to follow the stores of no ways in the oldest little costs, let us salute the government of norway. horace, remarkable and nurturing the secret negotiations. and why it's promised peace has remained unfulfilled, a strong decided terms of the negotiations. nobody could show or go home. the price of also on those, as you will now run from moody service to the indian prime minister, is launched his policies campaign for the upcoming elections, boasting of his achievements in the past decades. what about his controversial views on can do nationalism? this is inside story, the hello there on james base, almost 1000000000 people in india are eligible to vote in the upcoming general

elections, prime minister and their end. remote is widely expected when if the tub hoping to stop him. thousands of all position policies of joining forces in a coalition to rival his. but rocky, i do not to a policy mode has been passed since 2014 and is credited with revitalizing the economy. but his opponents accuse him of stifling descent and crushing political rivals. so how much has moody achieved and all controversial views and criticism enough to full spoke to is to seek an alternative lead up? plenty to discuss. but 1st, let's set the scene with this report from veronica pedrosa. a campaign season has begun in the world's largest democracy later in april, 6 weeks of floating guess on the way in india. more than 968000000 people are eligible to cost ballots for a new government in national elections. the prime minister there under

moody, is hoping to win a good time speaking to supporters in india's largest state or to per dash on sunday. moody said his cabinet was already hard at work on the box dog. got a load of matt panata and the audio road map for the next 5 years. you're working on the decisions. do you need for making the 1st time to do the next um loading came to pilot in 2014. never before had the chief minister with no federal experience become the head of government in india. his barbara tia jumped to polity one with an absolute majority for the 1st time in 3 decades. as prime minister moody is credited with transforming the country, making it one of the largest developing economies in the world, revitalizing infrastructure, and even landing a space mission on the move file. but critics say his hindu nationalist focus has

shrunk. the space for descent, minorities, especially muslims, have been harassed and attacked as have activists, journalists, and rival politicians subsidies in the bid to challenge moody and his policies dominance. in this election, thousands of opposition parties have united to form a coalition, quote, the indian national development inclusive alliance for something that, that drug but got the advantage of leadership interested. it'd be free when you uphold the constitution. when it comes to the elections, you have to vote and press the button that removes his government and brings the rule of the people. opinion polls suggest moody will be victorious and set him on a path to become india's longest serving prime minister. veronica pedroza out to 0 to inside story the so let's get a measure of probably minutes the bodies, political ambition and discussion with our impressive panel of guests today in the

indian capital up we have, you mean the i a, he's, she's a public policy. scala who specializes in governance, politics and social policy. in new york, robbie agra awhile is editor in chief of foreign policy magazine and host of its video channel and pulled cost f p live. he's also the olsa of india. connect to have a smart phone is transforming the world's largest democracy. and again, in new delhi we have no i in general capacity. i right to enjoy this with a special interest in hindu nationalist politics. he's also the olsa of the biography and the written promote the man the times. thank you all of you for joining us. this is the biggest democratic exercise in the world. i was stunned to read that with 960000000 eligible voters that smaller than the populations of the us, european union, and russia combined the line chan starting with you. course it's up to the voters given how many i've just mentioned there are, but it looks very strong, doesn't it full prime minister mode,

it looks like he is by fall the favored. but at the moment, uh all the survey said that mr movie is a po frontrunner uh that he has a clear cut not active, but the waters are looking at him as the only possibility that'd be challenges have not been able to come together as it appeared at all the opposition parties would be able to come together. but what has been done so far as far as awful session consolidation is concerned. uh, there are, uh, still a lot more. it has to be done uh at the moment. tiers of course. uh the feel is that mr. moody, getting uh a towed tom. uh it is going to be actually the most important collection for him. because if he wins this, he is actually going to be stepping into some kind of fall politically mortality becoming the 1st 5 minutes turn off to india as 1st prime. so there are

a lot of nato to win 3 consecutive terms and get into office. it is also going to mean a lot for the future of india as democracy for the future of india's development programs. and most importantly, but uh uh, not really less uh for the minorities that really just minorities of the country, especially the muslims and the cushions. and also people who disagree, who are not the minorities, but on in those. but to disagree with mr movie and his party, the b j b is going to get very different credit for the media for the civil society . and for the anybody who is willing to disagree and says they abuse openly in the public to india. of course has a probably a proud tradition of democracy. this is 18th general election robbie and a 4th coming off to go what you call and leave shared with me in advance. but you

make the point that india's been shaped by democracy rather than culture and religion. and that you just had lunch and talk about narrow the founding prime minister. you say that he believed in a liberal secular country that would serve as a contrast to park a song which of course as cold as a muslim homeland. then you say, somewhat controversial sleep mode in many ways is narrows opposite. explain. well that's right movie is um, you know, in terms of personality and background. very different from jabbar law. narrow, narrow, of course, very anglicized, cambridge educated, went by the 1st name, jo, until there's twenties, came from india is upper classes, and movie has a very different background. he is a low, a middle class, lower cost background. and it doesn't shy away from that really, this is a man who has a very different vision of what india should look like. but the say that i wrote,

which you've kindly mentioned um i titled the new idea of india. and that's because i'm like narrow movies, vision for india. why that does premise itself on elect tauriel, democracy, and welfare. isn't it actually centers? religion and culture in the states of fans. and so movie has, in the sense of vision of a country that is in do 1st, that is in the 1st, which prioritizes a vision of what it means to be indian. and it's a vision that not everyone in india agrees with, of course. but the way like tauriel democracy in india works is that he doesn't need everyone to agree with that. in in 2014, when multi one of the election, the 1st time around his party did, i should say he's probably the only 131 percent of the national vote in 2019 his party 137 percent of the national vote. and to do all of this,

he only needs about half of all the votes from india is him, goes into is comprised about 80 percent of, of the 1400000000 people in the country, of which as you pointed out, 960000000 can vote, so he's able to mobilize in a way that him to vote, to be able to win elections in a way that is unprecedented in indian history and, and therefore, furthering this vision of what it means to be. indeed, in a sense mode, the is, you know, while on some counts democracy has been eroded and india, whether it's freedom of the press, whether it's free speech, whether it's freedom of the courts. movie still succeeds at the polls and he's turned and is turning india into a classic in liberal democracy where he's still able to further his vision. his idea of india x at the polls that to do so in a way, in which classic liberalism,

as we see it in the west and has never believed and has been shunned. and this is something that i should say uh, is quite popular in india. again, as evidenced by movies, elect toro success in 2014, in 2019 and presumably in the next few weeks, you know, many um probably makes a good point there about the share of a because it's worth remembering. this is a parliamentary 1st pause. the post system, but his b j. p policy seems to be very, very good at translating this go to an election, make machine to translate the votes into seats in the parliament. yeah, absolutely. i think uh it just to build on what my federal bond list have said. that 2 things to keep in mind. one um the contact stations of, uh, what it means to be indian or what the imagination of india. um, as the more the nation state is, i have had

a deep history embedded in the freedom roland, leading up to 1947 when into about independence and the framing of being in constitution. the idea that india is a, has a deep civilizational history. that brings together into the formation of the more the nation state votes. independence is one that is fairly widely accepted and critically told the independence movement whether we were a single nation or a nation whose civilization that you call us was one of why the color terms of tourism of diversity. diversity or religion. diversity of ethnic diversity that what's the language that one's deal region. that's the side of contestation when india gained independence. our founding fathers, not just a well, there was a broad consensus within the constitution which fame the and, and constitution that can yeah, in fact rejected the donation majority that they could, that is a hindu india and

a muslim tech, a nation that indeed india was a genuinely secular nation, with the under guarding of tourism and dollars building to our everyday life. i didn't. why imagination of a modern nation state in this sense what the project of, of india was in some sense is very different through the project. the more than nation states, a in europe, which tended to go here or around the idea of a senior to i think i the, into the region, the national i of, i really just identity national identity. what made in your unique, what this coming together, what the political find this video game, the other have in a different context, input to other state nation rather than a nation state. it is, is this idea that is now being contested, contested with this is a far deeper unity imagination undergoing by hindu nationalism which is very my daughter darian and its imagination. it also is translating into a very good got different kind of democracy. why probably is right that in some

senses, we have a vibrant to collect the democracy. and it is on the basis of betty like, or democracy that the hands of a project is gaining leisure to meet a legitimate team will be inside. but undoubtedly, a remarkably popular 5 minutes tides. it's read for the private instead of going to a tough job to see could post them and get be a frontrunner. remarkably pop, you know, but it is what is recognizing that the nature of his governance, in fact displacing several pressures, even on the fundamental dynamics of elect garden and will proceed. what are the 2 conditions of robust elect or democracy, active contestation, i know position contestation of ideas on discussion on policy and widespread participation. we're doing well and participation, indeed increasing. in fact, women and for distribution and voting has increased remarkably. but when it comes to active contestation, there are significant challenges. in fact, i will go so far as to say, these are really,

really increasing the seizures. see the form of the let, let me, let me bring in, let me bring it in the launch on the and on the whole issue of hindu nationalism. yes, i mean they all hindus of by far majority 80 percent, but in the country. so of aust, 20 percent is a huge number of people about 300000000. i mean, do you not in a, in a country like india need to govern for old? yes, of course you know, uh because very clear that in an ideal situation and in something that is modeling kotik, you need to actually go one for all. but if you have the numbers on your side, as mr movie has, he is not really being governing foot on. and if they continue with the same kind of electronic performance fees they had in 2014 and in 2019 i'm good. majority for the 3rd time, maybe even a big majority. then i think that they are going to become more and more than to be able to govern only for the majority and for toward dumont's on the minorities,

especially the most lives and the cushions to assimilate themselves. and then the majority him do community that goes with long standing do mind of the hindu nationalist in this country that everybody in this country is a he knew, regardless of the faith that the practice, you know, that visual openly said, mr. moody, in fact, even told me that the people all come to, to practice various religions. but the must actually, you know, accept our ideas and the idea of the got it goes and all of the big people who are concerned. so they must be accepted by the minorities also, there is a 2nd question, you know, which keeps on coming up in all our discussions that india's be meant to get a majority which is elect to really very innovative conducted. i think, you know, it's time now for us to actually look at the manner in which it does elections are

conducted, especially in this particular moment. you know, we need to flag to very important issues which of so faced in the past few weeks. the 1st is about what is called the political funding. you know, it has been talked about for a long time. the political parties in india get funding from various corporate houses in a very discrete tomato for which that i would pro cool arrangements. but this was never proven. there's also been a lot of talk about a slash money being used in india and elections. what in the indian, what cavelatti is quite a black money, something which is actually on accounting money, which is actually we had to complete a different job in, in, in 20172018. mr. moore, these government had bought laws to create a new system of political donations. now that to pull it because of that system of making political donations has been recently struck down in the month of february last year. just in february. it was struck down by the supreme court of india and

the data has been put in the public domain. so the data which shows that all over the mean, the more than 50 percent of the political donations were given to the b j. b. the names of the don't those that out there in the public and uh, we can actually link that various of the civil society organizations as well as a very specialized media organization. so he's just trying to track down the various would pro court and you meant that to make a donation. you can either escape imminent ad uh at least uh by the law and order and machinery or uh, policies change, which benefits a particular company which made donations. so these are being, these instances are being proved. okay. and the i'd like to, i'd like to go back to the some of the other criticisms will be in action for the new launch. i'm. i'd like to come back to some of the other criticisms of the opposition a little later in the program. but you,

i think it's important just to set the context here with regard to india is current situation. robbie: your sitting the in new york right now in the us the, you know, the, the, the, the view certainly there is it's the economy, stupid and elections in the united states. india as the fastest growing major economy in the world. i mean that is there any bought so that there is the immediate but is that it starting from a very low base? so it's much easier to grow foster when you're starting from a low base. there is also greater imperative to grow. foster indian needs a rapid, high speed growth to be able to pull more people out of poverty to be able to expand its middle classes to be able to compete with its neighbors, to compete with other asian countries. if you look at how india is g, d, p per capita has grown since

a 1970 countries that were at the same point as it then china, south korea are orders of magnitude bigger in terms of the size of their economies . and so in that sense, india has a lot of catching up to do. it has been going fast. um, over the last decade, 1520 years or so. not fast enough, many would say, well, one of the things that this administration of these administration has focused on a lot, you've heard the term welfare is. and in this discussion already is the delivery of subsidies and services to people hyped access to water, for example, has called tripled in the last decade. it electricity connections that have have expanded dramatically in the last decade. pilots, for example, um, have been built across the country whether these work or not is another point. one of the things that this administration in particular is very good at is marketing,

whatever games it does make, but it has a very mixed record. despite these advances on, well as far as them, for example, this government, for example, has not been able to attract enough foreign direct investment, which is actually declined in recent years. it has not been able to urge its own companies with in india, to invest in the economy is much, much of it states, spending infrastructure spending is internal. that's not good enough. it needs a lot more. so various things and forces that continue to hold in the as economy back, it is not growing as fast as it should use. unemployment is a serious problem. in india, it has a higher rate to utah unemployment than many of its appears in the region. women are chronically under employed and yet despite all of this, you have the paradox. that movie is actually quite popular among women. so it's a,

it's not easy to have a simple answer um on the economy. it's a mixed picture. okay, let me the bringing jamini. now i'm rubbing that tool to about how good the government is at marketing. much of that marketing is around the one man. i mean, do you think it's fair to say there's a personality cult going on here? right. i've only been in recent years, want to deli, which was at the end of last year for the g. 20. and rarely of i've seen a city where there was a post of one mind in so many places. it wasn't quite the scale of saddam hussein's iraq because i could remember, but it was guessing close. absolutely, the governing style of the b j. b is very much a one off centralized ation. built around about vanity. got a big, got it up mr. movie his the, the beauty of his marketing is that is very carefully been deployed to been, i'm the father, the car is my and the personality got it of mr. movie himself. so all these welfare

schemes are very much of sold as movies guarantees. you see the prime minister's photograph everywhere i go show to it and by the way, so just the prime and, and the, we have a much more vibrant, a set of political bodies that are governing at the state level. they wanted it picked up on this. i use the similar version of how verify schemes are being marketed now, increasingly at the state level. what sky and this are 2 things. one with the use of technology, india has been able to drive to graduate rather quickly into a kind of a website is um, based on direct benefit drawn for. so it's basically to unplug and gosh, and kind that are delivered directly into benefits. you bank accounts that are beneficiary, you home and they cut all the intermediaries that well, could you go in uh, without technology uh, in order to do the website themes. what this direct benefit does is that it very

effectively then creates a very direct and very emotive connect with the beneficiary the border. so you, when your deductible is um, going to be mentioned brembo does, mr. movie is very popular amongst women boulder. they will tell you more, they have given me this, or the chief minister has given me that the building that a motive connect which creates a kind of politics that is very much based on the loyalty and trust of the back page from the manufacturer of the politics of the swat says political scientist, diligence that god has guard, which wants me to trust. it's about extracting boats on the basis of trust and be, or ease that this is the manufacturer who can indeed help us in, in difficult time. i'm sorry. let me bring by only bring back on the line john now, because the other thing, of course, that people repeatedly allege is that their autocratic tendencies, can you tell me how worried you out with regard to the election? because the as being arrest as being what's called tax wiping noise ation,

tax terrorism, the opposition cool, cool that they've been, i think currently the one of one of the demands is now being put aside until the end of the election. but they've been told to pay huge amounts of tax, however, it all you about of power and free campaign and election here. but the opposition parties have caused the 2024 elections as a fixed match. you already have, besides the tax notices, which you say, which had been solved on the congress party to chief ministers of democratically elected part. you know, states have been, have been, it has to do, you know, you have the hugely popular chief minister of the billing state. that is, i've been case where you live, who started this new b party about a decade ago called the um, i'd me particularly common mind, spotty. he has had an overbuilding majority whenever it comes to local elections and any, he has to be noticed or done. been put in june and out of the state,

which is in the northeast. and you know, in the eastern part of indiana that goes job credit, which is essentially a tribal belt of the country. they're also the chief minutes. it has been put in jail on all cases of allegations that they have participated in various kind of practices. almost some movie has come to the stage, you know, being able to win elections in 2014 and also in 2019, primarily on focusing on the issue of corruption data in 2014. he level massive corruption charges against that. then congress led coalition government, but in 10 years he has not been able to get a single conviction. all the cases that jeff, i have been you know, you know, dismissed by various levels of court including the highest ones. so we really do not know the kind of offensive which he has mounted against the adversities regarding cut option with at this level get approved or not. but some more the

definitely because of the advantages which he has because of what it will be said in marketing. also publicizing grounds, one of the biggest publicity mission, nobody which any political leader on send the word he can. okay, let me, let me finally bring in the because because if we've heard, we've heard that from the lounge on the obstacles, the opposition side that facing but even though the opposite, opposite end have come together as an alliance. all of a still not some want this organized and divided is it partly the, the weakness of the opposition here as well and election requires a fair contestation. the fact that 95 percent of cases, again, that had been initiated by investigative agencies, are targeted at all position politicians. the bulk of political financing has been centralized into the ruling body, are on indications of the extent to which the space on dictation has been club

shore. the old position is uh, by have a little bit divided and is been, is, is trying hard to build out its narrative. but it doesn't necessarily have a free and even space in order to be able to do that. ultimately, an election can only be effect on test if everybody gets the level playing field. when civil society is called, when you use investigative agency, the games only targeted all position politicians. when you, when i law, the limited space or people are going to station for sharing of ideas. and 4 of the oldest will be presented with a wide range of options before they make the choices when they go to the boarding boat. so this is not necessarily a scientific thank you very much. thank you very much. all of you. thanks to all of our guest today. how many i robbie agra? well, milan john, new capacity, i go be plenty of coverage of the elections which starts on april. the 19th here on out to 0 with detailed analysis on our website out, is there a dot com? we'd like to hear your views on the election and other issues. go to our facebook

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