After British Prime Minister David Cameron won a clear victory in the general election on Thursday, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulating tweeted: "Phir Ek Baar, Cameron Sarkar!"
The 2015 general election has been significant in many aspects. Mr Cameron promoted a series of women in his post election reshuffle, ensuring one third of his cabinet are female. Female leaders all through out the campaign were also very keenly aware that history was being made, and they brought a certain dignity along-with, almost embracing a gesture of sorority. This election was also very largely based on religious groups- especially minority religions- often used as a divisive tool.
While many Asians especially Hindus and Sikhs have gone on to vote for Mr Cameron, Radhika Sanghani in The Daily Telegraph has highlighted a peculiar hurdle that the party still needs to overcome- 'the social taboo attached to voting for Tory'.
After she studied the attitude of young Britons towards voting Tory, Sanghani wrote, “David Cameron may have won another term but his young supporters are still too embarrassed to tell anyone they voted Tory.” She went on to say, there has been a suggestive shift in voting attitudes, but most of these youngsters haven't admitted who they voted for, “because these young Tories are not out and proud blues – they’re firmly stuck in the political closet.”
Sworn by secrecy, Ms Sanghani had a number of people coming forward to ‘confess’ their right-wing leanings. Though they’ve been swayed by the Conservatives’ economic policies, they were too embarrassed to tell anyone. Some have even lied and pretended they voted for Ed Miliband.
This is perhaps just the tip of iceberg. While Mr Cameron has promised to govern the country as one nation, winning by a thin majority, he faces a very different and potentially more difficult challenge now.
It is feared that he may face the same fate as John Major, who began his time as a Prime Minister with a majority of 21 seats - almost double Mr Cameron's - but by the end of his time in power was facing a nightly battle to get legislation through after losing his majority altogether. An organised rebellion over Europe - and the Maastricht Treaty - had turned Mr Major into a Prime Minister widely seen as lacking authority, reported the BBC.
In case of Mr Cameron, abolition of the Human Rights Act and the greater powers to monitor internet communications, the so-called "snooper's charter" - will be highly unlikely to meet much resistance from the Conservative benches.
But with absence of an Opposition (Labour) leader, his honeymoon period may soon meet with serious turmoil from a sizeable group of Conservative backbenchers, who have got used to rebelling against the government during the last Parliament and may find it a hard habit to break.
It will perhaps be wise for the PM to ensure that he maintains a good relation with smaller parties to avoid John Major's fate.
