Narendra Modi makes tearful speech to India's parliament

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/20/narendra-modi-tearful-speech-india-parliament

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India's prime minister-elect, Narendra Modi, broke down in tears in parliament as he accepted the leadership of representatives of his own Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) and agreed to lead a new government in the world's biggest democracy.

Modi, 63, was making his first visit to India's national assembly since his landslide victory last week.

The BJP won 282 seats in the poll, far more than most analysts predicted, with the incumbent Congress party reduced to a historic low of 44 seats.

In his speech, in which he broke off to choke back tears, the activist turned politician urged party colleagues to dedicate themselves to serving the nation as their "mother". Other BJP figures seen weeping.

"I said this earlier and I say it again: that 125 crore (1.25 billion) Indians' hopes and aspirations are embedded in this temple of democracy," he said, later recalling his humble origins and the country's independence fighters.

Modi said "the common man has got renewed self-confidence and faith in democracy" after last Friday's victory for the BJP, which won the first overall majority by a single party since 1984 with 31% of the vote.

"For rural areas, farmers, dalits (those at the bottom of India's tenacious social hierarchy), weak and the pained, this government is for them. To meet their aspirations and hopes, this is our responsibility because our weakest, poorest have sent us here," said the new leader, who as a boy worked as a tea seller.

Modi, who was unanimously elected the leader of the BJP parliamentary party by the newly elected members of the parliament's two houses – Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha – has been locked in talks since Sunday about the composition of his cabinet. Its makeup remains shrouded in secrecy, but reports suggest lawyer and senior BJP figure Arun Jaitley is the frontrunner for the finance portfolio, while BJP president Rajnath Singh could get the home ministry. The cabinet is expected to be sworn in next week.

Modi urged colleagues to show discipline and commit themselves to hard work. "This joy, celebration will continue but this marks the beginning of the era of responsibility," he said.

During the afternoon, Modi met President Pranab Mukherjee to inform him of his intention to form an administration and then left Delhi for Gujarat, where he will resign as chief minister after 13 years in power.

Supporters see Modi as the only leader capable of reinvigorating the flagging Indian economy, while critics accuse him of authoritarianism and sectarian prejudice. Modi was in power in Gujarat when communal riots there in 2002 killed 1,000 people, most of them Muslims. He has denied wrongdoing and the supreme court found insufficient evidence to support the charge that he allowed, or even encouraged, violence.

India is in the midst of rapid socio-economic change. About 13 million young people are entering the job market each year, but not enough jobs are being created in an economy that has slowed down to below 5% annual growth in the last two years. Food prices have soared, as has unemployment.

Support for the government of outgoing prime minister Manmohan Singh was undermined by repeated corruption scandals while the party's 43-year-old vice-president, Rahul Gandhi, failed to inspire confidence as leader of the Congress electoral campaign.

Despite the poor electoral result, Congress reaffirmed its collective faith in the leadership of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty at a special post-poll meeting in Delhi on Monday.