Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is waiting out the last round of India's elections at a memorial to a Hindu spiritual leader, where he will remain in silent meditation as millions cast the final votes in polls he is expected to win.
Modi arrived at the Swami Vivekananda Rock Memorial in southern India on Thursday and is not expected to emerge until late Saturday – by which time the remaining 57 constituencies should have finished voting for their representatives in the Indian parliament.
Saturday's polling is the seventh and final leg of a staggered general election that began on 19 April.
Results from all rounds are due on 4 June, with the prime minister's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is predicted to clinch a majority for the third time in a row.
In a symbolic move, Modi is spending the final hours of the vote at a mid-sea retreat dedicated to 19th-century spiritual leader and social reformer Vivekananda, who supposedly attainted enlightenment there in 1892.
Surrounded by police and armed ships, Modi went into meditation at 7pm on Thursday and will break his silence after 48 hours, party members told RFI.
#WATCH | Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu
— ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2024
He will meditate from 30th May evening to 1st June evening.
PM Modi will meditate day and night at the same place where Swami Vivekanand did meditation, at the Dhyan… pic.twitter.com/7QfKkvRLLN
Strategic choice
Analysts say Modi’s choice to retire to southern Tamil Nadu state was strategic, as the BJP has so far struggled to make a dent in India's south.
But his rivals alleged the high-profile spiritual exercise was actually aimed at voters in Modi's northern constituency of Varanasi, who will decide on Saturday whether to return him to parliament for a third term.
The main opposition Congress party complained to the Indian Election Commission that the PM's display of piety was a breach of electoral codes, which require a blackout on campaigning immediately before the vote.
"The trip would be widely televised and would therefore be shown during the 48-hour silence period in Varanasi," the Congress told the watchdog on Thursday.
"Through the meditation trip, Modi is attempting to unfairly leverage the ethnocultural significance of the chosen location in an attempt to bolster his campaign and maximise his vote share."
A calling
The BJP described the prime minister's trip to the memorial as "personal business".
Modi, who has moulded a cult of personality within the party, says he was simply following God's orders on earth.
"I am convinced that God sent me for a purpose. Once the purpose is achieved, my work will be one done," he told the NDTV news channel last weekend.
"God does not open his cards but makes me do his biddings."
But critics accuse Modi of seeking to stay in power with increasingly authoritarian tactics.
"Modi has very dangerous intentions for India as he is pushing for a 'one leader, one nation' policy," said Arwind Kejriwal, chief minister of Delhi and head of the opposition Aam Aadmi Party.
"He has sent many of his rivals to prison and sidelined colleagues who dared to speak up," said Kejriwal, who was himself jailed by the Modi regime before being released on bail earlier this month.
Majoritarian peril
Modi has also resorted to inflammatory comments on the campaign trail against those outside India's Hindu majority, especially Muslims.
In one case, the premier told a rally the opposition Congress wanted to hand out Hindus' wealth to "infiltrators" with large families, widely taken as a disparaging reference to Muslims.
Analysts say the comments, which came as the six-week vote kicked off, were intentional to test the ground.
"With the seven phases of voting, one sees Modi’s speeches have become much more strident, much more divisive," Gopinath Ravindran, history professor at Delhi’s Jamia Millia University, told RFI.
He said the anti-Muslim rhetoric reflected insecurity in the ruling faction. "It however does not mean that they are going to lose this election," Ravindran argued.
"Today, the threat is if the present government comes back to power they may go in for major revisions to our constitution and take it towards a majoritarianism Hindu polity."
He added: "The nation must keep a close watch."
