President Modi’s BJP seeks U.S. supporters head of vote

This week the world’s biggest democratic election kicks off in India, as almost 970 million voters decide whether to give Prime Minister Narendra Modi a third term. The election will last six weeks after a campaign that has sprawled across India — and into the United States as well.

Modi’s supporters credit him with putting India on the global stage and turning it into one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. His critics, however, say Modi has fanned a wave of Hindu nationalism, cracked down on opponents, stifled press freedom and stoked religious tensions with Muslims and other minority groups.

In the weeks leading up to the election, which begins Friday, the overseas arm of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has enlisted members of the Indian diaspora in the U.S. to campaign on his behalf, either by phone calling friends and family in India or by traveling to India themselves.

More than 60 Modi supporters turned up to an event at the Potomac Community Center in Maryland last month, many of them wearing scarves of saffron, a color associated with Hindu nationalism. At the event, leaders of the Overseas Friends of BJP listed what they saw as Modi’s achievements since taking office in 2014: developments in infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, technology and education and, more recently, the inauguration of a grand Hindu temple on a contested holy site. 

Attendees were urged to use these as talking points to nudge friends and family in India to vote for Modi, and many stood ready to help.

“Especially when they see me, that I’m from [the] United States, it carries a weight,” said Kanwaljit Soni, OFBJP’s coordinator for the Sikh community, who was planning to travel to India to campaign ahead of the election, which runs from April 19 to June 1. 

It’s a familiar routine for him. During the last election, in 2019, he said, he spent three weeks in India traveling from village to village to encourage people to vote for the BJP.

“I will be going to where my roots are in the different states,” he said.

Aware of the gargantuan task of defeating Modi, the fractured opposition has tried to consolidate into a single coalition by fielding a single candidate against the BJP. But many candidates have already switched to the BJP or backed out of the coalition.

“It’s no longer party versus party. It’s a person against a person, and there is no other credible person with a national stature like Modi,” said Sanjoy Chakravorty, a professor of geography, urban studies and global studies at Temple University in Philadelphia and the author of “The Truth About Us: The Politics of Information From Manu to Modi.”The opposition has been further constrained by what it says are strong-arm tactics by Modi and his government. Dozens of opposition politicians have been jailed or are under investigation, and there were protests last month when Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, was arrested in connection with corruption allegations that he denies.

Last month, Modi’s government froze the bank accounts of the main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, in a tax dispute. The party said the move was politically motivated and hindered its ability to campaign.

Modi has said that India’s democracy remains robust and that there is “absolutely no discrimination.” His government says the Congress party fears a historic defeat and that its accounts were frozen because it failed to file tax returns for past donations. 

The Congress party has also tried to mobilize support among Indian Americans with rallies across the U.S., arguing that India cannot afford a third Modi term. 

“Democracy is under an existential crisis in India right now and people are afraid to speak out,” said George Abraham, vice president of the Indian Overseas Congress.

But it is hard to compete with Modi, who experts say has built the narrative of being a “great leader,” his face appearing everywhere in India from outdoor displays to vaccination certificates. That has extended abroad to the Indian diaspora in the U.S., which has never been more passionate about politics at home. 

Modi’s state visit to Washington last year drew a few hundred protesters, but thousands of South Asians also flooded the city’s landmarks, either to support him or just to revel in the historic moment.

“It’s the convergence of the whole nation into a person,” Chakravorty said.

Adapa Prasad, president of Overseas Friends of BJP, said the group aimed to reach almost 50,000 members of the Indian diaspora in the U.S., with the goal of helping Modi and the BJP secure a landslide victory.

And Maryland…