CHENNAI, India (AP) – Prime Minister Narendra Modi has maintained near-total control of Indian politics since coming to power a decade ago, with one exception: the country’s wealthier southern regions. failed to gain support.
India’s five southern states account for approximately 20% of the country’s population and 30% of its economy. These are the heart of India’s manufacturing and high-tech sectors. They are ethnically diverse and proud of their multilingualism. They provide education and employment opportunities for women and have a long history of progressive politics.
None of these are controlled by Prime Minister Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. It is a direct rejection of the party’s Hindu nationalist agenda, which enjoys wide support in northern India.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is expected to win India’s general election, the results of which will be announced in June, and Mr. Modi is expected to remain prime minister for another five years. However, it is likely that there will be strong resistance in the south. That would negate Mr. Modi’s ambitions to unite all of India and limit how far he can push the Bharatiya Janata Party’s policy of promoting one religion and language over another.
“If you think a unified Hindi-speaking civilization is your reason for existence, that’s a big hurdle to overcome,” said Neelakantan RS, a data scientist and political analyst.
Voters and leaders in India’s southern states have different needs than voters and leaders in the rural and populous north. One thing they want is for the Modi government to better recognize the region’s important role in the country’s economic development.
They say their significant contributions to India’s tax base are being betrayed by Prime Minister Modi’s preferential treatment of poor northern states, which receive disproportionate amounts of government funding for development projects and social welfare programs. I feel it.
Mr. Modi’s infusion of religion into politics will only exacerbate tensions with many southern voters.
Despite strong opposition, Mr. Modi has been actively campaigning in the south. His goal is for the Bharatiya Janata Party to win enough seats in the Lok Sabha to secure a two-thirds majority. Political analyst Kavitha Muralidharan said that with so much power, the party could try to amend the constitution to achieve its Hindu-centric goals.
“We need a supermajority to start a full-fledged pan-India Hindutva experiment,” Muralidharan said, referring to the century-old ideology that has guided Prime Minister Modi.
PM Modi’s Southern Strategy
Prime Minister Modi has visited the five southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana about 20 times this year. They control about a quarter of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha and are within reach of a super majority if the BJP wins just over the 29 seats it won from these states in 2019.
But experts say this could happen because southern voters have deep ties to regional parties that have dominated for decades and are the Bharatiya Janata Party’s toughest electoral opponents nationwide. I’m skeptical.
Prime Minister Modi is focusing on the southernmost state of Tamil Nadu, where his Bharatiya Janata Party failed to win any of the 39 seats it was expected to win in the 2019 general election.
During a recent visit, PM Modi wore a veshti, a traditional white silk garment from the region, wrapped around his lower body and used artificial intelligence software to translate his speech from Hindi to Tamil in real time.
“Tamil, as the world’s oldest language, makes us feel immense pride,” Prime Minister Modi said recently, in an effort to quash rumors that the Bharatiya Janata Party wants to force Hindi on the country. It seems like it is.
Still, Dileep Kumar, a computer engineer in Bengaluru, said voters in Tamil Nadu are wary. “You can’t go to a Hindi guy and say, brother, stop speaking Hindi and start speaking Tamil. That’s not going to work, is it?” he said.
A BJP candidate running for Parliament in the capital Chennai believes his party is doing its best to garner support in recent years.
“His frequent visits are helping us,” said Tamilisai Soundararajan. “People here were moved to see the prime minister.”
But the incumbent she’s running against is questionable. Tamizachi Thangapandian, a former university professor and member of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Party, the BJP’s chief rival in Tamil Nadu, said that in a place with a long history of social justice and equal rights movements, Hindu He said that religion-centered politics would not resonate.
Mr. Thangapandian, who recently greeted voters in an open tuk-tuk through the streets of Chennai, was greeted by the beat of drums and firecrackers. Her party’s achievements were blared through a series of speakers, including references to eliminating the “religion-mad” Bharatiya Janata Party.
Prime Minister Modi has regularly mentioned Hindu temples recently built on top of demolished mosques in his campaign, but the issue has not galvanized voters in southern India the way it has elsewhere. .
South India is home to some of India’s most visited temples and millions of Hindu followers. Experts say it is characterized by the fact that religion has not been weaponized for political gain.
“People are religious here,” says Muralidharan, a political analyst. “But it doesn’t change the enthusiasm.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s religious fervor has worried leaders in the region as it could cause “disruption of peace” in a place that has a global reputation as a good place to do business. said G. Sundarajan, a robot entrepreneur in Chennai, where Hyundai is headquartered. And he Foxconn (maker of Apple iPhone) set up a factory.
“Investors like Tamil Nadu precisely because it is peaceful, has a large and highly educated workforce, and has support from the local government,” he said.
During his visit to the south, Prime Minister Modi toned down his Hindu nationalist rhetoric and instead focused his speech on economics. He promised, for example, that he would build a high-speed railway through southern India and support the development of fishing and car manufacturing.
Tensions over wealth redistribution
South India’s economy is more industrialized than that of the north, its cities are more urbanized, and its youth are better educated.
The southern Indian city is also a magnet for global technology companies such as Apple and Google looking to diversify beyond China. Prime Minister Modi is proud of the great potential of India’s economy, currently the fifth largest in the world.
But political leaders in southern India feel that not enough change is being made by Mr. Modi.
India’s second-richest state, Tamil Nadu, pays less for every rupee in taxes than poorer northern states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which receive government investments worth two to three times the amount of tax paid. much less in return.
This tension over the redistribution of wealth from the South to the North existed long before the Modi government came to power. But the Bharatiya Janata Party made the situation worse.
Southern leaders believe that Mr. Modi’s priorities are in the north, where he derives most of his support. Muralidharan said they were concerned that if the Bharatiya Janata Party’s majority increased, the Bharatiya Janata Party government would take more decision-making powers away from the states.
Southern leaders accused the Modi government of withholding development funds, abusing federal agencies to target political opponents in the region, and failing to send enough emergency aid after natural disasters. are protesting.
And they believe their fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party and Modi is existential.
“The danger of becoming a client state is a serious problem in southern India,” said political analyst Neelakantan.
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Pati reported from New Delhi.
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