Why Impeached President Trump Admires India’s Supreme Leader Modi

The only factor that brings Trump and Modi closer to each other is their anti-Muslim mindset.

By Rakesh Raman

The impeached U.S. President Donald Trump* – who is known for his love for cruel leaders such as North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un and the Russian President Vladimir Putin – also praises India’s Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi who has crossed all limits of dictatorship.

*President Donald Trump is the third president in the U.S. history to get impeached. But he was not removed from office because of flawed justice system in the U.S., and the dishonest Republican Senators did not allow the Senate trial to take place.

Trump – who is on a 2-day visit (February 24-25) to India – said that India does not treat the U.S. fairly, but he still likes Modi. This is one of the many absurd statements that Trump often makes. How can he like the dictator of a country which – according to Trump – works against the interests of Americans?

The only factor that brings Trump and Modi closer to each other is their anti-Muslim mindset. While the entire world is cursing Modi for his cruelty on the people of India – particularly Kashmir, Trump has chosen to praise Modi and visit India which is currently burning under state-sponsored violence and nationwide protests.

Kashmir is a Muslim-majority area where 80% of its 8 million people are Islam-believers who are facing extreme human rights violations perpetrated by the Indian security forces. Initially, Trump offered to save the people of Kashmir, but when he came to know that most are Muslims, he backtracked.

HATE FOR MUSLIMS

Obviously, Trump – who is a known Muslim hater – won’t help save Muslims from the atrocities of the Modi government. Trump’s hate for Muslims can be judged from the fact that immediately after the presidential inauguration on January 20, 2017, he had signed an order to ban the entry of nationals from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen for 90 days. All these seven countries are predominantly Muslim countries.

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts – who is a fierce critic of Trump – attacked his travel ban which aimed to block the entry of citizens from Muslim-majority countries into the U.S.

Senator Warren said that Trump’s order will help the terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) recruit more Muslim fighters who would think that Trump is targeting the Muslim community as a whole.

Earlier, during the 2016 presidential campaign, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, had rebuked Trump for his repeated use of anti-Muslim rhetoric and said such rhetoric undermines American values.

When Trump can’t accept Muslims in his own country, how can he help Muslims in an occupied territory such as Kashmir? Both Trump and Modi are believed to be the reincarnations of Adolf Hitler who maintained that Jews are racially inferior.

Similarly, Trump and Modi think that Muslims belong to an inferior race which has no right to live with other human beings. Driven by the Nazi ideology, Trump believes in White supremacy and Modi is an ardent promoter of Hindu supremacy. Both the despotic leaders want to weed out Islam from the planet by hook or by crook.

With the annexation of Kashmir and allowing Hindus to invade Kashmir, Modi is trying to commit ethnic cleansing by converting a Muslim-majority area to a Muslim-minority colony occupied by Hindu ruler Modi.

CREATION OF HINDU RASHTRA

In fact, Modi’s hate for Muslims is the main reason for his rise in the Indian political arena. He and his political outfit Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are influenced by the separatist ideology of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) which is the parent organization of BJP.

As RSS believes that India (a.k.a. Hindustan) is a nation only for Hindus, Modi has pledged to make India a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu-only nation). Modi wins the elections by exploiting the religious sentiment of Hindu voters (almost 80% of people in India are Hindus).

Modi, who was an accused in the Gujarat riots of 2002 in which nearly 2,000 Muslims were murdered, won the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections on the promise that he will make India a Hindu Rashtra (a nation only for Hindus).

Most Hindu voters bit the bait and voted for Modi as a religious demagogue rather than a wise leader. The dilemma began for Indian people as soon as an uneducated man Modi became the Prime Minister in 2014 because he is not trained to manage any field that requires professional competence.

In the 2002 Gujarat riots, while about 2,000 Muslims were killed, there were incidents of rape, robbery, and widespread destruction of property affecting Muslims. It was alleged that the killings were executed at the behest of Modi who was then the Chief Minister of Gujarat.

Although Indian courts have almost exonerated Modi in this case, most Muslims in India still believe that Modi was responsible for Gujarat massacre. The less said about the Indian courts, the better.

According to Human Rights Watch, the attacks against Muslims in Gujarat were actively supported by state government officials and the police. Police told Muslims, “We don’t have any orders to save you.”

As a result, the U.S. administration denied visa to Modi in view of the allegations of human rights violations against him in the 2002 incidents of riots and carnage. But now as he has become the PM of India, Modi is visiting the U.S. frequently because now he enjoys political immunity.

CIVIL UNREST IN INDIA

As Modi and BJP have pledged to make India a Hindu Rashtra, in the current Modi rule, all attempts are being made to persecute Muslims in India. In August 2019, the Modi government abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution to deprive Muslims of their rights in Kashmir.

In order to identify and isolate Muslims, recently the Modi government has also introduced a slew of discriminatory citizenship laws which are aimed to take away Muslims’ right to live in India.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been protesting in India for the past couple of months against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Population Register (NPR), and National Register of Citizens (NRC) announced by Modi and his Home Minister Amit Shah.

Modi government is also making detention centers on the lines of the Auschwitz concentration camp (Konzentrationslager Auschwitz) which was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II and the Holocaust.

In order to embrace Hindus and terrorize Muslims, Modi is hell-bent to violate human rights of nearly 250 million Muslims who live in India. Today, rampant corruption, extreme lawlessness, and unprecedented unemployment are disturbing the 1.4 billion people of India. But instead of addressing these crucial issues, Modi and his Hindu brigade are taking a series of steps to divide the country on religious lines.

CONDEMNATION FROM GLOBAL COMMUNITY

Of late, the U.S. has warned both Modi and Shah that if they did not work in a democratic manner, they should be ready to face U.S. sanctions. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has indicated that it will begin by imposing travel ban on Modi and Shah. Earlier, the U.S. had imposed a travel ban on Modi for his role in the Gujarat riots in which thousands of Muslims were murdered.

Also, a bipartisan resolution introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives has urged the Modi government to ensure that any actions taken in pursuit of legitimate security priorities should respect the human rights of all – particularly in the Kashmir region.

The resolution has come in view of the anti-Muslim laws of the Modi government – including the abrogation of Article 370 pertaining to Kashmir. Introduced by Democrat lawmaker Pramila Jayapal and her Republican colleague Steve Watkins on December 6, 2019, Resolution 745 has specified a number of steps that the Indian government must take to ensure the protection of human rights.

The Modi government has unilaterally abrogated Article 370 which gave special privileges to the people of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). Expecting backlash from the people of Kashmir (nearly 80% of them are Muslims), in August 2019, the Modi government had imposed curfew in Kashmir where Muslims are still facing extreme human rights violations.

Along with the U.S., the German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also expressed her concern over the persisting human rights violations being committed by India in Kashmir. Merkel – who was on a 3-day visit to India during November 2019 – raised the Kashmir issue and the hardships that the people of Kashmir have been facing. Merkel criticized PM Modi’s clampdown in Kashmir. She said that the situation for the people of Kashmir is not sustainable and not good.

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

Merkel’s comments came close on the heels of the release of a new UN report that reveals gross human rights violations by India in Kashmir. Rupert Colville, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet, said in a press note that the UN human rights office is extremely concerned that the population of Kashmir continues to be deprived of a wide range of human rights and it urges the Indian authorities to unlock the situation and fully restore the rights that are currently being denied.

Although the Modi government claims that Kashmir is a part of India, the excesses of Indian security forces on innocent Kashmiris cannot be a domestic issue. The international community must intervene to tame the Modi government which has crossed all limits of human rights abuses in Kashmir as well as other parts of India. Hundreds of thousands of Indians have been protesting against the Modi government for the past couple of months, as they are being tortured by the fascist Modi regime.

As the Modi government is using brute force to quell dissent in all parts of India including Kashmir, it is not allowing foreign observers including the UN officials to visit Kashmir which has become a kind of large detention center for millions of ordinary citizens.

A United States (U.S.) Senator from the Democratic Party claimed that the Indian authorities denied him permission to visit Kashmir, which has been forcefully occupied by the Indian security forces. Senator Chris Van Hollen – who was in India – said he wanted to visit Srinagar in Kashmir to assess the extent of human rights violations being committed by India, but he was not allowed to go to the troubled valley.

Earlier, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed his concern over reports of restrictions on the Indian side of Kashmir, which – he said – could exacerbate the human rights situation in the region.

The global community including the UN and other leading independent organizations are increasingly condemning India for extreme human rights abuses throughout the country. A new U.S. report reveals deteriorating religious freedom conditions in India where the Modi government is engaged in politicization of religion.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Report, 2019 finds that it is increasingly difficult to separate religion and politics in India – a tactic that is sometimes intentional by those who seek to discriminate against and restrict the rights of certain religious communities.

Similar violations are being observed in the cyberspace. According to the Freedom on the Net 2019 report, internet freedom declined in India—the result of an increase in arrests for online activity, and continued Internet shutdowns during times of perceived unrest. Plagued by the spread of disinformation and its violent effects offline, according to the report released by Freedom House, the Modi government has proposed worrisome new rules that would undermine freedom online.

Moreover, in its recent resolution discussed on January 29, 2020 the European Parliament expressed deep concern at the fact that India has created the legal grounds to strip millions of Muslims of the fundamental right of equal access to citizenship. Having regard to the Charter of the United Nations, the resolution also urged the EU and Member States to promote the implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir, which is a disputed territory between India and Pakistan. It has condemned the unilateral changes made to the status of Kashmir by the Modi government.

On February 12, 2020, the U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in their letter to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, requested for an assessment of the human rights situation in Kashmir and of the rights of religious minorities in India.

But Trump has ignored all these facts about Modi’s dictatorship and came to India to embrace Modi who is committing all sorts of excesses on the people of the country. Under Modi’s rule, India has become a kakistocracy where the government is under the control of the worst, least qualified, and the most unscrupulous people.

DISCLOSURE: I am an independent journalist and do not belong to any political party. My editorial objectivity and aversion to the flawed political system in India can be assessed from the fact that I have not voted in any Indian election during the past more than 2 decades. I strongly believe that all political parties in India are full of dishonest politicians who are hell-bent to further destroy the country which exists merely as an underdeveloped piece of land on the face of the earth.

By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. He also creates and publishes a number of digital publications and research reports on different subjects.