Peddling hope in India elections and economy

PERSUADED by the promise of better days ahead, India’s rich upper-crust and teeming poor seem all set to elect Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a third term, as opinion polls show him winning the upcoming parliamentary elections slated to be held from Apr 19 to Jun 1.

Modi is confident of victory, and has set a target of doubling the size of the economy and exports in the remaining years of this decade. He has issued a guarantee of making the economy the third-largest in the world, up from its present fifth position.

Many Indians are buying into the hope the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has raised. “Modi has given the country stability and that has made the stock market and mutual funds soar,” a businessman in Kolkata told me, adding that his “investments are thriving”.