{"id":4146,"date":"2024-06-24T15:02:46","date_gmt":"2024-06-24T09:17:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=4146"},"modified":"2024-06-24T15:02:46","modified_gmt":"2024-06-24T09:17:46","slug":"indias-modi-to-lay-out-third-term-plans-as-parliament-meets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/indias-modi-to-lay-out-third-term-plans-as-parliament-meets\/","title":{"rendered":"India’s Modi to lay out third-term plans as parliament meets"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Indian lawmakers begin taking their oaths Monday as parliament opens after an election setback forced Prime Minister Narendra Modi into a coalition government for the first time in a decade.<\/p>\n

Expected in the first session, which will run until July 3, is a preview of Modi’s plans for his third term and the likely formal appointment of Rahul Gandhi as leader of the opposition — a post vacant since 2014.<\/p>\n

Modi’s first two terms in office followed landslide wins for his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), allowing his government to drive laws through parliament with only cursory debate.<\/p>\n

But now analysts expect the 73-year-old Modi to moderate his Hindu-nationalist agenda to assuage his coalition partners, focusing more on infrastructure, social welfare and economic reforms.<\/p>\n

Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Monday called for a “peaceful and productive” session, but Indian media said they expected lively debate with a far stronger opposition.<\/p>\n

“All set to spar”, one headline in the Hindustan Times read Monday.<\/p>\n

“Resurgent opposition set to push government”, the Indian Express front page added.<\/p>\n

Rahul Gandhi, 54, defied analyst expectations to help his Congress party nearly double its parliamentary numbers, its best result since Modi was swept to power a decade ago.<\/p>\n

Gandhi is the scion of a dynasty that dominated Indian politics for decades and is the son, grandson and great-grandson of former prime ministers, beginning with independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru.<\/p>\n

Parliamentary regulations require the opposition leader to come from a party that commands at least 10 percent of the lawmakers in the 543-seat lower house.<\/p>\n

The post has been vacant for 10 years because two dismal election results for Congress — once India’s dominant party — left it short of that threshold.<\/p>\n

– Lawmakers elected behind bars –<\/p>\n

The parliamentary session will start with newly elected lawmakers taking their oaths over the first two days.<\/p>\n

Many will be watching if two lawmakers elected from behind bars, bitter opponents of Modi, will be allowed to join.<\/p>\n

One is Sikh separatist Amritpal Singh, a firebrand preacher arrested last year after a month-long police manhunt in Punjab state.<\/p>\n

The second is Sheikh Abdul Rashid, a former state legislator in Indian-administered Kashmir.<\/p>\n

It is unclear if either will be granted bail to attend the ceremony in person.<\/p>\n

Modi’s decade as premier has seen him cultivate an image as an aggressive champion of the country’s majority Hindu faith, worrying minorities including the country’s 200-million-plus Muslim community.<\/p>\n

But his BJP won only 240 seats in this year’s poll, 32 short of a majority in the lower house — its worst showing in a decade.<\/p>\n

It has left the BJP reliant on a motley assortment of minor parties to govern.<\/p>\n

Modi has kept key posts unchanged in this government and the cabinet remains dominated by the BJP.<\/p>\n

That includes BJP loyalists Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and S. Jaishankar — the defence, interior, transport, finance and foreign ministers, respectively, staying on in their jobs.<\/p>\n

But out of his 71-member government, 11 posts went to coalition allies who extracted them in exchange for their support — including five in the top 30 cabinet posts.<\/p>\n

Many will also be eying the election of the speaker, a powerful post overseeing the running of the lower house, with lawmakers slated to vote on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Coalition allies covet the post, but others suggest Modi will put forward a candidate from his BJP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indian lawmakers begin taking their oaths Monday as parliament opens after an election setback forced Prime Minister Narendra Modi into a coalition government for the first time in a decade. Expected in the first session, which will run until July 3, is a preview of Modi’s plans for his third term and the likely formal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4146"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4147,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4146\/revisions\/4147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}