NEW DELHI – Indian PM Narendra Modi faces an embarassing slamming frominternational media over his Hindutva hardliner policies in the country.
Economist has slammed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his rulingparty Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) saying that Modi fostered intoleranceand has divided the ‘world’s largest democracy’.
Last year, the BJP passed the Citizenship Amendment Act and updated theAssam National Register of Citizens (NRC) which stripped off thecitizenship of 1.9 million people, mostly Muslims. *Economist *in itsrecent article has termed these decisions as ‘the most ambitious step yetin a decades-long project of incitement’.
The article continues that these latest initiatives by Modi threaten to dodamage to India’s democracy that could last for decades and are also likelyto lead to bloodshed. “The sad truth is that Modi and the BJP are likely tobenefit politically by creating divisions over religion and nationalidentity. They also distract attention from awkward topics such as theeconomy, which has struggled since the BJP’S thumping election victory lastyear,” the article reads.
The article continues that Modi knows that a sizeable minority of Indianvoters are sympathetic to his constant insinuation that Muslims aredangerous fifth-columnists. Therefore, his policies blatantly discriminateagainst his Muslim compatriots.
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The article has also accused Modi of tarnishing the memory of MahatmaGandhi who was a preacher of non-violence. Because of Modi’srabble-rousing, many Muslims have been lynched or beaten to death forsupposed slights to Hinduism, such as loving a Hindu woman or killing a cow.
Economist warns Modi not to take things far with his warlike rhetoric aboutPakistan, his head-cracking in Kashmir and his flagrantly biased approachto citizenship.
It reminds Modi that he has a country to govern and not to raise thezealots’ expectations.
