British Indians living across the UK have expressed surprise at the election results in India, with some hoping it will signal a change in the direction of the country.
Narendra Modi returned to power for a historic third term as prime minister, in an election with voting staggered across six weeks and more than 600 million Indians heading to the polls – the biggest exercise of democracy the world has ever seen.
For many, the results signalled a significant turning point in Modi’s premiership after the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) was unable to win an outright majority and the Congress party-led INDIA opposition alliance defied exit polls.
A BJP-led coalition, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), has since secured a majority in India’s 543-seat Lok Sabha, marking the first time Modi will have to govern the country in coalition.
Umesh Sharma, the chair of the Hindu Council UK, said the results were not a surprise but did prove the pollsters wrong. Sharma, who does not align with any political party, said he was pleased at the high turnout, with 66% of India’s eligible voters taking part.
“Elections in India at any time are important to Indians because we want stability in our country … stability can only come when there are fair elections, then people actually participate,” he said.
Sharma described his hopes the coalition would promote a more collaborative approach to government, adding: “It is not one party with a big majority, they do whatever they like, that is sometimes dangerous.”
Modi swept to power in 2014, promoting a Hindu nationalist vision and promising “development for all”. To his supporters, Modi has been a strong leader, with some crediting him for transforming the country into an emerging global power.
However, to his critics, Modi’s premiership has marked a dark turn in India’s recent history, with some accusing him of eroding human rights, cracking down on freedom of the press and stoking hatred toward religious minorities.
During the election campaign, Modi was accused of hate speech and peddling anti-Muslim tropes after describing Muslims as “infiltrators”.
Hasan Salim Patel, a British-Indian Muslim living in Birmingham, said he expected a landslide victory for the BJP and described rhetoric in the lead-up to the election as “worrying”.
“The results have shown that India has rejected this rhetoric from Modi and his people,” said Patel, a communications consultant and former planning editor at Al Jazeera.
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“It shows that extremism, xenophobia and hate towards minorities is not a widely expected norm even though over the past five years the Modi government has tried to curb freedom of expression … India should be for all, not for any minority or majority.”
Dabinderjit Singh, the principal adviser of the Sikh Federation, said the election results in Punjab had been the “talk of the Sikh community”, but added: “We shouldn’t lose sight that the BJP and Modi will form the next government, third time in a row.”
He said: “If they follow the policies of the last decade then I think there is a big challenge. Not just for the people of India, minorities that feel they’re being targeted, but actually for the international community because there’s been more and more criticism of the direction of travel of Narendra Modi.”
Aman, a 21-year-old living in Harrow, north-west London, said there were a variety of views within the British-Indian community to the results.
“I think among the Hindu community itself, there are definitely varying perspectives,” he said. “We have so many different groups in the UK, you have Gujaratis and Punjabis, then you have Telugus and Tamils and they’re going to share different political views because the country is so diverse, there’s so many different opinions, you can’t really put it into this left or right binary.”
He added that many friends and family in the UK did believe the exit polls and were surprised by the results, particularly as the BJP had expressed hopes for more than 400 seats.
“For a lot of BJP supporters, it was a victory but it kind of feels like a loss. For a lot of Congress supporters in our community, it was a loss but it felt like a victory,” he said.
