“Voters in India head to the polls in April and May for a five-week election expected to catapult a Hindu nationalist, Narendra Modi, to power. A former tea seller who leads the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Mr. Modi has long tied India’s identity and its interests to the dominant religion-Hinduism.
To his credit, Modi is also well known for building up his state’s economy and keeping a relatively clean record. Gujarat now produces nearly a quarter of India’s exports but has only 5 percent of its population. Many Indian voters, fed up with inflation, low job growth, and corruption, appear ready to back the BJP while handing a defeat to the ruling Congress party and its fading Nehru-Gandhi family dynasty.
Modi suggests he has set aside his long association with Hindu chauvinism in favor of practical management of the Indian economy. “I am known to be a Hindu-nationalist leader,” he says.
In his few foreign-policy statements, however, he hints that he may turn India into a more muscular regional power. He has chided China for its “mind-set of expansionism,” for example, and often criticizes Pakistan. His right-wing nationalism showed up when he claimed a well-known political opponent is a “Pakistani agent” simply for a type of map used in a campaign ad.
India has fought three wars with Pakistan and has had a border skirmish with China. All three countries are now nuclear powers. So it is important to consider whether Modi will assert a national interest, based on beliefs about Hindu dominance that might worsen ties with those countries.
In this respect, he could be similar to Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who has lately linked the national interest to the state’s role in “preserving the dominance of Russian culture.” And Modi may also be like China’s Xi Jinping, who recently gave the ruling Communist Party the task of building a “cohesive” national spirit based on defense of traditional social mores, epitomized in teachings attributed to Confucius and China’s past glory. Mr. Xi also highlights China’s ancient history as a seafaring power.”