Prime Minister Modi 5-20-2019

20, May 2019                         Prime Minister Modi

India’s current Prime Minister, Narendra Modi's, leadership has been has been a major disappointment. Following his landslide victory in 2014 he received a powerful mandate by the people to jump start the sluggish economy and bring back civility. He promised to create millions of new jobs and tame high inflation. The twin promises of good and honest governance and economic reforms have fallen flat despite receiving a big boost from low oil prices. Unemployment has risen offering grist to the opposition Congress Party. Efforts to transform India to “make India great” have failed. 

His get tough “John Wayne” persona sending warplanes to bomb Pakistan was extremely reckless inflaming the separatist insurgency rather than tamping it down. Furthermore, his actions brutally repressing moderate Kashmiris inflamed anti-Indian sentiments. His impetuous behavior under the false notion of being decisive more closely resembles that of President Trump. In 2016, on a whim he abruptly withdrew most Indian banknotes in an effort to combat “black money.” The plan failed causing enormous pain and suffering to India’s vulnerable population, famers and small businesses. Much like the US, the rich and well-connected use tax shelters and skilled lawyers to hide their “loot” while the little guys are squeezed from their hard earnings.

What is even more frightening is Modi’s war on press freedom. Seldom do journalists criticize “dear leader" lest they invoke the fury of the state to punish and imprison them on bogus charges. An army of tax collectors make life a living hell for political opponents. State universities are packed with ideologies and the army has been effectively neutered from politics.

Nothing has been done to discourage India’s massive birth rate resulting in 10-12 million people entering the workforce every year.

Modi’s armies of obedient followers, members of the RSS, do his bidding responding to his repeated efforts to stoke Hindu-Muslim anger. He chose a fiery Hindu cleric as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state who has intensified hostility towards the Muslim minority with the slogan “the election campaign is a battle of two faiths.” He called Muslim migrants from neighboring Bangladesh “termites” and warmly welcomed Hindus mimicking Rwanda’s Hutus demonizing Tutsis as “cockroaches”.

 Mr. Modi has never apologized for failing to prevent the deaths of at least 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, during sectarian riots in the state of Gujarat while he was chief minister. He dismissed the slaughter as a “feeling of a puppy comes under the wheel of a car”.

Following the massacre he was denied visas from the US and Britain.

In a recent commentary, the notable Indian CNN commentator, Fareed Zakaria, offered some disturbing statistics –

33% of candidates who are running for election are facing serious criminal prosecutions including murder and attempted murder.

Kidnappings, murder and attempted murder have steadily increased since 2009.

Historically candidates with criminal backgrounds are 3 times more likely to win.

It is appalling that not a single religious leader has had the courage to denounce politicians who campaign with flamethrowers stoking vengeance against the Muslim 175m minority. Religions are supposed to effectively counterbalance “mob rule” and inject a semblance of humanity – a clear distinction of human rights – not meaningless incantations and rituals that few understand.

Sadly Congress, the BJP’s only national rival, has a dark history of corruption but has to its credit not descended into fanning the flames of religious intolerance. Perhaps they learned an important lesson in the 1984 slaughter of Sikhs, but I doubt it.