India's Narendra Modi takes oath for third term as prime minister

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office on Sunday for a third consecutive term, but that could present more challenges for the popular but polarizing leader than his last decade in power.

His Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which won a landslide victory in 2014 and 2019, failed to obtain a majority this time he will be able to govern alone, although his coalition, the National Democratic Alliance, with the BJP and other parties, won enough seats to form a slim parliamentary majority.

Modi and his cabinet members took the oath of office, administered by President Droupadi Murmu, at the Indian presidential palace Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.

Needing the support of his regional allies to maintain his power, Modi may have to adapt to a style of governance with which he has little experience or desire.

Modi, 73, is only the second Indian prime minister to win a third consecutive term. He presided over a rapidly growing economy while advancing Hindu nationalism.

To his supporters, he is a larger-than-life figure who improved India's standing in the world, helped make its economy the world's fifth largest and streamlined the country's vast welfare program, which serves approximately 60% of the population. For some, he might even be more than human.

But in the eyes of critics, he is a sectarian leader who has eroded Indian democracy and promoted a politics of division targeting Muslims, who make up 14% of the country's population. They say he has also increasingly used heavy-handed tactics to subdue political opponents, crush independent media and suppress dissent.

Modi's government has rejected the accusations and says democracy is flourishing.

Political analysts say Modi's victory was driven by welfare programs that provided benefits from food to housing and by strident Hindu nationalism that consolidated Hindu votes for his party. Hindus represent 80% of the Indian population.

The economy is growing at 7% and more than 500 million Indians have opened bank accounts during Modi's tenure, but this growth has not created enough jobs and inequality has worsened under his rule, according to some economists.

Modi began his election campaign promising to make India a developed country by 2047 and focused on highlighting his administration's social policies and robust digital infrastructure that have benefited millions of Indians.

But as the campaign progressed, he increasingly resorted to anti-Muslim rhetoric., calling them “infiltrators” and referencing a Hindu nationalist claim that Muslims were overtaking the Hindu population in having more children. Modi also accused the opposition of pandering to the minority community.

Visible piety has long been a centerpiece of Modi's brand, but he has also begun to suggest that he was chosen by God.

“When my mother was alive, I believed that I was born biologically. After her death, reflecting on all my experiences, I was convinced that God had sent me,” he said in a television interview during the campaign.

In January, he realized a long-held Hindu nationalist ambition by opening a controversial temple on the site of a razed mosque.

After the campaign ended, Modi visited a Hindu spiritual site for a 45-hour televised meditation retreat. Most Indian television channels broadcast the event for hours.

Born in 1950 to a lower-caste family in the western state of Gujarat, Modi joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a right-wing paramilitary group long accused of stoking hatred against Muslims, at a young age. The RSS is the ideological parent of Modi’s BJP.

The tea seller's son had his first big political breakthrough in 2001, when he became the state's chief minister. A few months later, anti-Muslim riots broke out in the region, killing at least 1,000 people. Some suspected Modi of quietly supporting the riots, but he denied the allegations.

In 2005, the United States revoked Modi's visa, citing concerns that he has not acted to end communal violence. An investigation approved by India's Supreme Court later absolved Modi, but the stain of the dark moment remains.

Thirteen years later, Modi led his Hindu nationalist party to a dramatic victory in the 2014 national elections after promising sweeping reforms to revive India's flagging economy.

But Modi's critics and opponents say his Hindu policies have bred intolerance, hate speech and brazen attacks against minorities, particularly Muslims, who make up 14% of the country's 1.4 billion people. 'India.

Months after winning a second term in 2019, his government revoked the special status of disputed Kashmir, the country's only Muslim-majority state, and divided it into two federally governed territories. His government adopted a law which grants citizenship to religious minorities in Muslim countries in the region but excludes Muslims.

Decisions like these have made Modi extremely popular among his die-hard supporters who hail him as the champion of the Hindu majority and see India emerging as a Hindu-majority state.

Modi has spent his political life capitalizing on religious tensions for political purposes, said Christophe Jaffrelot, a political scientist and expert on Modi and the Hindu right. During his tenure as head of state, he pioneered an embrace of Hindu nationalism like never before in Indian politics.

“This style has stuck. It was invented in Gujarat and today it is a national brand,” Jaffrelot said.