Fresh off a resounding re-election victory, Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined other lawmakers in India's colonial-era Parliament building to applaud the man to his right.

There stood Amit Shah, Modi's point man for more than three decades, who then proceeded to make one of the most significant announcements in contemporary Indian history: The government would immediately end nearly seven decades of autonomy in the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir.

"Give us five years, we will make it the country's most developed state," Shah declared.