As India’s prime minister strengthens his grip on power, Newsweek looks at his similarities with President Donald Trump.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on course to strengthen his governing alliance’s majority in the lower house of the national parliament. His own party, the Hindu nationalist BJP, may have even won an outright majority itself when results are declared.
Throughout his 2016 campaign and now presidency, Trump, who relishes his celebrity, has put his name and face front and center, creating a cult of personality among his devoted, merch-clad supporters. “He started off with this reputation that he transformed Gujarat and that he gets things done,” Gareth Price, a senior research fellow on the Asia-Pacific program at Chatham House, the international affairs think tank, told Newsweek.
Undocumented Migrants: Invaders and InfiltratorsThere are echoes of Modi in Trump’s approach to undocumented migrants. “Many of those people are still there in India, and it’s incredibly politically contentious. What they’re doing now is trying to round up people and send them back, but they’re also making a distinction between Hindus and Muslims,” Adeney told Newsweek. “They’re seen as anti-national, they’re seen as infiltrators, they’re seen as a security threat.”
“He and the BJP are generally challenging the dominant narrative that India’s had over 70 years of independence that it is this secular, tolerant democracy where everybody has a place regardless of your religion, regardless of your language,” Adeney told Newsweek. “It played extremely well in the campaign, even though it looks like they didn’t—quite wisely—hit anything on the Pakistan side of the border. It was actually quite clever. But in India, the finer points of this are lost,” Adeney said.
“The messages are very clearly constructed for the mass of BJP support,” Price said. “He very much taps in to that. Things are exaggerated, there’s hyperbole, and whatever, but questioning it is pointless or even anti-national because the message is for the urban middle class who want India to be strong.”
In India, the world’s largest democracy, Modi critics see a similar erosion of democratic norms. Violence against Hindu nationalism’s critics or minority groups, such as Muslims and those of the lowest caste, the Dalits, is seen to be both rising and tolerated. Among the criticism of the commission is that it allowed NaMo TV to air across Indian television in what the opposition argued was a clear breach of impartiality rules.
He also pointed to recent changes to the way India’s economic data are collected, prompting 108 economists to co-sign a letter calling the statistics into question and suggesting they were manipulated for political purposes.
Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Donald Trump blames Obama, Bush, Clinton for China deficit: “They created a monster”The president told Fox News that Beijing “took advantage of us for many, many years.”
Read more »
Donald Trump opposes highly restrictive Alabama abortion banPresident Donald Trump broke his silence on the increasing trend of states passing restrictive abortion bans late Saturday, denouncing bills like the one that passed last week in Alabama.
Read more »
Donald Trump wants exceptions for rape, incest in abortion lawsIn a series of tweets late Saturday, Donald Trump said that while he is 'strongly Pro-Life' he has exceptions for rape, incest and protecting the life of the mother, a contrast to Alabama's recently passed law.
Read more »
President Donald Trump opposes highly restrictive Alabama abortion banPresident Donald Trump broke his silence on the increasing trend of states passing restrictive abortion bans late Saturday, denouncing bills like the one that passed last week in Alabama. Trump said he is 'strongly Pro-Life,' but said he does favor allowing women to get abortions in the case
Read more »
Now we know why Donald Trump was SO focused on Michael FlynnAt nearly every turn of the probe into Russian interference into the 2016 election, President Donald Trump was working to make sure Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser, knew that the White House was on his side -- and that the President himself thought Flynn was a good guy.
Read more »
If Donald Trump gets another Supreme Court pick...Conservatives may not love everything about Donald Trump, but his record of installing federal judges has delighted them
Read more »
Pete Buttigieg says Donald Trump 'paying lip service' to LGBT rightsGet breaking national and world news, broadcast video coverage, and exclusive interviews. Find the top news online at ABC news.
Read more »
Donald Trump has golf scores hacked on handicap accountPresident Donald Trump's golf scores have been hacked by someone apparently hoping to raise his handicap, the United States Golf Association confirmed to CNN Sports.
Read more »