Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was set for a historic third term on Tuesday, but with a vastly diminished majority in a rare electoral setback for a leader who has held a tight grip on the nation's politics, Reuters reported.
Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party lost its own majority in parliament for the first time in a decade and is dependent on its regional allies to get past the half-way mark required to run the world's largest democracy.
For Modi whose approval ratings have been the highest among world leaders and who ran a presidential-style campaign, such a result is the first sign of the ground shifting.
"For the BJP to drop below the majority mark, this is a personal setback for him," said Yogendra Yadav, a psephologist and the founder of a small political group opposed to the BJP.
Since he took power 10 years ago, riding his Hindu nationalist base, Modi has been the ruling alliance's unquestioned leader, with concerns growing about what his opponents see as the country's slide towards authoritarianism, read the report.
The man who as a boy sold tea in his home state of Gujarat has dominated India's politics so completely in the last decade that few in his party or even the parent ideological group, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, dare stand up to him.
Indeed, throughout the campaign in scorching heat, it was Modi with his thinning white hair, a neatly trimmed white beard and immaculate Indian attire who towered over everyone else.
His giant cutouts were everywhere, his face on television screens every day as he courted India's 968 million voters with a personal "Modi guarantee" to change their lives.
"My sole issue with Modi today is that he has become larger than the party itself," said Surendra Kumar Dwivedi, a former head of the Department of Political Science at Lucknow University "In a democratic system... a party should always supersede an individual."
'LAST 10 YEARS IS ONLY A PREVIEW'
Still, Modi will be only the second leader to win a third term after founding prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and has promised a transformative next five years.
Under him, India has become the world's fastest growing major economy and he has said he wants to make it the world's third largest in three years, behind the United States and China.
"What we have done in the last 10 years is only a preview, a trailer," Modi told a recent rally. "We have a lot more to do. Modi is taking the country to a different level in the world."
The BJP has dismissed opposition speculation that Modi, 73, might hang up his boots once he reaches 75, like some other party leaders have done in recent years. Modi has said he wants to lay the groundwork for India to become a fully developed nation by 2047, the 100th year of independence from British colonial rule, read the report.
"Modi will now probably enter in what I call the legacy phase of his prime ministership, driving India forward politically, economically, diplomatically and even militarily," said Bilveer Singh, deputy head, department of political science, at the National University of Singapore.
The idea would be to make the country a "strong regional power that is also a counterbalance to China, but not to serve Western interest as is sometimes alleged, but mainly to promote India's interest, power and place in international politics".
A reduced mandate for Modi's ruling alliance forecloses the possibility of changes to India's secular constitution that opposition groups had warned against. Any such measures require the support of two-thirds of members of parliament.
Concerns have grown in recent years that the BJP's Hindu nationalist agenda has polarised the country with Modi himself turning up the rhetoric, accusing the main opposition Congress of appeasing Muslims for votes, Reuters reported.
Yashwant Deshmukh, founder of CVoter polling agency and a political analyst, said the BJP's top goal of introducing common civil laws to replace Islam's sharia-based customs and other religious codes would have to go on the back burner.
"These will have to be debated," he said.
Earlier this week, U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer said Pakistan’s development of long-range ballistic missiles made it an “emerging threat”.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry on Saturday dismissed as unfounded and "devoid of rationality" assertions by a senior U.S. official that its missile programme could eventually pose a threat to the United States, Reuters reported.
Earlier this week, U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer said Pakistan's development of long-range ballistic missiles made it an "emerging threat".
Finer's comments, which came a day after Washington announced a new round of sanctions related to the ballistic missile programme, underscored the deterioration in once-close ties between Washington and Islamabad since the 2021 U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Addressing Finer's remarks, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said the perception of an alleged threat was "unfortunate".
"These allegations are unfounded, devoid of rationality and sense of history," the ministry added in a statement.
The ministry said its strategic capabilities were solely for defending its sovereignty and maintaining regional stability, and should not be perceived as a threat to any other country.
It also highlighted Pakistan's long history of cooperation with the U.S., particularly in counter-terrorism efforts, and reiterated its commitment to engaging constructively on all issues, including regional security and stability, read the report.
Relations between the United States and Pakistan have seen significant ups and downs. The countries collaborated during the Cold War and in the fight against al Qaeda after 9/11.
However, ties have been strained due to coups in the South Asian country by Pakistan's military, support for the Taliban's 1996-2001 rule in Afghanistan, and over the nuclear weapons programme.
Sixteen security personnel were killed in northwest Pakistan in an attack by militants, Reuters reported citing the deputy superintendent of police.
"According to our information, 16 security personnel were martyred and eight injured in this attack. A search operation is under way in the area," said Hidayat Ullah, deputy superintendent of police in South Waziristan.
Speaking to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Finer said Pakistan has pursued “increasingly sophisticated missile technology, from long-range ballistic missile systems to equipment, that would enable the testing of significantly larger rocket motors.”
A senior White House official on Thursday said nuclear-armed Pakistan is developing long-range ballistic missile capabilities that eventually could allow it to strike targets well beyond South Asia, making it an "emerging threat" to the United States.
Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer's surprise revelation underscored how far the once-close ties between Washington and Islamabad have deteriorated since the 2021 U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, Reuters reported.
It also raised questions about whether Pakistan has shifted the objectives of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs long intended to counter those of India, with which it has fought three major wars since 1947.
Speaking to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Finer said Pakistan has pursued "increasingly sophisticated missile technology, from long-range ballistic missile systems to equipment, that would enable the testing of significantly larger rocket motors."
If those trends continue, Finer said, "Pakistan will have the capability to strike targets well beyond South Asia, including in the United States."
The number of nuclear-armed states with missiles that can reach the U.S. homeland "is very small and they tend to be adversarial," he continued, naming Russia, North Korea and China.
"So, candidly, it's hard for us to see Pakistan's actions as anything other than an emerging threat to the United States," Finer said.
His speech came a day after Washington announced a new round of sanctions related to Pakistan's ballistic missile development program, including for the first time against the state-run defense agency that oversees the program.
The Pakistani embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Islamabad casts its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs as deterrents against Indian aggression and intended to maintain regional stability.
Two senior administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the U.S. concerns with Pakistan's missile program have been long-standing and stemmed from the sizes of the rocket engines being developed.
The threat posed to the United States is up to a decade away, said one official.
Finer's comments, the officials said, were intended to press Pakistani officials to address why they are developing more powerful rocket engines, something they have refused to do.
"They don't acknowledge our concerns. They tell us we are biased," said the second U.S. official, adding that Pakistani officials have wrongly implied that U.S. sanctions on their missile program are intended "to handicap their ability to defend against India."
Finer included himself among senior U.S. officials who he said repeatedly have raised concerns about the missile program with top Pakistani officials to no avail.
Washington and Islamabad, he noted, had been "long-time partners" on development, counter-terrorism and security.
"That makes us question even more why Pakistan will be motivated to develop a capability that could be used against us."
Pakistan has been critical of warm ties U.S. President Joe Biden has forged with its long-time foe India, and maintains close ties with China. Some Chinese entities have been slapped with U.S. sanctions for supplying Islamabad's ballistic missile program.
It conducted its first nuclear weapons test in 1998 - more than 20 years after India's first test blast - and has built an extensive arsenal of ballistic missiles capable of lofting nuclear warheads.
The Bulletin of the American Scientists research organization estimates that Pakistan has a stockpile of about 170 warheads.
U.S.-Pakistani relations have undergone major ups and downs, including close Cold War ties that saw them support Afghan rebels against the 1979-89 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
Pakistan also was a key partner in the U.S. fight against al Qaeda following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, and has been a major non-NATO ally since 2004.
But ties also have been hurt by coups staged by the Pakistani military, its support for the Islamic Emirate's 1996-2001 rule and its nuclear weapons program.
Several experts said Finer's speech came as a major surprise.
"For a senior U.S. official to publicly link concerns about proliferation in Pakistan to a future direct threat to the U.S. homeland - this is a mighty dramatic development," said Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Center think tank.
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