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.
There are some rabid anti-Hindus here. A few years ago there were more intersting discussions about actual Hinduism, but I haven’t seen any for a while.
An interesting book about the history of Islamic invasion as well as some European atrocities is “Crimes Against India” by Stephen Knapp, very well researched. I could only read a few pages at a time, as it was so graphic. People have so many misconceptions and wild prejudices against India in general and Hinduism in particular, very sad.
You really have a wrong idea of what India is like, and what Hinduism is.
Hindus welcomed or at least tolerated Christians in India for almost 2000 years. Then when the Portugeuse came to Goa in IIRC the 1500 or 1600’s, they committed many atrocities to the Hindu population - torture and the like. Still, there was little to no anti-Christian acts against Christians in India other than whatever reactions to the Portuguese violence.
More recently there has been very aggressive proselytizing by Christians using coercian and trickery. Things like opening schools in poor villages, letting kids come free for a year or two, and then telling the families with children attending that they have to convert to Christianity or their children can’t come, or it will now cost a lot of money unless they convert. Another method is to distribute food to poor people for a while, and then tell them if they want more food distribution, they have to convert.
Yet another method is printing pictures of Jesus kicking the heads of Hindu deities.
I remember on FR a member here went to India to visit a Christian mission he had been donating money to, and they had sent photos of their church that was burned down supposedly by Hindus. When he arrived in India he found there was no burned church and no real mission. It was a scam.
The president of the US sides with Moslems so I don’t think he will welcome Modi happily. The pres. of the US is morally and ethically blind.
Dangerous? For being AntiMuslim and a Free Market person. Only the left would think that.
Well, thankfully the election wasn’t up to you, Issac, you arrogant SOB How dare you lecture the people of India for voting out the corrupt and incompetent Gandibots.
As far as being "too Free-Market": Every single country seems to have learned from America, except America.
As far as being "too Anti-Muslim": *IS* there such a thing?
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.)
Reminds one of Valerie Jarrett. I wonder if Mr. Chotiner is capable of drawing the parallel as regards the Obama Administration. /s
This guy Modi, however, would bring some trepidation to Indian christians. He is affiliated with organizations that have in the past incited and carried out mass violence against christians (of all stripes). Not just violence, but conspiracy theories as well. I believe they do this to rile up and consolidate the hindu vote for the BJP party.
Now that Modi has complete power of the highest office in the country, we will have to wait and see what he does. Especially, later down the road when government performance does not match sky high expectations.
I am not going to be worried though, as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has a plan for his children - even if it includes temporary suffering.
There’s no good reason for the current crop of diplomats or their constituent bosses to be receiving incomes or active in politics. They’re not fit to dig ditches. They push social pathologies and refuse to respect independence in potentially friendly nations while eating away at the rights of their own countrymen.
I’m referring to the useless diplomats and their constituent bosses on both sides, BTW—same thing.
Well said.
If he is anti-Muslim he can’t be ALL bad...
In fact, it is said that St. Thomas, one of Jesus’ disciples, went to India, and there have been some Christians in India for about 2000 years, well before the Portuguese. Actually link I posted above has details of the atrocities by the Portuguese. I could only read about 5 pages of that book a day.
Good point, though on a per capita basis, Israel has them beat at least since they came into existence in 1948.
All I know is that the article is so bizarrely lurid, so over-the-top, so blackly dramatic, so over-acting, so New York Times-ish, so Harry Reid-ish, so vindictively making this candidate into a three-headed, six-armed, one-eyed, horned devil....that it HAS TO BE that the potential next premier of India is most certainly the re-incarnation of Barry Goldwater.
GO, MODI DUDE, GO !!!
Leni
Some of the aforementioned knuckleheads impeded her work at first but, so far as I am aware, there were never death threats . I've know a lot of Hindus over my working life and they come in many varieties. A family we were friends with in Japan even told us they were perfectly okay with meat when we invited them over for dinner. My wife had prepared a number of vegetarian dishes, just in case. But they were good to their word.
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