP by going big on educational uplift of Muslims – By Sreemoy Talukdar (Jun 13, 2019, First Post)
  https://www.firstpost.com/politics/narendra-modi-has-an-opportunity-to-rid-india-of-vote-bank-politics-gap-trust-deficit-with-bjp-by-going-big-on-educational-upliftment-of-muslims-6804391.html