India under Modi’s second term: Democratic resilience amidst illiberal impulses
| Date | 01 March 2022 |
| Published date | 01 March 2022 |
| Author | Shalendra Sharma |
| DOI | 10.1177/2057891120926605 |
| Subject Matter | Research articles |
India under Modi’s second
term: Democratic
resilience amidst
illiberal impulses
Shalendra Sharma
Lingnan University, Hong Kong
Abstract
Almost all observers believed that India’s 2019 general election would result in a hung parliament
and a coalition government. Yet, the election returned Prime Minister Narendra of the pro-Hindu
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to a second five-year term in office. The BJP not only increased its
parliamentary majority, it also won seats in states and regions beyond the Hindi heartland. Indeed,
Modi is the first prime minister since Indira Gandhi in 1971 to be reelected with a larger majority.
What explains Modi’s spectacular electoral victory, and what does his victory bode for India’s
representative democratic political order? Will India turn towards illiberalism as Modi tries to turn
India into a Hindu majoritarian state? The following pages argue that such pessimism is unwar-
ranted since India’s democracy is far more resilient, with built-in mechanisms against potential
strongmen.
Keywords
Indian politics, liberal democracy, Modi
A Pew Research Center (Kat, 2019) report, “A sampling of public opinion in India,” released on
March 25, 2019, just weeks before an estimated 900 million eligible voters went to the polls to
elect a new Lok Sabha (the 545-seat lower house of the Indian Parliament), revealed some dis-
turbing news about the country’s democratic political system. Only 54 percent of Indians were
“satisfied with the way democracy is working in their country.” Even more troubling the satisfac-
tion level has seen a steady erosion over the years. The most pessimistic are the country’s privi-
leged classes, especially the English educated elites. The report echoes the Economist (2019),
which warns that the singular greatest threat to India’s democracy comes from Prime Minister
Corresponding author:
Shalendra Sharma, Lingnan University, 8 Castle Peak Road, Tuen Mun, Hong Kong.
Email: shalendrasharma@LN.edu.hk
Asian Journal of Comparative Politics
ªThe Author(s) 2020
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/2057891120926605
journals.sagepub.com/home/acp
2022, Vol. 7(1) 162–171
Research article
To continue reading
Request your trial