Posted on 05/17/2014 1:40:42 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The results of India's election, which are rapidly appearing today, seem to show a huge win for the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). A victory had been expected, but this looks like a massive landslide. The next prime minister is almost certain to be Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, a state in western India. He is known for his economic agenda, which is seen to be relatively business-friendly (expect stocks to react very positively to the news), and his controversial brand of Hinduism. Modi's ideology is certainly going to be important over the next several years, but his worrying personality might end up mattering more. It may be time to bring back an old slogan: over the next five years in India, the personal will be political, and probably not in a good way.
It's easy to describe Modi to people who have never heard him speak, or read about his past. He is a depressingly familiar type. He is secretive; he is vindictive; he has creepily authoritarian tendencies (a woman in Gujarat was placed under surveillance by Modi for months in a controversy that somehow didn't seem to register with voters); he ricochets between aggression and self-pity in a manner familiar to anyone who has heard nationalists of any stripe; and he is simply incapable of sounding broad-minded. During the 2002 Gujarat riots, hundreds of people (mostly Muslims) were killed in communal violence on Modi's watch. (This is why he has been denied a United States visa for many years.) The extent of Modi's role in spurring on the horrors has been extensively debated; suffice it to say that he once said his only regret about the mass murders was that he didn't handle the media well enough.
Modi is also known for his close ties to unsavory, right-wing Hindu fanatics, notably in the Rashtriya Swamyamsevak Sangh (RSS), which he joined when he was very young. Arguably Modi's closest confidante is Amit Shah, who has been accused of numerous crimes, including murder, and whose attitude to Muslims might be euphemistically described as unwelcoming. (He likes to talk about "appeasement" of Muslims and said this election was about "taking revenge" on them.)
For more on Modi's personality, I encourage everyone to read Vinod Jose's brilliant profile of him from 2010, which gets at the way he deals with dissent, and takes a disturbing trip through Modi's psyche. (The dizzying summary: this is how a fascist person thinks.) The biggest question thus may be the degree to which India's institutions and democratic checks and balances can contain Modi's worst tendencies. It's possible that Modi himself will moderate in office, but moderation usually refers to ideology; Modi may simply be incapable of keeping his worst instincts under control. Indian society has shown a disturbing willingness to disregard freedoms of speech and expression, and the country's institutions are often weak in defending these encroachments. (See here for a good example.) Modi has never shown any interest in civil liberties; nor has he made the slightest positive noises about the communal violence that still frequently afflicts the country.
On a policy level, Modi's has presided over strong economic growth in Gujarat, although his state has not done as well on various social development indicators. Still, the combination of corruption and inefficiency in the national government and within the Congress Party seems to have led many Indian voters to embrace the so-called "Gujarat Model." (Texas, with its economic growth and lagging welfare indicators, is a very rough but not entirely inapt comparison.)
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
The election results also display the depths to which the ruling Congress Party has fallen after being led for over a decade by a weak prime minister, Manmohan Singh. The central campaigning role of Rahul Gandhi, the heir to the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty (whose mother still controls the Party, and limited Singh's maneuverabilty), didn't do much good either; Congress was soundly defeated and Rahul appears to many observers (and voters) as someone who combines inanition and intellectual lightness. If dynastic politics takes any sort of blow, the election will at least have accomplished something positive.
If he’s anti muslim, good!!
the only good muslim is a dead one!
That’s a very Muslim thing to say.
I did not say anything about sending checks. You responded to the wrong person.
Most of India is very safe for Christians to openly practice their religion.
Not in my experience. And not anywhere I have been, INCLUDING Tamil Nadu.
Cops busted into a church I serve and beat everyone in the congregation and arrested the pastors because the caste leaders did not like hearing their music - even though 2 different temples in the village had over 70 loudspeakers set up BLASTING their 7 days festival 24/7 with rotating chanters and singers.
They were beaten and arrested because their gathering offended the local Hindus, even though it was within a church. They were told they could not meet in the church during any of the Hindu festivals - of which there are MANY.
The persecutions that have occurred either tend to be caste and economics tinged as in Orissa or reactions to various non-Catholic missionaries passing pamphlets calling Hindu gods as demons.
Hindus in India often create an excuse for persecution and violence against Christians.
I watched a mob break into a home and beat a man and terrorize his family after the man had baptized seven people in a river canal right next to six water buffalos that were being washed. They charged him with defiling their god and had him arrested after they beat him up and tore his home apart.
Americans assume this type of persecution only happens in Islamic countries. In India - it happens a lot more frequently than most are aware.
Christians walk on eggshells and live in a constant state of worry alongside their Hindu neighbors in the areas of India I have lived and been. They never know when they are going to be cheated, have their electric wires cut, prohibited from fresh water, or denied what it was they paid for - simply because they are low caste and Christian. They can do good things to serve their neighbors, including making provisions and inviting them to feasts - but those same neighbors will turn on them in a split second given a chance.
Such is my own personal experience in those areas I have lived and served.
that's not strictly true -- they want Indian culture, so the recent Indianization of Christianity (in outward sense, less core meaning) eliminates that thrust against Christainity)
Rajiv Gandhi wasn’t a converted Christian...
Roman Catholics are not only Goans. There are many in Mangalore, Tamil Nadu and Punjab and other places, not Goans
Now if this was outside Bombay I'd say maybe, but Bombay, very difficult
i'm sorry to say I doubt this, but please could you check?
Which part of Bombay? Bandra East? Borivali? Matterpakaday?
I’ve read — all of that emboldening is directed against Moslems and Pakistan
That's great news. India is poised to become the next economic powerhouse.
Sad to say, as the West declines in power, the next century will belong to India and China. I'm encouraged by the fact that Christianity has taken hold in China. I'm not so optimistic regarding Christianity in India, but I am optimistic about their economic future, and their ability to resist the spread of Mohammedanism.
The article does point out that he's been denied a US visa.
Now that's a start! Anybody who has been denied a US visa must be superior to its President, a known traitor!
and where did the mob break into the man's home?
i'm not doubting you,just want to know -- I've not seen anything of this sort in Bombay or in Tamil Nadu or Kerala
>>P.S....”The New Republic” (sourced above) is a long-time liberal, Obama-loving, gay marriage loving, leftist propaganda spewing, etc. etc. you-know-the-drill, fish-wrap magazine.
I’m surprised it took so long for this to be pointed out explicitly.
If these guys are attacking Modi so viciously, he can’t be all bad, and quite possibly will be very good for India.
Absolutely!
Thanks for the overview.
You are not comprehending my posts. I did not say SIL had any trouble wiring money at any time. I will not reply further.
If I answer that you'll ask for the street and address and unit. What's with you?
Wiki says he was.
You ARE doubting Invar just as you've cast doubt on the information concerning my wife's dear relatives. I don't know why but you've got some weird, creepy, obsessive need to defend everything Modi.
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