Pakistani prime
minister Nawaz Sharif, Indian elite and Bollywood film stars among 4,000 guests
at ceremony in Delhi
By Jason Bruke
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Narendra Modi, standing centre, takes the oath of office in
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Narendra Modi, the Hindu nationalist politician
who won a landslide victory in India's general election this month, has been sworn in as the
15th prime minister of the world's largest democracy, in a spectacular ceremony
in Delhi .
On a hot and dusty evening, with temperatures reaching 40C
but with none of the rain that had been forecast, more than 4,000 guests
watched Modi and his ministers swear their oaths of office before President
Pranab Mukherjee.
Those assembled on the forecourt of the 340-room
President's residence in the centre of the city included a tea seller from
Modi's home state of Gujarat, the prime minister of Pakistan, several of
India's richest business people, hundreds of parliamentarians, representatives
of various religious communities, the elite of the bureaucracy, and Bollywood
film stars. They were guarded by 10,000 security personnel, Indian media
reported. Wearing his trademark long-tailed shirt with a pen clipped into the
top pocket of his waistcoat, Modi arrived shortly after 6pm local time and walked past lancers in white uniforms and
black turbans to sit on a dais alongside his ministers to be.
Fourteen minutes later, with
no trace of the emotion he had shown last week when addressing parliament,
the 63-year-old swore in Hindi to "uphold the sovereignty and integrity of
India … and … do right to all manner of people in accordance
with the constitution and the law, without fear or favour, affection or ill
will."
Fifteen minutes later, a
statement was posted on the revamped website of
the prime minister's office, urging Indians to "dream of a strong, developed
and inclusive India that actively engages with the global community to
strengthen the cause of world peace and development".
Modi has already signalled the pace with which he hopes to
implement change, and his timetable over the coming days reflects the sense of
urgency. Directly after the inauguration, Modi was scheduled to attend a dinner
for regional heads of state including the outgoing Afghan president, Hamid
Karzai, and Mahinda Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka , before heading to 7 Race Horse Road , the official residence of the prime minister.
The ceremony capped an
extraordinary rise from humble origins in a provincial town in Gujarat , 600
miles from Delhi , through decades as an organiser with a hardline
conservative revivalist organisation and then long years behind the scenes in
the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), which he now leads. Modi, who ran Gujarat state
from 2001 until a few days ago, had only recently been seen as a serious prime
ministerial contender, and has long been considered a political outsider.
However, his resounding victory in the recent polls and the
crushing majority now commanded by the BJP give Modi huge authority. The Congress
party, which has dominated Indian politics since the country won independence
from Britain in 1947, has been reduced to a historic low of 44 of the 543 seats
in the lower house of parliament. The party's key leaders, including Sonia and
Rahul Gandhi, attended Monday's ceremony.
Before the ceremony started, Manmohan Singh, the prime
minister for a decade of Congress government, walked across the forecourt to
greet the BJP senior leaders, who bowed their heads and put their palms
together in the traditional sign of respect.
Although Modi is a
controversial figure, especially overseas, many Indians are hopefulthat he
will be able to boost a faltering economy, crackdown on corruption, halt price
rises and create jobs. Swapan DasGupta, a rightwing commentator, said last week
that Modi had "dared to challenge orthodoxy, conventional wisdom and
social assumptions".
"If Modi is able to
complement his electoral success with a government that unleashes India 's full potential, he will have forged a new Modi consensus
that is more in tune with the 21st century," DasGupta wrote in Open, a local
news magazine.
Critics fear that Modi may exacerbate sectarian cleavages
in India and tensions in the region. He has been accused of
allowing, or even encouraging, mob violence in Gujarat in 2002.
About 1,000 people, mainly Muslims, were killed in rioting that followed an
arson attack on a train in which 59 Hindu pilgrims died. Modi, who had been
appointed Gujarat 's chief minister the year before, has denied any
wrongdoing.
Indian media reported that police fired teargas to break up
clashes between Hindu and Muslims prompted by a car accident in the city of Ahmedabad , Gujarat , on Sunday night.
Modi's decision to invite regional leaders to the ceremony
surprised many. Nawaz Sharif, elected prime minister of Pakistan for the third time last year, was among eight leaders of
the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) invited to attend.
Analysts hailed a bold step to launch a policy of regional engagement.
"It's a great moment – a great opportunity. This is a
chance to reach out to each other. Both governments [of India and Pakistan ] have a strong mandate," Sharif told NDTV, a local
channel.
The invite had posed a dilemma for Sharif, who leads the
conservative pro-business Pakistan Muslim League, as many in the country and
elsewhere in the Muslim world see Modi as a hardliner who harbours sectarian
prejudices. Sharif was the first premier of Pakistan to be present at an inauguration of an Indian prime
minister. The pair shook hands at the end of the ceremony.
Repeated
attempts to improve relations between the two states, which both have nuclear
arsenals and have fought four wars, have failed, though there have been
incremental gains over the last decade. Modi and Sharif will meet on Tuesday.
Modi will spend the morning in a series of conversations with his counterparts
from the region.
Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh 's prime minister, said she could not attend the
inauguration due to a commitment to travel to Japan , but sent a representative.
Relations with Sri Lanka are also complex, and contentious within India . Senior politicians in southern India , where there is a substantial population with ethnic and
religious links to minority communities in the island state, reacted angrily
after President Mahinda Rajapaksa accepted Modi's invitation. Jayalalithaa
Jayaram, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu state, refused an invite to the
ceremony.
There was febrile speculation about the composition of
Modi's cabinet.
The incoming prime minister had repeatedly signalled that
he wanted to reduce the number of ministers and to group ministries dealing
with related issues to streamline decision-making.
Arun Jaitley, a senior BJP leader deeply involved in the
recent electoral campaign, will be joint finance and defence minister, while
Rajnath Singh, president of the BJP and a key supporter of Modi's prime
ministerial candidacy, will be home minister. Several key figures of the BJP
appear to have been sidelined.
The new cabinet is about half the size of that of the
outgoing Congress government, which had more than 75 ministers.
