THG 21: Understanding Narendra Modi's Nazi connection

And a cross-post and some tweets about the Adani saga.

Well, the BBC documentary ‘India: The Modi Question’ seems to have perturbed the Indian ruling establishment badly. They have gone as far as persecuting students for the crime of …. watching the documentary in their mobile phones.

If you are yet to watch it, please find both the episodes in a drive folder here: India The Modi Question

To be honest, for those of us abreast of the developments in India ever since 2002 Gujarat riots, there is nothing particularly new in the documentary.

So why is the Modi government so furious and desperate to erase the film from internet?

Here is my guess: the documentary draws the parallel between the rise of fascism in Italy, Nazism in Germany and Hindutva in India in the 1920s. While there is no explicit further statement comparing the three in the documentary, everything that comes afterwards merely reinforces that connection in a disturbingly practical way. At the end, any unbiased viewer can easily see how abominable the situation is in contemporary India for the minorities.

The world is thus easily reminded that the threat of fascist and Nazi ideology is very much alive today and the world’s largest democracy is not, after all, what it appears to be.

The problem for Modi is, he wants to project the aura of respectability in the world, especially at a time when India holds the presidency of G20 club of large economic powers. But an undeniable connection with fascist and Nazi ideology directly counters that aura and instead portrays him as a fascist dictator-in-making wearing the robe of a respectable elected statesman.

Coincidentally, BBC’s Radio 4 has just published a mesmerizing dramatized account of the rise of Hitler in Germany. You can listen to all the 16 episodes here or the first 7 of the 16 weekly episodes in any podcast player.

ICYMT; here is my synopsis of the developments in India:

Jiwan Kshetry @jiwan_kshetry

Mainstreaming of hate was going to bag 2024 elections for BJP. But not all is well: from BBC docum. on Modi to Hindenberg research on Adani. This scares me. 2000: 35 Sikhs murdered in Kashmir before Bill Clinton's visit. 2019: 40 CRPF people killed in Pulwama before polls 2024:?

Jiwan Kshetry @jiwan_kshetry

Did Indian govt kill its own people for petty political gains? I don't know. But the way it scapegoated the innocent Kashmiris after 2000 attack , as chronicled by Pankaj Mishra, almost convinces me to think so then. Cornered BJP is a dangerous beast.

nybooks.comDeath in Kashmir | Pankaj Mishra1. The village of Chitisinghpura is in the southeastern corner of the valley of Kashmir, a few miles from the highway that runs from the capital,

Note: the NYBooks piece is behind paywall. I read the 90-page report in Mishra’s anthology of essays ‘Temptations of the West’.

Finally, few words on Modi’s Adani connection. I cross-posted this issue of Chartbook earlier:

Chartbook #190: The Adani crisis - is Modi's house of cards at risk?

And here are some illustrative tweets about today’s India related to the ongoing Hindenburg-Adani saga:

Satish Acharya @satishacharya

Inflated? #hindenburgresearch #AdaniGroup

Prashant Bhushan @pbhushan1

'Fraud Is Fraud': Hindenburg Replies to Adani Group's Response. "India’s future is being held back by the Adani Group, which has draped itself in the Indian flag while systematically looting the nation,"

m.thewire.in‘Fraud Is Fraud’: Hindenburg Replies to Adani Group’s ResponseIndia’s future is being held back by the Adani Group, which has draped itself in the Indian flag while systematically looting the nation, Hindenburg Research has said.