India’s Hindu nationalist party scrambled on Saturday to win support from the movement’s most senior leader over a decision to anoint controversial politician Narendra Modi as candidate for premier in looming elections.
Senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including lower parliamentary house chief Sushma Swaraj, visited 85-year-old BJP cofounder LK Advani at his New Delhi home.
However, they failed to smooth over differences with Advani, who had written to the BJP earlier in the week to say he was “anguished and disappointed” about developments in the party.
Photo: AFP
Advani boycotted Friday’s ceremony at which Gujarat Chief Minister Modi, his one-time protege, was nominated to be the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate in polls due by the end of next year.
The unhappiness of Advani, who has harbored his own prime ministerial ambitions, has underscored discord within BJP’s ranks over Modi’s nomination.
“Every family has a right to its disagreements,” BJP president Rajnath Singh said.
Hardline Hindu leader Modi is one of India’s most polarizing politicians, tainted by deadly anti-
Muslim riots on his watch in 2002, but also credited with turning Gujarat into an economic powerhouse.
Newspapers on Saturday splashed Modi’s nomination on its front page. “BJP Crowns Modi. Will India Follow?” The Economic Times ran in a headline.
Modi remains under a ban from entering the US imposed in 2005 over the riots. The Press Trust of India on Saturday quoted a US Department of State spokeswoman as saying there was “no change” in Washington’s visa policy toward Modi.
Modi has become a hero of middle-class India, hailed as a business-friendly modernizer who could revive a sharply slowing economy, while the BJP hopes he can end the party’s near-decade in the political wilderness.
Detractors revile Modi as a Hindu zealot who allegedly turned a blind eye to anti-Muslim riots on his home turf, in which as many as 2,000 people were hacked, burned and shot to death, according to rights groups. Modi has denied any wrongdoing.
After his nomination, Modi, 62, returned to his home state to supporters’ cries: “The lion of Gujarat has arrived.”
“The BJP has become the only ray of hope for the common people,” the charismatic orator said in a speech late on Friday. “Only the BJP has the capacity to bring our country out of these [economic] crises and take it to new heights of development.”
Such was public revulsion over the riots, Modi at one time seemed to have no future on the national stage in constitutionally secular India. However, voter disenchantment with the corruption-tainted ruling Congress and the economic downturn has created a groundswell of support for Modi.
Modi is expected to be pitted in campaigning against Congress heir-apparent Rahul Gandhi, 43, whose family has given India three prime ministers.
Yet Modi’s pan-India appeal and ability to erase memories of the riots remain an issue, while there are doubts about Gandhi’s ability and desire for the job.
Polls point to a fractured election outcome in which smaller regional parties with differing agendas, which rely on Muslims and other religious minorities for support, could end up with the upper hand.
While former India prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was known for his “consensus” touch in forging alliances, Modi’s brand of hardline Hindu politics are seen as discouraging prospective coalition partners.
Regional leader Nitish Kumar, a BJP member, Bihar state’s chief minister and seen as a prime ministerial contender under a so-called “Third Front scenario” said on Saturday that India will never accept a “divisive” candidate. While a majority-Hindu nation, India also has 130 million Muslims out of a population of 1.2 billion and no party can afford to alienate them.
Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow. It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the
A humanoid robot that won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record in a show of China’s technological leaps. The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21km race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, said a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race began. That was faster than the human world record holder, Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race. The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward
An earthquake registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.7 off northern Japan on Monday prompted a short-lived tsunami alert and the advisory of a higher risk of a possible mega-quake for coastal areas there. The Cabinet Office and the Japan Meteorological Agency said there was a 1% chance for a mega-quake, compared to a 0.1% chance during normal times, in the next week or so following the powerful quake near the Chishima and Japan trenches. Officials said the advisory was not a quake prediction but urged residents in 182 towns along the northeastern coasts to raise their preparedness while continuing their daily lives. Prime
HAZARDOUS CONDITION: The typhoon’s sheer size, with winds extending 443km from its center, slowed down the ability of responders to help communities, an official said The US Coast Guard was searching for six people after losing contact with their disabled boat off the coast of Guam following Typhoon Sinlaku. The crew of the 44m dry cargo vessel, the US-registered Mariana, on Wednesday notified the coast guard that the boat had lost its starboard engine and needed assistance, Petty Officer 3rd Class Avery Tibbets said yesterday. The coast guard set up a one-hour communication schedule with the vessel, but lost contact on Thursday. A Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules aircraft was launched to search for the six people on board, but it had to return to Guam because of
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