NEW YORK, May 09 (APP): An Indian-American historian has criticized India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi for targeting Pakistan and the Indian Muslims during his re-election campaign in an attempt to divert attention from his failures to deliver on his promises of improving people’s lives.
“To cover up his failures, Modi is running an electoral campaign whipping up militaristic sentiments against Pakistan and full of dog whistles against India’s Muslims,” Gyan Prakash, an author and professor of history at Princeton University, wrote in The New York Times, noting that the Indian prime minister was on the ropes a few months back for having failed to create jobs or boost India’s struggling agriculture sector.
In his article, Prakash compared Modi’s autocratic rule with former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who in mid-70s declared an “emergency” during which she jailed opposition leaders and silenced the press.
Since coming to power in 2014, the article said Modi has assiduously centralized and personalized power.
“Modi has ruled India with the iron will reminiscent of Mrs. Gandhi,” Prof. Prakash wrote.
“He (Modi) brooks no dissent and projects the personality cult of a strong Hindu nationalist warrior combating the nation’s internal and external enemies with ‘surgical strikes.’ His supporters vociferously endorse this cult and throng his campaign events wearing Modi masks. The results of the continuing Indian elections on May 23 will reveal whether India will endorse Modi or spurn him as they did Mrs. Gandhi in the 1977 elections after the Emergency.”
Prakash wrote that while there is no “formal” declaration of emergency, no official press censorship, no suppression of political parties in Modi’s India, he exercises authoritarian power, and his personality looms larger on the Indian political landscape than Gandhi’s ever did.
“Riding to power in 2014 with an overwhelming majority for his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, Modi quickly moved to centralize power,” Prakash wrote.
The article said:
“His government bypassed the Parliament and issued ordinances to advance his policies. Civil society organizations have faced investigations. Unqualified Hindu nationalists were foisted on educational and cultural institutions. A law was instituted to exert greater control over the appointment of judges.
“Aiding Modi’s autocratic drive are the centralizing provisions of the Indian Constitution. Introduced in 1950, the Constitution imported the bulk of coercive British colonial laws. They include the notorious 1870 sedition law that the government uses against its “anti-national” critics. Extraordinary laws enacted to suppress the insurgency in Kashmir and elsewhere remain in force.
“Longstanding police practices, preceding even Gandhi’s Emergency, aiming to intimidate and harass critics persist with a vengeance. Such undemocratic practices and legacies have acquired an ominous new life with the ascendance of Modi and his Hindu nationalist party.
“While Gandhi resorted to emergency rule to survive a political crisis, Modi’s regime thrives on Hindu majoritarian militancy. He stokes majoritarian resentments against the minorities to further his rule. Dissent is denounced as treason, and Hindu nationalists deride critics as elites guilty of ‘rootless cosmopolitanism.’ Violent attacks on minorities have become common. Several intellectuals and journalists have been killed by Hindu extremists.
“The cult of Narendra Modi dominates Indian politics. Most of India’s private television networks relentlessly boost his image and divisive message for higher ratings and for protecting their privileges.
“Less than 10 years ago, the Bharatiya Janata Party had a galaxy of seasoned leaders, but today Modi embodies the party. His photographs, slogans and programs appear everywhere. There are an app and a television network named after him: the NaMo app and NaMo TV. He has not held a single news conference in five years, claiming that he prefers speaking directly to the people with a weekly monologue on state radio and, like President Trump, with tweets…
With an authoritarian, hyper nationalist warrior asking for their support, Indian voters are tasked with making a consequential choice for India’s future. As B.R. Ambedkar, the great Dalit leader and the architect of India’s Constitution, once remarked, Indians were particularly susceptible to ‘bhakti,’ or devotion. This was fine in religion, but in politics, he warned, it is ‘a sure road to degradation and eventual dictatorship’.”
