Indian Election: Modi Runs on "Hatred and Demonization" of Muslims

[Uncle Joe]

Millions of voters in India are casting their ballots in the third of seven phases in the country's mammoth general election. The election pits Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist BJP party against an alliance of more than two dozen opposition parties led by the Indian National Congress. Modi has recently come under fire from opponents for referring to Muslims in India as "infiltrators," but our guest, the award-winning Indian author and journalist Siddhartha Deb, points out that "the Hindu right, they've always been extreme," using "genocidal language" to describe those who do not fit the ethnonationalist image of their "masculine, violent, patriarchal project" and modeling the vision for a Hindu supremacist state after Israel, with its “idea that a strong, muscular, militant majority that are the only people who have the right to [the] nation." Deb, a professor at The New School, also discusses India's growing inequality gap, U.S. politicians' embrace of Modi, and faculty support for pro-Palestine student protests in the U.S.

Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET.

[The Magistrate]

1. That He Does, Sir

He means it, too, he's superintended riotous massacre before.

[IronLionZion]

2. Dude has sent hit squads to execute people in the US and Canada

And has jailed or disappeared tons of journalists in India. I'm disgusted by the rise of the far right in many countries and people trying to be Putin-esque in their governance.