The Mega-Democratically Elected Trumpian Dictator We Choose to Ignore

There are close to 200 million Muslims in India (between 14% and 15% of the total population, which has now passed China as the most populous nation on earth), but Muslims represent only 5% of India’s parliament. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (a deeply Hindu nationalist party) has steadily denigrated and eroded Muslims, representing the country’s second largest religious population (behind the Hindu faith which represents 80% of the approximately 1.4 billion people), demoting them to second class citizenship. Backed by conspiracy theories and viral rumors, fundamentalist Hindus are easily brought to murderous violence against Muslims, labeled as the butchers of Hindu sacred cows. Indian authorities often look the other way as Muslim women have been raped, and Hindu-on-Muslim killings somehow get ignored.

Modi is wildly popular among Hindus. He authorized a major Hindu temple to be constructed in in northern Ayodhya city, where a major mosque once stood. He’s purged Muslims from government and gerrymandered their political influence effectively into meaninglessness. With a national election looming this May, Modi and his controlled parliament have recently addressed the acceptance of major refugees, as this March 12th article in the Associated Press points out: “Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government on Monday [3/11] announced rules to implement a 2019 citizenship law that excludes Muslims, weeks before the Hindu nationalist leader seeks a third term in office.

“The Citizenship Amendment Act provides a fast track to naturalization for Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians who fled to Hindu-majority India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan before Dec. 31, 2014. The law excludes Muslims, who are a majority in all three nations.

“The law was approved by the Indian Parliament in 2019, but Modi’s government had held off with its implementation after deadly protests broke out in the capital, New Delhi, and elsewhere. Scores were killed during days of clashes.” [Pictured above]

This deep animosity has endured since the British relinquishment over control of India in 1947, but instead of holding territorial integrity, the Subcontinent fractured along religious lines in a gruesome divide. “Partition of India, division of British India into the independent countries of India and Pakistan according to the Indian Independence Act passed by the British Parliament on July 18, 1947. Set to take effect on August 15, the rapid partition led to a population transfer of unprecedented magnitude, accompanied by devastating communal violence, as some 15,000,000 Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims rushed to cross the hastily demarcated borders before the partition would be complete. Estimates of the number of people who died during the partition range from 200,000 to 2,000,000. The partition left an indelible mark on the national consciousness of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, and its legacy continues to influence the countries’ citizens to this day.” Encyclopedia Brittanica.

Indeed, Pakistan and India have fought wars since. When India became a nuclear power in 1974, Pakistan prioritized getting nuclear weapons, which was successful in 1998. Kashmir (along with Jammu), a northern Indian province with a majority Muslim population, has been claimed by Pakistan since inception. This religious difference has resulted in numerous border conflicts, but a basic statutory grant of relative autonomy to Kashmir and Muslim Jammu (Article 370) salved some of the wounds between Hindu India and these provinces.

Still, conflict and hatred seethed between these nuclear powers. In 2008, Muslim terrorists attacked targets in Mumbai, killing an estimated 174 and wounding a further 300. A bad situation got a whole lot worse. In 2014, Modi and his BJP were voted into control of the entire country. Modi’s anti-Muslim proclivities have amplified ever since. In 2019, India’s Hindu dominated parliament scrapped Article 370 and relegated Kashmir and Jammu to control by the BJP.

In a rare visit to Srinagar in the disputed Kashmir and Jammu region, Modi told a large crowd, “I am working hard to win your hearts, and my attempt to keep winning your hearts will continue.” But that entire region had been placed under a security blanket, with thousands of soldiers and paramilitary forces deployed with new checkpoints set up.

Modi is an elected autocrat, often seen as having created a mockery of the notion that India is the largest “representational democracy” on Earth. Needless to say, Modi is deeply admired by Donald Trump, who openly praises how the Indian Prime Minister controls his opposition, his critics and how he has marginalized his Muslim population.

I’m Peter Dekom, and the notion of a profoundly insecure master “I am a victim” strongman wannabe Trump resuming the US presidency is terrifying… and Modi is just one example of what such a presidency might look like.