Modi will be the next PM, says Meghnad Desai

Indian-origin economist Lord Meghnad Desai has said India will get a more ‘decisive leadership’ in Narendra Modi if he takes over as the new prime minister after the general elections next month. Lord Desai endorsed the Gujarat chief minister’s credentials for the country’s top job.

“He is going to be prime minister. Is he going to be a good PM? Well, I hope so for the sake of India. But it will be a change from Manmohan Singh,” he said.

Speaking at a panel discussion organised by the Commonwealth Journalists’ Association on the Indian elections at Senate House in London on Thursday, he predicted between 230 and 250 seats for the Bharatiya Janata Party alone, with an estimated total of 275 for the core National Democratic Alliance.

The the senior parliamentarian added, “India uses democracy as an excuse for what doesn’t happen. Modi gives the impression that he can do things.”

When asked about Modi’s moral statue, he replied, “No matter how many courts clear him, people who believe he is guilty will go on believing he is guilty. But what is not in doubt is that a new BJP-led government will last five years and it will be much more business as usual.”

Author and journalist John Elliott, who was present to mark the launch of his book Implosion: India’s Tryst with Reality, also described the elections as a ‘landmark with an outcome that is clear but consequences unclear.’ 

Complete Coverage: Election 2014