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Jan 15, 2025 | 
johnmenadue.com | Robin Jeffrey
India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party hit a bump in the road in 2024 when it lost its majority in the Lok Sabha general elections, held between April and June. The shock jolted passengers a little, but the big orange BJP bus continues to roll down the road to Hindutva – the promised land of a Hindu supremacist state. The results of the seven weeks of voting were a surprise.
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Jan 12, 2025 | 
eastasiaforum.org | Robin Jeffrey
India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hit a bump in the road in 2024 when it lost its majority in the Lok Sabha general elections, held between April and June. The shock jolted passengers a little, but the big orange BJP bus continues to roll down the road to Hindutva — the promised land of a Hindu supremacist state. The results of the seven weeks of voting were a surprise.
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Sep 3, 2024 | 
insidestory.org.au | Robin Jeffrey
Most readers of Inside Story will know someone who is tracing their family’s history. User-friendly databases of newspapers and censuses, canny businesses like ancestry.com, commercialised DNA analysis and television programs like Who Do You Think You Are? make searching for forebears a delightful divertissement for laptop and keyboard. Some people write up their results for the benefit of offspring and family members. Others bring them out as privately produced books.
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Jun 7, 2024 | 
insidestory.org.au | Robin Jeffrey
A number of factors help explain the surprising electoral setback to Narendra Modi and his Hindu-supremacist program for India. But the most significant is being overlooked. India’s greatest achievement since independence has been its capacity to manage and nurture an immensely plural entity. The constitution of 1950 recognises this diversity when it refers to “the Union” of India. India’s federation, and the efficient, democratic voting system that underpins it, are essential.
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May 10, 2024 | 
insidestory.org.au | Robin Jeffrey
Two dramas are playing out in India during its six-week, seven-stage elections, the second-longest voting period in its electoral history. Polling began on 19 April; the third round was on 7 May; the results will be known on 4 June. The immediate drama is the election. Prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party has been heavily favoured to win a third five-year term. The other drama is bigger: what is the essence of India?
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Mar 14, 2024 | 
insidestory.org.au | Robin Jeffrey
India’s eighteenth general elections are only weeks away, a thumping victory for Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party is predicted, and I’m watching Bollywood movies from 1977 to remind myself of how much the country’s mood has changed. That was the year when Indira Gandhi ended her seventeen months of authoritarian rule (“the Emergency”) and called elections she expected to win.
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Jan 22, 2024 | 
eastasiaforum-dev.anu.edu.au | Barbara Stallings |Robin Jeffrey |Jia Qingguo |Michael Barr
Countries in the Global South are becoming increasingly important actors on the global stage. While the term ‘Global South’ is vague — and some have argued for abolishing it — it is used here to mean the larger and richer developing nations. The demands made by the Global South have created political and economic shifts that the West will need to adapt to. These countries have become more powerful due to their economic growth.
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Jan 21, 2024 | 
eastasiaforum.org | Robin Jeffrey |Allison Alexy |T.Y. Wang |Chung Min Tsai
Author: Robin Jeffrey, MelbourneFor Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its mentors in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Hindu supremacist civil society organisation, 2024 could be an epoch-making year. As 2023 ended, they had much to feel pleased about. Preparation for national elections due by May 2024 had gone on carefully. The BJP received a boost of confidence in early December after landslides in three Hindi-speaking northern states.
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Jul 24, 2023 | 
insidestory.org.au | Robin Jeffrey
For those seeking a credible challenge to India’s Hindu-supremacist government of Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party, a meeting of opposition parties in Bengaluru on 18 July sparked a frisson of hope. For sceptical observers, however, “1977” and “1989” flashed on the big video screen of memory to subdue expectations. In Bengaluru, the leaders of twenty-six opposition parties reached a joint agreement to fight next year’s national elections as allies.
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May 26, 2023 | 
asiatimes.com | Robin Jeffrey
The big saffron-colored bus, driven by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and carrying his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its associates, blew a tire on May 10. The BJP’s incumbent government lost heavily in legislative elections in the southern state of Karnataka. (The bus, of course, is a metaphor: bus driving is not among the many virtues ascribed to Prime Minister Modi). Karnataka is the eighth most populous state in India.
