Indian Elections in The Eyes Of U.S. Media

In its view, "No party is likely to win a majority and a number of regional parties are expected to play important parts in forming the next government, but analysts say the elections mark a watershed for India's two national parties."

Writing in the New York Times, Manu Joseph, an Indian journalist and author of the novel "The Illicit Happiness of Other People", said that as "India heads toward general elections", its 814 million "voters are being influenced by mutated versions of India's old fantasies".

"What the elections are largely about this time is the rise of the fierce Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi... and the political responses to his ascent," he wrote, referring to the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate.

Modi's "charm in no small measure derives from the sense of danger he exudes from having been accused of complicity in the 2002 riots in Gujarat State that resulted in the deaths of more than a thousand people, mostly Muslims", Joseph wrote.

"The noise on social media, which is largely in favour of Mr. Modi," he suggested, "contains the low-stakes patriotism of Indian residents of the United States who do not have to live through the consequences of their long-distance affair with nationalism".

"They tend to be liberal Democrats in the United States, but political conservatives in India," Joseph suggested.

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