Close X
Thursday, November 14, 2024
ADVT 
India

Modi faces sea of expectations from diaspora, India-watchers

Darpan News Desk Darpan, 28 May, 2014 10:56 AM
    With Narendra Modi taking over as prime minister, a host of expectations, recommendations and advice is pouring in for the BJP leader from overseas Indians.
     
    Balesh Dhankhar, president of Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP)'s Australia chapter, says Modi's stunning victory had given the Indian diaspora "a hope of reforms".
     
    "With Modi coming to power, many Indians including me have started the process of returning to India to contribute towards India's progress," Dhankhar told IANS in an email interview.
     
    "We expect the BJP government to revitalise Indian culture and education system, crippled by mindless borrowing of Western systems.
     
    "Whereas countries like Japan, (South) Korea, China stand strong on their own philosophy, tradition, and languages, they excel in development and modernisation for that reason only.... We expect Modi to review the Indian traditional education system," he added.
     
    Indian-origin Kenyan banker Hiten Vaya says he wants Modi to use the vast potential India has in its youth to drive the country forward by creating jobs and opportunities for youngsters.
     
    "This is a chance for India to really assert herself on the world stage in all spheres," he said.
     
    Vaya, however, had a note of caution for Modi, who is widely seen in India and abroad as a Hindu hardliner.
     
    "I don't want him to get sidetracked by jingoism or do anything under Hindu nationalists' pressure which may tarnish his name... Modi is known as pro-development and pro-business. Let that be his strong point and legacy."
     
    Not all in the Indian diaspora are fans of Modi or enthused by the Bharatiya Janata Party's runaway victory that has made it the first party in three decades to achieve a single-party majority in parliament.
     
     
    "It's the will of the majority. I am sceptical of how his policies will translate to long-term growth of India, not just in big cities," said California-based Nandita Bhandari Verma, working as the marketing director of a software company.
     
    Belgian researcher Marianne Keppens, a coordinator of India Platform, a forum for collaboration between European and Indian universities, says the Modi victory was significant.
     
    "BJP's success and Modi as prime minister is an incredibly strong signal of the Indians that they want a change in the way their culture has been described and approached since colonialism," said Keppens.
     
    "It is a signal that Indians are getting rid of the legacy of the colonial way of understanding Indian culture and that they are rediscovering the strength and richness of their culture."
     
    Pakistani journalist Muhammad Akbar Notezai, who has worked on the welfare of Hindus in Balochistan province for years, is cautiously optimistic.
     
    "There is hope that pro-business Modi will have good relations with (his Pakistani counterpart) Nawaz Sharif who enjoyed friendly relations with Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
     
    Notezai had a word of advice for Modi.
     
    "As far as Hindus in Pakistan are concerned, they fear that any Hindu-Muslim tension will create problems for them as it happened in the 1990s. That is why the BJP must learn a lesson from the past."

    MORE India ARTICLES

    Meerut violence: FIRs against 200 rioters lodged

    Meerut violence: FIRs against 200 rioters lodged
    A dozen criminal cases were filed Sunday against 200 unidentified rioters for violence here Saturday in which about 50 people, including a senior police officer and two media persons, were injured.

    Meerut violence: FIRs against 200 rioters lodged

    Rahul's No to Third Front: Ploughing a lonely furrow?

    Rahul's No to Third Front: Ploughing a lonely furrow?
    The implications of Rahul Gandhi's summary dismissal of the idea of Congress support for the Third Front are not clear. Nor is it clear whether the Congress vice president's views are the party's last word on the subject.

    Rahul's No to Third Front: Ploughing a lonely furrow?

    Will there be a surprise end to Modi’s tale?

    Will there be a surprise end to Modi’s tale?
    What a roller coaster it has been since June 2013 when all senior BJP leaders assembled in Goa to strategize for the coming elections. Instead of discussing the roadmap with senior leaders, Narendra Modi and his cohorts imposed on them a fait accompli: Modi will be the head of the party’s election campaign.

    Will there be a surprise end to Modi’s tale?

    Rahul Gandhi storms Varanasi, holds roadshow, rally

    Rahul Gandhi storms Varanasi, holds roadshow, rally
    Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi Saturday stormed Varanasi to campaign against BJP's Lok Sabha candidate Narendra Modi, holding a roadshow and addressing a huge rally where he promised the right to health if the Congress is voted back to power.

    Rahul Gandhi storms Varanasi, holds roadshow, rally

    Revealed: Things you Never Knew About Narendra Modi

    Revealed: Things you Never Knew About Narendra Modi
    Narendra Modi was an eighth grade student then. He got nine stitches on his left foot near the ankle and was bed-ridden for more than a week. The cut marks are still there on his left foot

    Revealed: Things you Never Knew About Narendra Modi

    80 private schools to refund excess fees to parents: Delhi HC panel

    80 private schools to refund excess fees to parents: Delhi HC panel
    A panel set up by the Delhi High Court Friday recommended that 80 private schools have to refund the excess fees they charged in 2009 but did not pay salaries to their staff as per the Sixth Pay Commission's recommendations.

    80 private schools to refund excess fees to parents: Delhi HC panel