On May 30, 2019, the Narendra Modi-led BJP managed to secure an even larger mandate than they did in 2014. The NDA coalition secured 353 seats in the Lok Sabha, with the BJP alone having secured 303 of those seats.
Although at least one major BJP ally - the Shiv Sena - has since broken up with the saffron party, the BJP continues to maintain a comfortable majority in the Lok Sabha, and shows no sign of weakening at the Centre.
So how has Modi Sarkar 2.0 fared so far?
The BJP itself seems to think it has plenty to celebrate.
All ministers in BJP-led Central and state governments and the party's elected representatives will take part in a massive public outreach campaign to mark the eighth anniversary of the Modi government from May 30 to June 14.
Addressing a press conference, BJP General Secretary Arun Singh hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a "reliable, popular, decisive, sacrificing, and ascetic" leader and said that the "whole country is with him."
The Opposition Congress on the other hand, has a decidedly less rosy view of the picture.
High inflation, unemployment, misgovernance and communal polarisation have been hallmarks of the eight years of the Narendra Modi government, the Congress said on Thursday as the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government completed three years of its second term.
The Congress released a 20-page Hindi booklet titled ‘Eight years, eight deceits and a failed government’ to highlight the Modi government’s failures with regard to economy, employment, inflation, farmers’ income, national security, welfare for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.
Here are some moves carried out by Modi Sarkar 2.0 that, for better or for worse, have had a landmark impact on India's political landscape:
On 30 July 2019, Parliament of India declared the practice of Triple Talaq as illegal and unconstitutional, making it a punishable offense from 1 August 2019.
On 5 August 2019, the government moved a resolution to scrap Article 370 in the Rajya Sabha, and also reorganise the state, with Jammu and Kashmir serving as one union territory and Ladakh region carved out as a separate union territory.
The North East Delhi riots, which left more than 40 dead and hundreds injured, were triggered by protests against a citizenship law seen by many critics as anti-Muslim and part of Modi's Hindu nationalist agenda.
On 5 August 2020, Modi visited Ayodhya after the Supreme Court in 2019 ordered a contested land in Ayodhya to be handed over to a trust to build the Hindu temple and ordered the government to give alternate 5 acre land to Sunni Waqf Board for the purpose of building a mosque. He became the first prime minister to visit Ram Janmabhoomi and Hanuman Garhi.
In terms of economic policy, the situation for the Modi government is decidedly grim:
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous rating agencies downgraded India's GDP predictions for FY21 to negative figures, signalling a recession in India, the most severe since 1979.
According to a Dun & Bradstreet report, the country is likely to suffer a recession in the third quarter of FY2020 as a result of the over 2-month long nation-wide lockdown imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19. This was also accompanied by the mass migration of migrant workers.
The Indian economy in 2021 recovered, with a growth rate around 9% in FY21 and is expected to grow around 8.2% in FY22, as estimates from IMF and WB show; however, the growth rate in 2020 was in negative figures (-6.6%) due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
In terms of foreign policy, the primary issues confronting New Delhi in the last three years have undoubtedly been the high altitude standoff with China in the Himalayas, as well as the fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On 5 May 2020, Chinese and Indian troops engaged in aggressive melee, face-offs and skirmishes at locations along the Sino-Indian border, including near the disputed Pangong Lake in Ladakh and the Tibet Autonomous Region, and near the border between Sikkim and the Tibet Autonomous Region. Additional clashes also took place at locations in eastern Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Modi signed an agreement with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in December 2021 to extend military technical cooperation. The Modi government struck a deal with Russia, buying the state-of-the-art S-400 missile defence system.
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, India refused to condemn Russia's invasion and stayed neutral, without opting to back both the countries.
