The PM is keen to show India as the ‘mother of democracy’, but this is one of the most undemocratic periods in its history, says the journalist Rana Ayyub
The PM is keen to show India as the ‘mother of democracy’, but this is one of the most undemocratic periods in its history, says the journalist Rana Ayyub
Yes, unfortunately fascism is populist in India and has been for many years.
RSS and their propaganda of Hindu nationalism is pervasive. Lots of undereducated folks. Most people actually believe that Hindus are Superior to Muslims.
In the last elections, 37% Of India supported him, the rest of the voters split their votes between the different political parties in opposition.
Hindu supremacist leaders allied with Modi's political party have created 'the enemy' in Muslims by using theem as a bogeyman with their constant lies that inspire fear , anger, and hate. They use isolated incidents to create tropes that paint the entire Muslim community as villains.
Eg: India is so deeply patriarchial and casteist that 90%+ of Indian marriages are arranged by parents and most of the time the idea of a girl/woman choosing her own partner and to marry for love is so oppose that it leads to 'honour' killings. In such a country, isolated incidents of Muslim men eloping with their Hindu girlfriends are used to create the 'love jihad' bogey which accuses all Muslim men of seducing or wanting to seduce Hindu women. This trope, as you can guess, inspires fear, hate and anger. Similar tropes are "land jihad", "education jihad", etc. This has been going on for years and has been increasingly virulent & violent since Modi took office in 2014. Violence has increased against Muslims because the Modi govt turns a blind eye towards violence against Muslims and allows it to continue.
They're aided in this by India's maintream media who're all Modi's yes-men. Movies are made that depict India's Muslims as evil and terrorists and they're championed by Modi himself.
Hindu supremacist leaders and Hindu religious leaders have also successfully conned the gullible into believing that Hindus, 85%of india's population and who occupy almost all positions of power, are bothe simultaneously weak and powerful. Mythologies and made up info are used to convince the gullible that Hindu civilization is at once the most advanced and at the same time victims to Mughal rulers.
So Modi's followers who're called 'the blind faithful' aka andhbhakts are both gullible when it comes to their religion and hate muslims,
That’s quite surprising to me that Modi is wielding so much influence with only 37% of the vote. I thought it was much higher with how fervent his supporters are.
The 37% of the votes he won are from India's backward states which have a high representation in Parliament. The Southern states of India, which are more progressive, gave them very few wins and they have zero state govt.s in these southern states.
Currently, Modi govt has an absolute majority in the Lower House of Parliament (Lok Sabha) and this absolute majority is used to ram through bills & laws without discussion. Their absolute majority allows them to pass corporate-friendly laws and laws that wreck India's institutions.
Most of Modi's "supporters" that we come across online are actually paid members of BJP 's online troll army aka IT cell. In India its joked that they're paid Rs. 2/- per tweet.