Narendra Modi discusses the upcoming 2024 Indian elections and the state of Indian democracy with Kenneth Bo Nielsen, Arild Engelsen Ruud, and Francesca Jensenius. They explore the challenges of engaging voters, Modi's popularity amidst concerns, and the potential impacts of his victory on Indian politics.
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India's Democratic Paradox
India's 2024 election is the largest democratic exercise in history, with nearly 1 billion voters.
Despite being called the "mother of democracy", India's democracy is declining, and it's now classified as an electoral autocracy.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Scale of the Election
The 2024 Indian election involves 1 million polling stations, 15 million officials, and potentially $14 billion in spending.
Over 2,600 political parties are registered, and turnout is expected to be between 60-70%.
insights INSIGHT
Shift in Dominance
The BJP's dominance is shifting Indian politics from a Congress-dominated era to a BJP-dominated one.
Despite this macro-level shift, significant voting fragmentation and volatility exist at the constituency level.
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What is at stake at the 2024 Indian national elections? And, what can we expect if the incumbent prime minister Narendra Modi wins another five years in office? From April to June 2024, close to one billion Indian voters can cast their ballot at what is set to be the largest democratic exercise in world history. India is often spoken about as the world’s largest democracy, and the current Indian government describes the country as “the mother of democracy”. But there are also indications that Indian democracy is on the decline. Global indices now place India among the top “autocratizing countries” in the world, categorising it as an electoral autocracy. And, under Modi, the space for dissent has narrowed, the freedom of the media been undermined, and religious minorities and oppositional groups in civil society targeted and repressed. In this episode, Kenneth Bo Nielsen talks to Arild Engelsen Ruud and Francesca Jensenius about the 2024 elections and the future of Indian democracy.
Arild Engelsen Ruud is Professor of South Asia Studies at the University of Oslo
Francesca Jensenius is Professor of Political Science at the University of Oslo
Kenneth Bo Nielsen is a social anthropologist based in Oslo, and one of the leaders of the Norwegian Network for Asian Studies.
New Books in Political Science 