The Largest Election in the History of the Largest Democracy in the World

The longest and most expensive election in India's history began April 7th and will conclude May 12th at a cost of more than $5 billion.  To manage the large electorate -- estimated at 815 million -- and address security concerns in the world's largest democracy, the election to seat 543 members of the 16th Lok Sabha, or lower house of the Parliament, is running in nine segments over five weeks.  The results will also determine who will rule the world’s largest democracy as prime minister. The victor will ultimately be the party winning the most Lok Sabha seats, a minimum of 272.

Top issues in India’s elections are perennial -- government corruption, nepotism and economic growth -- but also playing a major factor is the burgeoning Islamization of the country.  The bulk of India's population, around 80% Hindu, is concerned about past government policies that appear to have favored Muslims.  The most popular candidate for prime minister, Narendra Modi, has been painted for years as virulently anti-Muslim in an effort to undermine his political power during years of dedicated government service as Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat.  He has been the subject of eight-years of rigorous investigations and most recently by India’s Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT), which found no wrong doing on his part, and he has been legally exonerated of all framed charges in 2010. Yet, he has been denied a U.S. visa, despite this lack of proof.  The outcome of the elections in India will help determine if the country will slide further under Muslim influence or pursue a path toward democracy and away from preferential laws for Muslims.

Those preferential laws were created under the rule of the Indian National Congress (INC), or “the Congress.”  Formed in 1885, the party played a major role in freeing the country from British colonial rule in 1947.  But, in more modern times, the pro-Muslim Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, has lost support.  As the economic growth of India has slowed significantly, government corruption has become rampant and infrastructure deficiencies abound.  Modi, a statesman of the country’s other major political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has pledged to institute good governance, end corruption, boost economic growth, and adopt a uniform civil code to foster equal gender justice and equality for Indian Muslim women who are currently governed by Sharia law