Harsh Mander: The people of India have spoken. What changes now?

The midsummer national Indian elections of 2024 were the most consequential in India’s journey of 74 years as a republic.

The decade-long leadership of Narendra Modi had thrust India to the brink of an abyss. At stake in the 2024 contest was not just the fate of competing political parties and leaders. The results of the elections would decide if the India imagined in the freedom struggle and pledged in the Constitution would survive.

The choices of the Indian people would determine if India would hold true to its constitutional promises: of parliamentary democracy; of freedom of dissent and religion; of equal citizenship for people of all faiths, castes and identities; and of securing for every citizen without discrimination justice, liberty, equality and fraternity.

The Modi decade was marked by a tacit repudiation of the Constitution, powered by Hindutva triumphalism that rapidly transformed the country into a republic of hate and fear. India’s 200 million Muslims were targeted routinely with genocidal hate speech and an epidemic of hate lynching, inter-religious marriages were effectively criminalised, and citizenship law amendments threatened their equal citizenship.

Dissenters were charged with grave crimes and many jailed for years without trial. India evolved into an oligarchy more unequal even than in colonial times. All...

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