Indian voters have finally woken up

FOR weeks, the announcement of India’s election results loomed as a moment of dread for millions of people who cherish the country’s commitment to secular democracy.

Throughout the marathon voting process, it was considered a near inevitability that Prime Minister Narendra Modi – who has galvanised his right-wing Hindu base with assaults on India’s founding values, minorities and basic decency – would win a third straight thumping victory. So assured was his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of winning an even larger share of parliamentary seats that in the long build-up to the general elections, it taunted opponents with the slogan: “This time, 400 plus”.

But as the election results began rolling out on Tuesday (Jun 4), it was as if someone had snapped their fingers to make India emerge from a long period of hypnosis. Modi, who recently claimed that his birth was not a “biological” event but that he had been sent by God, failed to even deliver his party a simple parliamentary majority, leaving it unable to form a government on its own.