In the elections to the Union Parliament in April / May 2004, the government suffered a defeat. The BJP was able to maintain its position, but not its partners or the Telugu Desam Party, which supports the coalition government from outside. In contrast, the Congress Party succeeded in forming a coalition (United Progressive Alliance), which was also supported from outside by both Communist parties. The President of the Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi , had been attacked by political opponents during the election campaign because of her foreign (Italian) origins, but after the election she was entitled to the office of Prime Minister. However, she left this to the former Finance Minister M. Singh . The new government continued the previous course in foreign and economic policy, but corrected measures of the previous government in domestic and educational policy that did not conform to the principle of secularism. As part of a G-4 group (together with Brazil, Germany and Japan), India applied for a permanent seat there in 2005 with an internationally controversial initiative to reform the UN and to expand the UN Security Council the “Line of Control” (inauguration of a bus line between the two parts of Kashmir) set a signal for relaxation in the Kashmir conflict. On March 2, 2006, the Indian Prime Minister Singh and the American President G. W. Bush signedIn New Delhi an agreement in which the USA guaranteed access to American civil nuclear technology and fuel supply to India (in return for its obligation to place some of its nuclear facilities under the supervision of the IAEA) and thus de facto recognized the country as a nuclear power (entry into force of the corresponding contract 2008). In July 2006, 211 people were killed in terrorist attacks on local trains in Mumbai (Bombay until 1996). On July 19, 2007, Pratibha Devisingh Patil (INC) elected a woman to the office of President of India for the first time. After negotiations between the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) and the government failed in September 2006, the separatists renewed their attacks on migrant workers from other countries in January 2007; 70 people were killed. An army offensive involving more than 13,000 soldiers could not prevent further murders and assassinations. The increasing number of terrorist attacks of Islamist origin remained a serious problem for internal security. On November 26, 2008, a series of attacks was directed against several targets in Mumbai, killing 166 people. As a result, the Indo-Pakistani relations deteriorated again,
In the parliamentary elections in April / May 2009, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), led by the Congress party, won a clear majority with 262 out of 543 seats. This increased parliamentary support for Prime Minister Singh’s further government work. In May 2010, a special court sentenced the sole surviving assassin of the Mumbai terrorist attack in November 2008 to death (2012 execution). He was found guilty of killing 166 people with nine other fighters from the radical Islamic terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (Let). The Singh government lost its reputation considerably due to various corruption scandals. The lack of reforms led to a significant slowdown in economic growth. After Pakistan successfully tested a new nuclear missile in April 2011,
In regional elections in five Indian states in March 2012, according to Politicsezine, the Congress party suffered heavy losses. On July 25, 2012, the newly elected President P. Mukherjee take his oath of office in front of parliament. Resolved reforms to open up domestic markets to foreign investors plunged the Singh government into a crisis in September 2012. In January 2013 there were repeated exchanges of fire between Indian and Pakistani border troops. From August 2013, the clashes in the Kashmir region intensified. After a meeting of the heads of government of both countries, the military on both sides was instructed to observe the current ceasefire. In October 2013, a border agreement was signed with the People’s Republic of China, which obliged both countries on the controversial Himalayan border to be extremely cautious. The decision of the government to create a new federal state by spinning off the Telangana region from the state of Andhra Pradesh on June 2, 2014,
In the parliamentary elections in April / May 2014, the Congress party suffered a devastating defeat. She was only able to win 44 of the 543 lower house mandates (2009: 206). The clear winner of the election was the BJP with its top candidate N. Modi , the longstanding head of government (Chief Minister) of Gujarat.
The BJP had 288 seats (2009: 116) and thus gained an absolute majority. N. Modi was sworn in as the new Indian Prime Minister on May 26, 2014. Alongside other heads of state and government, Nawaz Sharif was the first Pakistani head of government to take part in the inauguration.
During an inaugural visit by Prime Minister Modi to China in mid-May 2015, 24 economic agreements and letters of intent for closer cooperation between the two countries were signed. In the decades-long border dispute over areas of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh in the Himalayas, however, no agreement was reached. On 6 June 2015, a border agreement was concluded with Bangladesh, according to which India ceded 111 enclaves to Bangladesh and Bangladesh 51 enclaves to India. Against the background of increasing tensions with Pakistan, in August 2015 there had been firefights between Indian and Pakistani soldiers in Kashmir, Prime Minister Modi met with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on December 25, 2015 in Lahoretogether. It was the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Pakistan in more than a decade.
On October 2, 2016, India, the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, ratified the Paris Agreement. In November 2016, the Indian government surprisingly withdrew the 500 and 1000 rupee notes from circulation as a measure against corruption and black money. On July 17 , 2017 , the responsible body made up of the members of the Union Parliament and all state parliaments elected Ram Nath Kovind , BJP politician and previously Governor of Bihar, as the new state president. This is the second time that a Dalit has been elected head of state of India.
In April / May 2019, the world’s largest democracy elected the lower house (Lok Sabha) for six weeks in seven stages in 36 states and union territories. The Hindu nationalist BJB of Prime Minister N. Modi prevailed more clearly than expected with 297 out of 542 seats. The 543rd seat was blocked due to fraud allegations. The largest opposition party, the INC congress party headed by Rahul Gandhi (* 1970), was one of the losers with 52 seats. Never before have so many women had the right to vote. However, the quota of women in parliament is still low. The election campaign was less focussed than a referendum on modes. The vote battle had been aggressively and massively fought over social media. Electronic voting machines should prevent election manipulation.
The tense relationship with neighboring Pakistan intensified when N. Modi announced the lifting of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and a stronger military presence in the area in August 2019. The execution of four men on March 20, 2020 for gang rape resulting in death attracted worldwide attention and the approval of wide sections of the population.
