India's low-caste voters humbled its powerful prime minister

[IronLionZion]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/06/05/india-election-modi-bjp-dalits/
Gift link: https://wapo.st/4c7Ajpw



DHAMPUR, India — Long before shock election results released this week eroded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s political mandate, the seeds of discontent were planted in the poor, zigzagging alleys housing Indians at the foot of society.

Months ago, upper-caste members of Modi’s party boasted they would gain so much political power that they would amend India’s constitution to remove affirmative action, said villager Yogendra Kumar. There was another problem, Yogendra’s friend Nikul Kumar added: Modi never delivered jobs to the poor or kept inflation in check.

Yogendra and Nikul Kumar are Dalits, formerly known as untouchables, and part of the crucial voter bloc that delivered the biggest surprise this week: low-caste Hindus in the Hindi-speaking heartland who unexpectedly rebelled against Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. While the BJP won the most parliamentary seats, it fell well short of securing the majority needed to form a government.

In a bruising campaign over the past seven weeks, Modi often appealed to religion, portraying himself as a champion of Hindus anointed by God and denouncing Muslims as “infiltrators.” But ultimately, according to political analysts, the election was decided along the fault lines of caste and class.

Yep, it's class warfare. The wealthy class are the ones waging war on the poor. The "job creator" didn't create enough jobs or control inflation. Hate and bigotry can only go so far when people don't have a living wage to pay the bills. India's election has some similarities to the US election coming up. I would hope Trump's BS is less popular than before.

[3Hotdogs]

1. Modi should'a studied Reaganomics. Trickle-down solved the problem of U.S. poverty.

Anyone who wants a job at Amazon, no problem

[IronLionZion]

2. Ironically GOP senators have used that excuse for military recruitment problems

Senator Tom Cotton claimed US military has a hard time recruiting people because they can get more pay at Amazon for less dangerous work. "Nobody wants to work anymore" has become "nobody wants to die for a paycheck anymore".

[Martin68]

3. Hinduism is not lower caste society's friend. It has drawn firm lines excluding people born in lower caste families from

from full participation in the wider society. Modi threatened to reverse progress the lower castes have made over the years. It is no surprise they decided not to support him.

There's a parallel here with poor Whites in the South who support the GOP because it makes them feel superior to Blacks. Modi did the same for lower caste Hindus in relation to Muslims. When are rural Whites going to catch on to the fact that GOP policies only hurt their communities?

[IronLionZion]

4. Exactly, telling impoverished Hindus to step on Muslims can only go so far

when working people realize they are both being stepped on by wealthy grifters seeking to divide and conquer.

In the US it was telling poor rural whites that blacks or immigrants or whoever are "stealing your jobs".