Business and Bollywood voting in Indian elections

India’s financial capital Mumbai began voting on Monday as six-week national elections resumed – Copyright AFP Punit PARANJPE

India’s financial capital Mumbai began voting on Monday in the resumption of a six-week national election, with many of the megacity’s business and entertainment elites voicing support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The 73-year-old leader is widely expected to win a third term when voting ends early next month, thanks in large part to his aggressive defense of India’s majority Hindu faith. .

Big conglomerates are giving Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) campaign funding that dwarfs its rivals, while Bollywood stars are calling for the party to more closely align politics with the country’s religious majority. supports the ideological initiatives of

Data released this year reveals that the Bharatiya Janata Party is the single biggest beneficiary of electoral bonds, a controversial political contribution tool since it was ruled illegal by India’s Supreme Court. Ta.

Powerful corporations and wealthy businessmen donated $730 million to the party, accounting for just under half of the donations made under the program over the past five years.

Deepanshu Mohan of OP Jindal Global University says conglomerate executives support the Modi government because it caters to the needs of India’s “existing oligarchic business elite.” He told AFP.

Lower corporate tax rates, less bureaucracy and less “regulatory corruption in local government” also helped Mr. Modi win the affections of big business, he added.

But Mr. Modi’s enduring popularity among a broad swath of the public is not so much about an economy still characterized by widespread unemployment and income inequality as about his role as a champion of the Hindu faith. It’s an image that has been cultivated.

This year, in the town of Ayodhya, he presided over the inauguration of a grand temple to the god Ram, built on the site of a centuries-old mosque destroyed by Hindu fanatics in 1992.

The construction of the temple fulfilled a long-held demand of Hindu activists and was widely celebrated across the country with a flurry of television coverage and street parties.

The ceremony was attended by hundreds of prominent Indians, including Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, whose family donated $300,000 to the temple trust.

Also in attendance were Mumbai cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar and actor Amitabh Bachchan. It is the single most famous product of Bollywood, known as the financial capital’s film industry.

Since Mr. Modi took office a decade ago, a number of film stars have established themselves as vocal defenders of his government.

Former soap actress Smriti Irani is one of the government’s most prominent ministers and defeated India’s main opposition leader Rahul Gandhi in the 2019 contest for the current parliamentary seat.

The filmmakers also created provocative and ideologically charged films in keeping with the ruling party’s sectarian message, which critics claim is deliberately defamatory of India’s more than 200 million Muslim minority. He is producing several movies.

Last year’s “Kerala Story” was heavily promoted by the Bharatiya Janata Party and condemned in other countries for its false claims that thousands of Hindu women were brainwashed by Muslims into joining Islamic State.

~The heatwave is back~

India’s elections will be held in seven phases over six weeks to ease the enormous logistical burden of conducting a pro-democracy movement in the world’s most populous country.

The latest round comes as parts of India endure a second heat wave in three weeks after much of the continent was hit with scorching temperatures in April.

Voter turnout was down several percentage points from the last national poll in 2019, with analysts citing warmer-than-average temperatures heading into India’s summer as well as growing hopes for a Modi victory. It is listed in

Tens of millions of people in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Jharkhand cast their votes on Monday amid heatwave conditions with temperatures expected to reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). ing.

Scientific research shows that climate change is making heat waves longer, more frequent and more intense, and Asia is warming faster than the global average.

More than 968 million people are eligible to vote in India’s elections, with the final vote to be held on June 1, with results expected in three days.