All posts tagged: Modi

Farm suicides, anger haunt Indian villages that Modi promised hope | India Election 2024

Farm suicides, anger haunt Indian villages that Modi promised hope | India Election 2024

Published by Sam

Yavatmal, India – Like everyone else around him, Vithal Rathod was excited for what the future held for him and their village when Narendra Modi became India’s prime minister on May 26, 2014. Just two months earlier, on March 20 that year, Modi had picked the 45-year-old farmer’s village of Dabhadi from the more than 15,500 villages in the Vidarbha region of the western Indian state of Maharashtra to launch his outreach to the country’s farmers. The visit was important for Modi, eyeing the PM’s chair at the time, to be able to reach out to the 65 percent of India’s population that is engaged in agriculture. During his visit to Dabhadi, Modi had sipped tea with farmers like Rathod, visited farms in the village and promised an end to the death and despair that had long haunted the predominantly rural, impoverished part of Maharashtra state. A lack of adequate irrigation, erratic weather patterns and fluctuating global prices for cotton – the principal crop grown there – meant that farmers suffered repeated losses and found themselves in debt. …

Modi accused of hate speech by opposition as India’s phased elections roll on

Modi accused of hate speech by opposition as India’s phased elections roll on

Published by skeptic

new delhi —  India’s main opposition Congress Party has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “hate speech” following remarks at recent election rallies in which he said the rival party would favor the minority Muslim community if voted to power. Modi’s controversial comments came amid hectic campaigning by political parties as India holds phased elections that began this month and continue until June 1. Political analysts said the remarks by Modi, who is leading his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party’s bid to win a third term in power, are an effort to shore up support among his Hindu voter base. The prime minister told a rally held in the northwestern state of Rajasthan on Sunday that if the opposition Congress Party is voted into power, it will gather “all your wealth and distribute it to those who have more children” and to “infiltrators.” The remarks were widely seen as a reference to Muslims. Modi cited a two-decade old comment by former prime minister Manmohan Singh, from when the Congress Party led a coalition government, in …

India’s Modi accused of using hate speech against Muslims

India’s Modi accused of using hate speech against Muslims

Published by skeptic

NEW DELHI —  India’s main opposition party accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of using hate speech after he called Muslims “infiltrators” — some of his most incendiary rhetoric about the minority faith — days after the country began its weeks-long general election. The remarks at a campaign rally Sunday drew fierce criticism that Modi was peddling anti-Muslim tropes. The Congress party filed a complaint Monday with the Election Commission of India, alleging he broke rules that bar candidates from engaging in any activity that aggravates religious tensions. Critics of the prime minister — an avowed Hindu nationalist — say India’s tradition of diversity and secularism has come under attack since his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won power a decade ago. They accuse the party of fostering religious intolerance and sometimes violence. The party denies the accusations and says its policies benefit all Indians. At a rally in the state of Rajasthan, Modi said that when the Congress party was in government, “they said Muslims have the first right over the country’s resources.” If it returns to …

Modi accused of hate speech for calling Muslims ‘infiltrators’ at a rally days into India’s election

Modi accused of hate speech for calling Muslims ‘infiltrators’ at a rally days into India’s election

Published by Sam

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s main opposition party accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of using hate speech after he called Muslims “infiltrators” — some of his most incendiary rhetoric to date about the minority faith in a campaign rally days after the country began its weekslong general election. At the rally on Sunday in the western state of Rajasthan, Modi said that when the Congress party was in government, “they said Muslims have the first right over the country’s resources.” If it returns to power, the party “will gather all your wealth and distribute it among those who have more children,” he said as the crowd applauded. “They will distribute it among infiltrators,” he continued, saying, “Do you think your hard-earned money should be given to infiltrators?” Abhishek Manu Singhvi, a spokesperson for Congress, called the prime minister’s remarks “deeply, deeply objectionable” and said the party on Monday had sought action from the Election Commission of India, which oversees the six-week voting period. The first votes were cast Friday. The remarks sparked fierce criticism for …

Why Narendra Modi Called India’s Muslims ‘Infiltrators’

Why Narendra Modi Called India’s Muslims ‘Infiltrators’

Published by Sam

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his power at home secured and his Hindu-first vision deeply entrenched, has set his sights in recent years on a role as a global statesman, riding India’s economic and diplomatic rise. In doing so, he has distanced himself from his party’s staple work of polarizing India’s diverse population along religious lines for its own electoral gain. His silence provided tacit backing as vigilante groups continued to target non-Hindu minority groups and as members of his party routinely used hateful and racist language, even in Parliament, against the largest of those groups, India’s 200 million Muslims. With the pot kept boiling, Mr. Modi’s subtle dog whistles — with references to Muslim dress or burial places — could go a long way domestically while providing enough deniability to ensure that red carpets remained rolled out abroad for the man leading the world’s largest democracy. Just what drove the prime minister to break with this calculated pattern in a fiery campaign speech on Sunday — when he referred to Muslims by name as “infiltrators” …

Modi accused of ‘hate speech’ toward India’s Muslims in election rally

Modi accused of ‘hate speech’ toward India’s Muslims in election rally

Published by Sam

Political opponents accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “hate speech” after an address during an election rally when he seemingly cast Muslims as taking the wealth of other Indians. Modi, 73, told a rally in Rajasthan on Sunday that when the opposition Indian National Congress party held power in India, “they said Muslims have the first right over the country’s resources.” If Congress returned to power, “they will gather all your wealth and distribute it among those who have more children,” Modi said in a comment widely interpreted as referring to Muslim Indians. “They will distribute it among the infiltrators,” he continued. “Do you think your hard-earned money should be given to infiltrators?” Modi added, to applause. Modi’s remarks referenced a pledge in 2006 by former Congress Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who outlined the need to financially empower India’s minorities. Mallikarjun Kharge, president of the Congress party, rejected the accusation in a post Sunday on X and characterized Modi’s comments as “hate speech” and a “ploy to divert the focus of the people.” Kharge …

Modi Calls Muslims ‘Infiltrators’ Who Would Take India’s Wealth

Modi Calls Muslims ‘Infiltrators’ Who Would Take India’s Wealth

Published by Sam

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday called Muslims “infiltrators” who would take India’s wealth if his opponents gained power — unusually direct and divisive language from a leader who normally lets others do the dirtiest work of polarizing Hindus against Muslims. Mr. Modi, addressing voters in the state of Rajasthan, referred to a remark once made by Manmohan Singh, his predecessor from the opposition Indian National Congress Party. Mr. Singh, Mr. Modi claimed, had “said that Muslims have the first right to the wealth of the nation. This means they will distribute this wealth to those who have more children, to infiltrators.” Mr. Modi aimed his emotional appeal at women, addressing “my mothers and sisters” to say that his Congress opponents would take their gold and give it to Muslims. Implications like these — that Muslims have too many babies, that they are coming for Hindus’ wives and daughters, that their nationality as Indian is itself in doubt — are often made by representatives of Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P. Mr. Modi’s use …

‘The risk with Narendra Modi is a form of impunity for power, a growing authoritarianism’

‘The risk with Narendra Modi is a form of impunity for power, a growing authoritarianism’

Published by skeptic

Pratap Bhanu Mehta, then president of the Centre for Policy Research, in New Delhi, July 6, 2009. MONEY SHARMA/THE INDIA TODAY GROUP VIA GETTY IMAGES Former vice-chancellor of the private Ashoka University and ex-president of the Centre for Policy Research, a Delhi-based think tank, Pratap Bhanu Mehta joined Princeton University in 2022. The expert on Indian politics analyzes the reasons behind the longevity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is hoping to win a third consecutive term in the general elections that began on April 19 and are due to end on June 1. On March 21, the Indian government arrested the head of the Delhi regional government. Is this a new stage in the muzzling of the opposition? The arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is ominous.  Much of what this government has been doing over the last few years – the selective use of the government’s agencies to target the opposition and protect its own, the clampdown on civil society, the suppression of protest, censorship, and the use of tax and administrative law …

Voting begins in India’s elections with Modi looking for likely third term

Voting begins in India’s elections with Modi looking for likely third term

Published by skeptic

An election poster for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh (India), April 16, 2024. IDREES MOHAMMED / AFP The world’s largest democratic process is getting underway in India: 969 million voters, or more than 10% of the world’s population, are set to vote between Friday, April 19, and Saturday, June 1, to elect 543 MPs to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India’s Parliament, who will determine the name of the country’s next prime minister. The logistics involved are on par with the scale of the country: Seven phases will be necessary to organize this giant election, transport the voting materials and count the votes. Fifteen million electoral agents have been deployed. At the beginning of the week, porters began moving the electronic machines to the most remote locations. Over the next 44 days, they will have to cross mountain peaks, deserts and tribal lands, taking boats, riding horses and sometimes elephants. India’s electoral regulations stipulate that polling stations must not be more than two kilometers from each dwelling. …

‘Messianic spell’: how Narendra Modi created a cult of personality | Narendra Modi

‘Messianic spell’: how Narendra Modi created a cult of personality | Narendra Modi

Published by skeptic

As the distant rumble of a helicopter drew closer, cheers erupted from the gathered crowds in anticipation. By the time India’s prime minister finally stepped on to the stage, bowing deeply while immaculately dressed in a white kurta and peach waistcoat and with a neatly trimmed beard, the chants had reached a deafening pitch: “Modi, Modi, Modi.” These scenes, at a campaign rally on the outskirts of the Uttar Pradesh city of Meerut, have been replicated across the country in recent weeks as Modi and his Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) seek to win a third term in India’s election, which begins on 19 April and goes on for six weeks. Pundits and polls have resoundingly predicted that Modi will be brought back to power when election results are counted on 4 June. Whether the BJP will be able to win the same strong majority as in 2019 remains uncertain. But in Meerut, the reverential status many in India have attached to their prime minister was vividly on display. Some called for him to rule India …