Rats scurry around the street corners, on a bare concrete floor with a cloud of flies above her sleeps two-year-old Meena. In a mess of bicycles, mopeds and carts, a bunch of kids run around. Around the block’s water hose, which is open 2.5 hours a day, mothers and fathers queue with buckets and change. – Where do you see any poor people anywhere?, Lali asks a little provocatively. – The world has changed, she says before her husband brusquely approaches and interrupts the interview. The world’s fastest growing economy In the last year, India has overtaken China to become the world’s largest country in terms of population. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), India now has the world’s fastest growing large economy, with an official growth figure of around 6.8 percent. The country’s leader, the charismatic Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi, has sent rockets to the moon and promises the people that the Olympics will soon be held in the country. But at the same time, the gap between the richest and the country’s poor is increasing. – Never before has the gap between India’s most affluent clique and the large broad underclass been this wide, says retired economics professor Arun Kumar. Optimism among young Indians In a market in the town of Haldwani northeast of Delhi, there is brisk trade. On the ground sits 23-year-old Shiv Singh. Around him lie thousands of red onions (which are a must on North Indian dinner tables). – What Prime Minister Modi is doing for our country is great, says Shiv. He also repeats what is one of Modi’s election slogans: “Soon, India’s GDP will be the third largest in the world, and we are aiming even higher” Ruling party core voter Shiv Singh belongs to the ruling BJP’s core voters: rural Hindus, among the lower middle class and working class who have regained faith in the future. Then it matters little or nothing that at least 70 million Indians live in what the World Bank describes as “extreme poverty”. On Tuesday, May 7, the important third round of elections will be held in India.
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