Has Narendra Modi changed India?
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 23 May 2019
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It's the world's biggest organised event: 900 million eligible voters across India have been to the polls in the last six weeks after five years of Narendra Modi's BJP government.
Narendra Modi's ambition was to project India as a global economic power, clamping down on corruption and burnishing its national security credentials. How far has he achieved this? And to what extent should India's non-Hindus be concerned about Narendra Modi's brand of Hindu nationalism? David Aaronovitch speaks to experts to find out.
GUESTS:
Dr S Y Quraishi - Former Chief Election Commissioner Soutik Biswas - India correspondent for BBC news online Kunal Sen - Director, Professor of Development Economics, University of Manchester Ambassador Nirupama Rao - India’s foreign secretary 2009-11; former ambassador to the US, China and Sri Lanka James Crabtree - India expert at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore and author of The Billionaire Raj
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the briefing room with me, David Aronovich. It's the biggest democratic exercise in the world. |
| 0:09.3 | Over the last six weeks, an estimated 900 million eligible voters got to cast their ballots in the Indian election. |
| 0:17.2 | Electoral officials climb mountains and traverse glaciers so even the most remote communities can take part. |
| 0:23.6 | And it seems that the incumbent party in its leader Narendra Modi have won another term and won it decisively. |
| 0:30.1 | So in this briefing room, I want to know what were the issues and what does the outcome tell us about Modi's India. |
| 0:37.1 | And if you enjoy this podcast, you might enjoy some of our other episodes, including ones on Huawei, opioids and homelessness, to name but three. |
| 0:45.2 | You can find all of them on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:59.8 | It's the biggest democratic exercise in the world. |
| 1:02.6 | The six-week-long Indian elections are over, |
| 1:06.2 | and the Hindu nationalist Baratia Janata Party, BJP, |
| 1:08.2 | has won a decisive victory, |
| 1:10.3 | meaning its leader, Narendra Modi, |
| 1:12.6 | will have a second term as Prime Minister. |
| 1:18.8 | What difference has he made so far and what does this new victory mean for India and the world? |
| 1:21.4 | Step inside the briefing room to find out. |
| 1:32.1 | Now, I can say that the Indian elections are a great event, but that just doesn't convey the scale of it. |
| 1:37.8 | So earlier, I spoke to a former Chief Election Commissioner of India, Dr. S. Y. Qureshi. |
| 1:39.7 | He was in our Delhi studio. |
| 1:43.3 | Dr. Qureshi, just how big are the Indian elections? |
| 1:51.1 | Indian elections are the biggest elections in the world, not just the biggest elections, but the biggest event of any kind. |
| 2:04.8 | We have 900 million voters. We have 1 million polling stations. We have 12 million polling staff. And we have to conduct it in very, very adverse and diverse situation. There are some places where it takes polling parties to walk three days |
| 2:10.6 | to reach the polling stations. And of course, they use all kinds of transport from camels |
... |
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