After attending a prayer service at a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and transformation, the incoming Indian leader Narendra Modi has said that, “There’s a lot of work that god has put me on this earth for,” while on the banks of the Ganges River in Varanasi. According to Bloomberg News, Narendra Modi said that, “A lot of it is dirty work, but I am up to the task.” BJP officials reported that, Mr. Modi would not formally take office until after Tuesday.
It has been reported that onlookers and security officials were taking pictures and that thousands of people threw rose petals at Narendra Modi’s convoy as it made its way through the streets of Varanasi. According to a report by Bloomberg News, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party said it would nominate him formally for prime minister this week.
Bloomberg News has reported that, Narendra Modi, the son of a tea seller, is favored by business leaders because of his record in Gujarat, the state that he has governed since 2001. The states per capita income nearly quadrupled during Modi’s tenure to 61,220 rupees ($1,040), rising at a faster pace than the national average.
BBC News India reported that, a lot of Indians still have profound concerns over Narendra Modi because of claims he did little to stop communal riots in Gujarat back in 2002 when he was first minister in the state.
A visiting senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore, S. Narayan, reported that “People want growth, people want jobs, people want low inflation and people want less corruption.” “That’s the message from this mandate,” S. Narayan said, according to Bloomberg News.
In his speech, the prime minister-elect pledged to make good governance and development cornerstones of his administration.
“People used to believe that you couldn’t run an election on the basis of development, that to win an election you had to hand out scraps to people,” Narendra Modi said, according to Radio Australia.
Image credit: www.bbc.co.uk