The crucial second round of India’s seven-tier voting process to select 88 members of Parliament unfolds on Friday. This voting session takes place despite harsh warnings of “intense heatwaves” in several locations, with temperatures soaring beyond 40 degrees Celsius. The ongoing voting occurs amidst accusations by prime minister Narendra Modi towards the opposition Congress party, criticising their commitments of delivering financial and job-related benefits to the economically disadvantaged Muslim minority if they win the election.
Political analysts have interpreted these vehement episodes from the prime minister as attempts to amplify the extremist image of his Hindu nationalist party, Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), following the previous week’s polling for 102 Lok Sabha seats which appeared to fail in meeting the party’s aspirations. The full voting procedure to elect all 543 Members of Parliament is planned to carry on until the 1st of June, with the results being announced three days later.
As the phased voting process continues, a number of aspiring MPs have sought the services of astrologers, fortune tellers and numerologists, hoping that they could manipulate the cosmic patterns to their advantage and guarantee their victory. Many hopeful parliamentary candidates refrained from activities like filing their nominations, travelling or organising rallies, until their celestial advisors, reputed for their proven track record in past elections, considered the timing favourable. Their election campaign attire has also been “astrologically colour plotted” in many instances.
Prominent Hindu Vedic expert P U Pannikar mentioned that the majority of Indian politicians bank on astrologers to secure their electoral fortune, trusting them more than psephologists, political consultants and pollsters for guiding their electoral fate. Although some politicians have openly criticised astrologers, they do tend to consult with them privately, he stated.
Even if some press reports claim that 73 year-old Modi has himself sought astrological advice, the prime minister has recurrently reaffirmed his divine entitlement to govern India since his initial victorious prime ministerial campaign in 2014. In April of that year, in one of his election rallies, he claimed that he was God’s choice to salvage India from the turmoil instigated by the then-ruling Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance, which was soon voted out of power. “God chooses certain people to do difficult tasks, and I believe God has chosen me for this,” he said. In late 2018, while unveiling a police memorial in New Delhi, Modi once again asserted that God had chosen him for the ceremony.
Prior to proposing legislation in the house of commons last September that would allocate one third of Lok Sabha seats to women, Modi stated that he believed he was divinely chosen for the vital task of empowering the women of India.
His divine mission appeared to escalate in January 2024, when he announced the opening of a temple in north India, dedicated to the Hindu God Ram. On his social media post in Hindi, he expressed that he perceived himself as a conduit chosen by God to represent the Indian populace, something he considered as a tremendous duty. “For the first time in my life, I am experiencing such emotions,” he voiced.
Leading members of BJP expressed agreement with this assessment. Among them was one individual who had previously spearheaded the destruction of a mosque from the 16th century in 1992 to erect a temple in its place. They claimed that Ram himself had selected Modi to both construct and reveal this sacred location.
It is not uncommon for Modi to be subject to such adoration, as he has become the most prominent campaigner for BJP. Several voters who were polled claimed their vote was specifically for the prime minister, rather than the party, much akin to the voting behaviour in a presidential race.
With the support of government-friendly media, numerous welfare initiatives have been christened after the prime minister. Pictures of him have been used on carrier bags that distributed no-cost provisions to 800 million Indians by the government, as well as countless Covid vaccination certificates and national billboards commemorating international events such as the G20 summit in September.
Furthermore, the biggest cricket stadium globally, located in the prime minister’s home state of Gujarat in western India, has been named after him, along with the BJP’s election manifesto, referred to as “Modi’s guarantee 2024”, also featuring his image.